City's Loan

Of course it is bleak and things will continue to look awful throughout the economy for many years. The impact is very real. I receive weekly updates on a small food bank I support in Los Angeles and the numbers of people seeking a warm meal have increased 300-400% over last year. But, I would argue that humanity has overcome unbelievable odds and WON! During the black plague in Europe half the population died within a 50 year period. info here. Stay strong, fight and we will overcome our current financial crisis. Afterall, it is a human problem that we ...

We speak to dozens of folks that are some way or the other waiting for rates to get lower than the 5% 5Y or 5.75% 30Y Fixed 2 million dollar jumbo they were quoted. Of course, who doesn't want a lower cost on something. Especially a budget item that represents roughly 20-30% of household income. But several factors could make waiting a disaster.Home values continue to fall and your equity is diminished thus resulting in cash required to close. Primarily because loan to value levels in general within the jumbo mortgage market require at least 20% or more equity. Depends ...

The Federal Reserve key interest rates another half-percentage point. The move was expected after last week’s surprise cut in an emergency session failed to rally markets and quiet recession chatter.The central bank has lowered rates five times for a total of 1.75 percentage points since September, including the aggressive 0.75 percentage cut last week - the first time the Fed lowered rates in between meetings since the 2001 terrorist attacks..The Fed’s decision to cut rates further Wednesday afternoon comes on the heels of disturbing economic reports published hours earlier. The reports indicate a sharp slowing of the economy.U.S. economic growth ...

This has been a dramatic week on Wall St. We have seen multi-billion dollar losses disclosed from almost all global banks. CEO's at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch have been sacked because of mortgage losses and unacceptable risk management. The shoe dropped when the 100 billion dollar M-LEC super conduit that CITI and other banks were working to setup with the US Treasury dept stalled. I wonder why. Heard in the back alley of Wall St,"Psss, hey I have a box here of mortgage paper that we modeled to be worth $20 billion. Would you loan us money against it? We ...

From a recent client discussion:"The case for renting has been simple enough. House prices rose so high in the first half of this decade that you could often get more for your money by renting. You could also avoid having a large part of your net worth tied up in a speculative bubble. All this time, I have been a renter myself, ... [but] the housing market has, obviously, changed quite a bit since our last move, in 2005....This month, we found a house that we really liked, and we made an offer. It was accepted.I’m still not sure how ...

I couldn't make this up if I tried:We won't debate the ethics or morals of the situation. But, many people could have avoided doing business with this company had they been proactive by refinancing before they were underwater or selling at the market price instead of chasing the market down, never getting an offer and falling behind with an adjustable loan. We live in an age of complex risk and not paying attention to your mortgage can lead to financial ruin.That's just wrong on so many levels . . Foreclosure Business Booming

Possibly one of the most popular, yet misunderstood forms of alternate financing is the adjustable-rate mortgage. Usually referred to as an ARM, its popularity with borrowers is due to a lower interest rate than a fixed-rate jumbo loan. It is popular with the lenders because the ARM shifts the risk of interest rate fluctuations to the borrower.Although borrowers would rather have the security of a fixed-rate loan provided the rate is not too high, the ARM has maintained its popularity in the market despite competitively priced mortgage loan rates.An ARM is a loan that allows the lender to adjust the ...

The recession(newpression) is not finished with us yet:Foreclosure Woes Mount for Those With Good Credit: A record 12 percent of homeowners with a mortgage are behind on their payments or in foreclosure as the housing crisis spreads to borrowers with good credit. And the wave of foreclosures isn't expected to crest until the end of next year, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. The foreclosure rate on prime fixed-rate loans doubled in the last year, and now represents the largest share of new foreclosures. Nearly 6 percent of fixed-rate mortgages to borrowers with good credit were in the foreclosure process. ...

Thousands of numbers, graphs, charts and economic reports can be boiled down for the first time home buyer looking in the previously smoking hot markets for the quick explaination to the question of "When should I buy a home?" When you see this chart of Countrywide's total national foreclosure inventory that they own and are trying to sell via thousands of realtors across the country start to stabilize and then move down again things are getting better. I don't think that will happen until 2010-11 as the amount of loans resetting to much higher rates is just starting in ...

Home Buyer Tax Credit: Extension Info