Rich Sweum's Blog

The previous charts had a more concentrated bubble of neg am loan recasts in 2010-2011.  Credit Suisse has done some more research and found that because "so many" people have been making the bare minimum payment on these loans, we are going to be seeing more and more of the WAMU and CW 115% neg ...

Don't worry, I'm not putting on a grass skirt! Back in the 80's, home prices were around 2.2 to 2.5 times household annual income (depending on what sources you believe)  Interest rates were BRUTAL, financing options limited, and supply was pretty scant. Today, home prices nationally are 3.8 to 4...

We all knew that DU 7.0 was going to be a tighter, but just to give you a little comparison in findings on a file that was exactly the same, run on both engines: My Community 97, 5/1 ARM, 704 fico, 42% back end ratio, condo... REFER / EA IV...yea, as in "4"! Home Possible 97... Streamline accept....

MI companies have started running away from new condo's and condo conversions at a break-neck pace.  This, combined with the evaporation of 2nd mortgages has made financing these properties vitually impossible.  Last year, when I read the guidance from Fannie and Freddie that they were getting ou...

I know that things in the Puget Sound aren't as zesty as many places, but this loan scenario chaps my hide. $560k purchase price/ $500k loan amount, in April of 2007...12 month MTA, 3 year Hard Prepay, max margin, 125% neg am cap.  Their loan amount is now $525k, other houses in their neighborhoo...

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson Memorial Day is, in my estimation, the most Holy of our national holidays.  As I reflect on the lives that have been lost through our history in defense of Freedom I am humbled.  I w...

Duh, we all know that borrowers' purchasing power has been reduced because of the evaporation of stated income and ninja documentation loans, for I found some conservative data that illustrates in in real numbers how much borrowing power has how interest only v. full am qualification has impacted...

I have had more than one Realtor comment to me that they are thinking twice about being a client taxi cab driver.  The one filter that they have implemented strongly is that they are not taking any clients that are not strongly pre-approved out looking at listings.  This summer we will more than ...

As I read the 2007 report from the FBI on mortgage and housing fraud, I was more surprised as to what wasn't in the report as compared to what is in the report.  The data reported was very "vanilla" and while the increase of fraud over the past 2 years was alarming, the details seemed to miss on ...

In Real Estate, timing is everything...and if you can time a purchase to coincide with the bottom of a cycle, more power to you!  But buying on the "slide" is the absolute best time to buy, because appraisal limitations haven't caught up to the sliding home values...they use comparable sales from...