RECENT BLOG POSTS
A forced marriage by the FED FED must stop the chain reaction before it happens or almost every major finanical institute would face a severe counter party risk based write down(much more uglier than sub-prime). cheap load(arranged friday) to BSC is useless too as no one would think that is enoug...
03/16/2008
Correction AppendedAn investigation into the mortgage crisis by New York State prosecutors is now focusing on whether Wall Street banks withheld crucial information about the risks posed by investments linked to subprime loans.Reports commissioned by the banks raised red flags about high-risk loa...
02/25/2008
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Here in California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants Congress to raise the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lending limit from $417,000 to at least $625,000 as part of the economic stimulus package. State Assemblyman Ted Lieu is pushing for a bill that requires mortgage lenders to tighten up already st...
02/18/2008
Now what? Frankly, analysts feel that enactment is possible by mid-February but looks more likely by early March. No large investors will make any policy changes or announcements until the issues are less confusing, or even voted into law. Apparently, the bill would temporarily increase the limit...
02/18/2008
As part of the economic stimulus package, an increase in the conforming limit could now be a reality, at least for a brief period. Congress and President Bush agreed, but have not voted yet, on a 1-yr increase in the conforming loan limit to $730K. There is not a lot of detail yet (there is confu...
02/18/2008
Psssst... wanna buy a foreclosed property? After a default and after the house does not sell at the Trustee Sale, the bank/lender owns it. As most know, this is called "REO", for Real Estate Owned. Currently mortgage companies continue selling their REO's through real estate agents, who list the...
09/02/2007
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Is the term "blood bath" over-used and lost its impact? "It's a blood bath," said a VP at PIMCO about the current market conditions. Yes, rates have crept up. Yes, property values have gone down in some over-inflated, speculative areas of the nation, and the national median home price may have it...
09/02/2007
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But possibly the bigger news is that S&P said that it would change its methodology for ratings hundreds of billions of dollars in residential mortgage-backed securities, and review its ratings on hundreds of billions of dollars in the more complex collateralized debt obligations based on those s...
09/02/2007
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How much did you make last year? (That was a rhetorical question.) The president of Countrywide earned $48 million, the president of Freddie Mac $15 million, WAMU $8 million, Indy Mac $4 million. According to Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, jobless subprime mortgage lenders are looking for employm...
09/02/2007
In a surprising survey (very surprising?) released last week, Experian showed that data indicates that many subprime borrowers are paying off their credit card bills before their mortgage payment! Do they think that they don't have much to lose by not paying their mortgage? Are their credit card...
09/02/2007