A Short Sale May Not Mean You're Home Free
The Wall Street Journal

Financially troubled borrowers may think that foreclosure or a short sale of their home means their mortgage woes are over.
Not necessarily.

Banks urge Senate to reject mortgage relief bill
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — A dozen financial groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Bankers Association, on Wednesday urged every member of the U.S. Senate to reject a key piece of President Barack Obama's plan to keep tens of thousands of Americans from losing their homes.

The letter to senators was the latest push by an industry that has helped stall the proposal, which would have let debt-ridden homeowners reduce their payments in bankruptcy court. The Senate was expected to defeat the measure on Thursday.

Eli Broad Says Rates Below 4% Needed to Move Foreclosure Glut
Bloomberg

Eli Broad, the billionaire founder of homebuilder KB Home, said “additional inducements,” including mortgage rates below 4 percent, are needed to sell a glut of foreclosed properties in parts of the U.S.

“I think we need an extra effort in those places to get rid of the unsold inventory and stabilize the housing market,” Broad said in an interview at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

First-time buyers find deals, help perk up house sales
USA Today

Kelly Butler just got a bargain.

Sure, her new three-bedroom home came with fake barn wood nailed to the bathroom walls, carpet that had to be ripped up, broken closet doors and a need for plumbing and tile work.

Lost equity puts boomers' future in doubt
Inman News

Baby boomers -- the largest, healthiest and wealthiest group ever appearing on the U. S. growth landscape -- never met a loan they didn't like. After leveraging appreciation and location in their starter and move-up homes to pay for cars, college tuitions and trips, their home probably holds most of the equity in their lives.

According to a new report by Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), that home is not worth what it used to be. Coupled with the recent turmoil in the stock market, many boomers will be completely reliant on Social Security and Medicare to support them in their retirement years.

Fed Signals Its Intention to Stay the Course
The Wall Street Journal

The Federal Reserve signaled it has no intention of pulling back from its aggressive efforts to revive the financial system, even though it acknowledged that the intensity of the recession has eased in recent weeks.

The Fed said in a statement after its regular policy meeting that it would push forward with plans to substantially increase its holdings of mortgage-backed securities and Treasury securities in the months ahead, and suggested it could increase those purchases if markets and the economy veer further off track.

FHFA Proposes Rule to Adjust Housing Goals, Provide Credit for Loan Modifications
RISMedia

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a proposed rule establishing 2009 housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the Federal Register for publication. Loan modifications undertaken by the GSEs consistent with the Administration’s loan modification initiative would receive credit toward achievement of housing goals.

“FHFA has determined that in light of current market conditions, the 2009 housing goal and home purchase subgoal levels previously established in regulation are not feasible unless they are adjusted,” said FHFA Director James B. Lockhart. “Restrictions on the availability of private mortgage insurance for borrowers with lower down payments, a surge in refinancing, particularly by higher income borrowers, the increasingly important role of FHA in the mortgage marketplace and a slowdown in the multifamily market, among other factors, mean fewer goals-qualifying loans in 2009.”

FBI Looks Into Losses at Freddie
The Wall Street Journal

Federal investigators looking into possible accounting violations at Freddie Mac are raising questions about whether the giant government-backed mortgage company improperly delayed the recognition of billions of dollars of losses, according to people familiar with the matter.

A confidential February 2008 report by the investigative firm Kroll concluded that "inappropriate application" of accounting rules "enabled Freddie to defer billions of dollars of losses incurred from 2001 through 2004" on derivative contracts whose value depends on fluctuations in interest rates, according to people involved in the matter. Those losses, currently pegged at about $3.7 billion, are due to be gradually recognized in quarterly earnings statements over the next several years.

Home Prices Fall, but Pace Stops Setting Records
The Wall Street Journal

U.S. home prices continued their multiyear slide in February, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price indexes, but they did stop their 16-month streak of record declines.

Separately, U.S. consumers' assessment of the economy rose to its highest point of the year in April as households began to see an end to the recession loom into view.

Mortgage Modification Bill Faces Trouble in Senate
The Washington Post

Days before an expected vote, Senate leaders yesterday touted their version of a proposal to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages, but have yet to secure the support of the financial services industry and face fierce opposition that could derail the proposal again.

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) has been negotiating with Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo for weeks. They are facing increasing pressure to conclude negotiations before a Senate vote later this week, but talks continue, according to Senate aides.

Treasury has new mortgage incentives: official
Reuters

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department will on Tuesday tap a $50 billion housing rescue fund to pay off mortgage investors and reduce monthly payments for millions of borrowers, said a senior administration official.

Mortgage servicers that own a small stake in costly loans will receive a cash payment to either erase the debt or agree to accept a reduced return on their investment.

Four Servicers Added to Government's Mod Program
DSnews

The U.S. Treasury Department has released the names of four more servicers who have officially signed on to participate in the administration's Home Affordable Modification Program. Joining the list of participants is Wilshire Credit Corporation, Pittsburgh's Home Loan Services, Countrywide Home Loans, and Bank of America.

So far 11 mortgage lenders and servicers have inked their commitment to the government program. The companies have agreed to follow federal guidelines to lower monthly mortgage payments for struggling homeowners in exchange for incentives from the government.

'Hot' markets for house hunters
ZipRealty search activity tracks with foreclosures
Inman News

Cities in the "sand states" of Arizona, Florida, California and Nevada dominate a list of most-searched communities by ZipRealty users during the first three months of the year.

In its quarterly "Home Hunters Report," ZipRealty tracks data from 5,400 cities in 33 of the 35 markets the company operates in to identify the most-searched cities.

F.D.I.C. Chief Calls for Broader Powers for Agency
The New York Times

The chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila C. Bair, said in a speech on Monday that her agency should have broader powers to take over and close a variety of financial institutions to prevent taxpayers from shouldering the losses on firms deemed too big to fail.

Instead of just seizing commercial banks, Ms. Bair said the F.D.I.C. should be able to take over troubled insurers, bank holding companies and other insolvent financial institutions and force stockholders and bondholders to bear the cost.

BofA Launches Unified Mortgage Brand
DSnews

Bank of America announced on Monday that it has combined its mortgage and home equity
operations with Countrywide Home Loans under the umbrella of a single brand – Bank of America Home Loans.

BofA said that just 10 months after acquiring the subprime lending leader, the Countrywide brand is now retired. Other Countrywide-owned businesses involved in the deal will retain their brands, including Balboa Insurance Services, a provider of lender-placed property insurance, and LandSafe, a supplier of pre- and post-closing services.

Fed Pushes Citi, BofA to Increase Capital
The Wall Street Journal

Regulators have told Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. that the banks may need to raise more capital based on early results of the government's so-called stress tests of lenders, according to people familiar with the situation.

The capital shortfall amounts to billions of dollars at Bank of America, based in Charlotte, N.C., people familiar with the bank said.

Home-Ownership Rate Declines
The Wall Street Journal

The national home ownership rate fell in the first quarter to its lowest level since 2000, with the biggest drops among younger buyers who benefited from the easy credit that helped fuel the housing boom.

The seasonally-adjusted national home ownership rate was 67.5% in the first quarter of this year, down half a percentage point since the first quarter of 2008, the Census Bureau said Monday. That was the lowest rate since the second quarter of 2000, and is just the latest indicator to show how the years of easy credit and rising home ownership are being reversed by the foreclosure crisis and recession.

New-Home Sales, Prices Decline

Wall Street Journal

New-home sales fell in March but only mildly after a surge the month before, while the median price kept sliding, a sign the housing crisis hasn't ended. Sales of single-family homes decreased by 0.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 356,000 compared to the prior month, the Commerce Department said Friday.

Holding Up the Housing Recovery

New York Times

We welcomed President Obama’s plan, unveiled in March, to head off foreclosures and keep more Americans in their homes, but we feared that it wouldn’t be enough. We were particularly concerned that without a reform of the bankruptcy code, lenders wouldn’t do enough to voluntarily modify troubled loans.

Miami-Dade Plan Puts Lenders, Homeowners in Same Room

Miami Herald

The Miami-Dade Circuit Court will soon require lenders and homeowners to try and settle their cases out of court through mediation, in hopes of saving borrowers' homes and easing the backlog of cases.

Stress Tests Flash a Lot More Red

Wall Street Journal

Wall Street wasn't rattled by newly disclosed details of the government's stress tests of 19 large financial institutions, even though the banks could face hundreds of billions of dollars in additional losses. Federal bank regulators are expected on Friday to start sharing preliminary results of stress tests with the banks that have been scrutinized since February. The findings are expected to be made public next week. One scenario that assumed a 10.3% unemployment rate at the end of 2010 required banks to calculate two-year cumulative losses of 8.5% on mortgage portfolios, 11% on home-equity lines of credit, 8% on commercial and industrial loans, 12% on commercial real-estate loans and 20% on credit-card portfolios.

The Coming Debacle in Commercial Real Estate

New York Times

Though it came as no surprise to investors, the collapse of General Growth Properties, the nation’s second-largest mall owner, has stirred new fears about a coming debacle in commercial real estate. The global credit crisis, weakening retail demand and rising unemployment have taken a toll on commercial property around the world. At least $153 billion worth of property is already in distress, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York research company.

Freddie Mac Executive Found Dead

New York Times

David B. Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of Freddie Mac, was found dead at his Northern Virginia home Wednesday morning, the police said.

For Housing Crisis, the End Probably Isn’t Near

New York Times

The closest thing to a real estate crystal ball in the last few years has been the house auctions that are regularly held around the country.

Two More Banks Fail

CNNMoney.com

Two more banks failed Friday bringing the tally to 25 in 2009, according to the government. American Sterling Bank, based in Sugar Creek, Mo., and Great Basin Bank of Nevada in Elko, Nevada were shuttered by the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was named receiver, according to statements posted on the FDIC's Web site.

Bill Would Bring Relief for Homeowners

Kiplinger.com

If you're considering filing for personal bankruptcy because you're having trouble making the mortgage payments on your primary residence, keep an eye on the so-called "cramdown" bill. The measure, which is part of President Obama's housing plan and is making its way through Congress, would allow bankruptcy judges in Chapter 13 proceedings to reset the terms of certain mortgages so that more homeowners can keep their homes.

Is the Commercial Real Estate Market About to Collapse?

PR NewsWire

The Commercial REO Brokers Association is having a Dinner Meeting on April 28, 2009 at the Fairmont Hotel in Newport Beach. Cocktails will be at 6:00pm; Dinner will be served at 7:00pm. The Meeting will proceed from 8:00pm to 10:30pm.