Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for June, 2008

Reassuring Words From Freddie Mac

We hear reassuring words from CEO Richard Syron of Freddie Mac, who has told shareholders that things are going good this year.  His comments were made at a shareholder meeting in McLean, Va.  This, after a year in which its share price was sliced by more than 60%.  Looks to me like a bit of reassurance is indeed in order. Too bad Wall Street doesn’t agree with Mr. Syron.  Freddie Mac shares fell $1.06, or 4.2%, to $24.23 in morning trading. They are down from more than $65 a year ago.  Syron expects to see revenue growth of 15% to... more »

The Latest On Mortgage Defaults

If you think progress is being made in the mortgage market, think again.  Through March, 1 in 11 American mortgages were past due or in foreclosure.  No matter how you look at it, these are not good numbers.  We haven’t seen numbers like this in 30 years, with the rate of new foreclosures and past-due payments surging to their highest level since 1979.  This is the bad news.  If you are wondering what the good news is, it appears little is in sight.  As of this writing, 8.8 percent of home loans were past due or in foreclosure.  That doesn’t... more »

Housing Bailout Woes

It is my firm belief that taxpayers should not take on the responsibility of bailing out those who have made poor financial decisions, whether big lenders or small borrowers.  For one thing, I think it only empowers people to go out and make the same mistake all over again, and does little to insure the American taxpayer that these same people won’t just turn around and do the same all over again, making an endless cycle of foreclosures and defaults.  For one thing, in all fairness, it should be done on an individual basis, and for the amount of people... more »