Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for March, 2009

Banks Walking Away From Foreclosures

An interesting development in the mortgage market is banks that are starting to walk away from foreclosures.  In an article in the New York Times, reporter Susan Saulny tells of a situation in South Bend Indiana.  A homeowner had received notice that she had lost her rental property to foreclosure.  A date for a sheriff’s […]

Mortgage Fraud Reaching Emergency Levels

One of my favorite tools for posting to the blog is the alerts I get from Google and Reuters.  Once or twice a day I get an e-mail digest that gives me all the latest headlines in the mortgage market. Here is what I’ve been seeing. “Seven indicted in states biggest mortgage fraud scheme” “Florida […]

Treasury’s Geithner Wants More Government Regulation

The Obama Administration is planning a broad, dramatic set of new regulations for the U.S. financial system, a plan that is being met with criticism from both the banking industry and many Republicans on the Hill. In an appearance before the House Financial Services Committee Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner claimed that “our system failed […]

Obama To Make Changes In Regulation

This week, the Obama administration will outline changes in regulations to avoid a repeat of the financial crisis that has hampered the banking system and put the economy in the deepest recession since 1982. Deregulation doesn’t appear to have been the best way for the banks to play.  When it came about in 1999, driven […]

Is It Time to Refinance?

The Fed announced Wednesday that it is planning to purchase up to $300 billion in treasury securities over the next six months.  It will also purchase another $750 billion of mortgage backed securities between now and the end of the year.  The 10-year treasury dropped 50 basis points on this news. This caused a plunge […]

Mortgage Interest Rates May Have Hit Bottom

Many market analysts are predicting that mortgage interest rates will not fall much lower than 5 percent  in the next few years, as plummeting rates have caused a flood of homeowners to start refinancing again. The average rate on a traditional 30-year fixed rate mortgage has fallen from around 6 percent in November 2008 to […]

Details Of The Refinancing Plan

This week, the Web is aflame with the news about AIG and its bonus plan.  Many taxpayers, including myself, are enraged to see millions of dollars paid in bonuses to the people that put us in this spot to begin with. President Obama, of course, will take heat for things like this happening.  He already […]

More Woes In The Financial Sector

Mortgages insurer MGIC investment Corporation took a hit this week from Fitch Ratings on Thursday.  The company’s operating subsidiaries are also on a negative watch. MTG currently carries a “BBB-” rating, the lowest that is considered investment-grade.  If the insurer is downgraded to junk status, it would hamper their ability to generate new business. The […]

Greenspan: Fed Actions Did Not Cause Recession

Although admitting that “we are in the midst of a global crisis that will unquestionably rank as the most virulent since the 1930s,” former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan contended Tuesday that the interest rate actions of the Fed were not to blame for the current recession. In an opinion article on the Wall Street […]

Obama Announces Details of New Housing Plan

President Barack Obama announced the details of his $75 billion plan Wednesday to help roughly 9 million struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure. “The plan I’m announcing focuses on rescuing families who have played by the rules and acted responsibly, by refinancing loans for millions of families in traditional mortgages who are underwater or close to it,” […]