Loan Think

Wide-ranging efforts to reform Home Equity Conversion Mortgage lending and servicing practices are designed to close loopholes and resolve policy inconsistencies, but some obstacles remain unresolved and more work needs to be done.

In Las Vegas the house always wins and many in the industry were talking about the rising house values that are driving competitive purchase markets in some parts of the country.

Mortgage lenders need to pay attention because Americans are interacting with peer-based networks to make major purchasing decisions.

With the news coming out on Oct. 28 that the Federal Open Market Committee has ended bond purchases, finishing its third round of quantitative easing, my first reaction was to check the stock market.

The court asked another governmental entity to remedy the plight of non-borrowing spouses facing foreclosure. So far options appear to give few consumers relief.

Mortgage executives who have long decried new regulations as excessive are increasingly becoming resigned to the fact that changes are here to stay.

Housing policy needs to be refocused on strengthening household balance sheets, especially by making borrowers more resilient to home price declines. A new 15-year fixed-rate mortgage that allows borrowers to use the down payment to buy down the interest rate on the loan is designed to do just that.

Federal and state laws, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, require title companies to develop a written information security program that describes the procedures they employ to protect non-public personal information.

Making the GSEs out to be the villains of the mortgage crisis is an easy sell to a fearful and angry public, but doesn’t make it true. Partly due to this mindset, housing markets remain held hostage.

A lender which paid millions in connection with a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent decree has been sued civilly in a class action pertaining to the same activity.