Loan Think

According to a report by the National Fair Housing Alliance and four of its local member organizations, some of the larger financial institutions are not handling the maintenance problems in minority neighborhoods as well as they are in predominantly white neighborhoods.

In a speech before the American Bankers Association Monday Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deputy director Raj Date slammed loan brokers for causing the mortgage crisis, raising the ire of at least one loan broker trade group, the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, which is calling for his resignation.

Last time I wrote about some of the better marketing I saw in the past few weeks as I continue to recover from a leg infection. Unfortunately not all advertising I came across was as strong.

Not too many life and homeowners insurance firms are foregoing rate increases and rebating money to their insured.

Monday June 11 is the day the Federal Housing Administration’s new streamline refinancing option launches. (Lenders, start your engines.) Meanwhile, mortgage bankers and brokers are still busy writing as many new HARP 2.0 loans as humanly profitable.

Some industry officials are urging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to use its ‘exemption authority’ to exclude Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA loans from its LO compensation proposals.

The question most people seem to be asking is whether the flat origination fee proposal is going to become law. While I do not have a crystal ball, here is my take on it: The CFPB's policy positions it will certainly err in favor of certain consumer groups over the industry, but won't do so when there is little to gain.

If you’re wondering why the nonperforming loan auction market hasn’t been more robust – especially given the fact that banks and the GSEs are sitting on billions of dollars in defaulted home mortgages – you can blame accounting rules, or so we’re told.

A debtor in bankruptcy proposes a Chapter 13 plan to strip a second mortgage as unsecured and is found to be still in good faith, the CFPB proposes rules that could make life more difficult for lenders and originators, five states loom large in foreclosures, two foreclosure-related bills move forward in California, and various types of mortgage-related fraud allegations in different areas continue to move through the court system.

How many houses would be built if it cost $1 million apiece to build modest single-family homes?