Loan Think

Be thankful that you’re not a mortgage lender (or borrower) in Ireland. On Wednesday the yield on the 10-year bond of Ireland topped 14%. For a moment, let us all think about what a 14% yield on the 10-year bond in America would mean.

Oh the irony of the mortgage market! Loan rates are falling, home prices are the cheapest they’ve been (in most, but not all markets) in a decade, but the consumer is spooked by the prospect of the U.S. defaulting on its debt payments.

Since I have been rather quick to jump on the mistakes of the sales people I encounter, I figure I need to confess to my own recent foible as a customer.

If Democrats and Republicans cannot reach a debt ceiling agreement by August 2 another financial calamity may be right around the corner: deposit insurance. Follow my logic here: A default by the U.S. means Uncle Sam no longer stands behind its obligations – which also means deposit insurance that is guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is worthless.

Because of the large number of repurchase demands by investors suspicious activity reports involving mortgage fraud rose by 31% in the first quarter.

To all the dedicated readers of this column, it was nice serving you these past few years. Come Aug. 2 if those clowns in Congress (on both sides the aisle and in the White House) can’t reach a budget deal this is what will happen: the stock market will tank by 30%, and the yield on the 10-year will spike to say 6% (for starters) and then to 10% within a week if no deal is afoot.

Perhaps, the June jobs number will be revised upwards next month, showing a large (and expected) gain in employment instead of the paltry 18,000 increase we saw on Friday.

In response to a recent blog/post I received close to 200 emails from readers who wanted to know more about Bank of America’s future in residential finance – including several from former workers who have landed elsewhere.

When asked about the still-struggling nonagency market might return, some market participants in New York for the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Secondary Market Conference even took on the controversial question of whether a subprime credit secondary market should come back some day.

When marketing your services to the public, you need to be careful about any analogies or other types of references in your materials. What you might think of as being benign, could have a negative effect on your audience.