Loan Think

The number of completed foreclosures in Massachusetts dropped by 44% in February to 515, down from 917 during the same month last year, according to new figures released today. Of course, the Massachusetts housing market is probably one of the healthier ones in the nation, which is why the decline in foreclosures is so steep.

I have a friend who manages 12 apartment complexes. He has tracked the turnover rates of tenants and year in and year out, 62% of the tenants move after one year. Another 28% move out after the second year and the remaining percentage live in the complex three years or more.

It's not easy being a technology company these days. And it's not easy being a mortgage lender either. Although origination profit margins are still wonderful, applications are starting to thin out a bit. So, where does that leave technology firms that sell their products to the market?

This past weekend I had a booth at a Senior Expo. It was held at a religious institution in our neighborhood. Typically, I would not attend one of these expos and I definitely wouldn’t have a booth.

The new risk retention/QRM proposals are out and it appears that mortgage insurers might be winners after all – over the short-term, that is. The draft notes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will "be able to satisfy their risk-retention requirement...as long as they continue to operate under conservatorship or receivership."

If there is one lesson that any natural disaster, such as the earthquake in Japan, should teach a business owner, is that one must be prepared for anything. The reach of problems caused by the earthquake has hit this country, and I am not talking about radiation.

It's not easy out there for executives (past and present) who are at the helm of troubled institutions or firms that have already failed. Mortgage analyst Joe Garrett is predicting a spike in divorces among bank CEOs "whose banks get CAMELS-5 ratings and Prompt Corrective Action Letters in 2011."

Starting this year and following, you must issue 1099’s to anyone you pay over $600 cumulatively during the year. Previously this did not apply to corporations. Now it does. If you pay your office supply company, your business landlord rent, any and all vendors paid over $600, then at year-end you must send them and file the appropriate 1099.

Fannie Mae was kind enough to give National Mortgage News some guidance on what's going on regarding all those rumors we've been hearing about the GSE outsourcing some of its technology chores supposedly to IBM.

The (combined) lawsuit filed by the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers against the Federal Reserve Board will be decided next week or so we're told by NAIHP chief Marc Savitt.