The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s director is vowing a crack down on permissive lending practices. Two immediate thoughts: 1.) “Oh, no. Here come the bureaucrats.” 2.) “Just what we said was needed.” Handled right, the new rules are probably necessary, considering we got into the financial crisis largely due to absurd and shabby lending [...]

It seems more and more people are using the low-interest-rate environment to take out or switch to 15-year mortgages, allowing people to pay off their houses earlier and to build up equity faster. The trend is the opposite of what normally happens when interest rates fall. Though there are great arguments on both sides about [...]

That mortgage loan prices are at historic lows is widely known (my email’s spam folder is full of reminders). What’s not as clear is why are rates so low and, more importantly, will they continue to stay low. The Wall Street Journal has a fine article out today, Reasons Why Mortgage Rates Are Staying Low, [...]

The FHA is thinking of relaxing its rules regarding condo owners whose units qualify for low-downpayment mortgages. This could be a big deal for a lot of people, allowing more units to be sold and purchased through FDA-backed loans. File under: Every little bit helps

Good morning, I hope all is well. Please let me know if you have any questions, brian.cavanaugh@rmsmortgage.com 617-771-5021 Overall, look for Tuesday or Friday to be the most important day of the week due to the importance of those day’s reports and the FOMC meeting. Tomorrow will likely be the least active day for mortgage [...]

So you’ve probably heard about the big mortgage-settlement announcement last week. You know, the latest attempt to unclog the mortgage finance system, perhaps the latest futile attempt to unclog the mortgage finance system? OK, now guess how much of the $25 billion will go to actual victims. Go ahead, guess. If you cynically said “only [...]

The NYT’s Gretchen Morgenson sounds a tad bit skeptical about President Obama’s call last week to convene a new task force to investigate last decades’s mortgage-market debacle, including Wall Street’s bundling of “crap” mortgages into massive securities. After all, it’s now four years since Bear Stearns went belly up. The SEC and Justice Department have [...]

This is potentially big: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may allow people mortgage forbearances (i.e. skip payments) if they can prove unemployment interfered with their ability to pay their mortgages. This will undoubtedly help people who are jobless and financially struggling. There’s no question about it. But here’s the question: What does it do to [...]

Some libertarians — and supporters of Ron Paul — think home “ownership” as currently defined and structured is basically a fraud. We’ll let you read the above link and decide for yourself. But even one of the libertarian proponents of a revamped mortgage-loan industry concedes: “Of course, all of this would mean effectively returning to [...]

Bank of America has organized a good-intentioned event: It plans to meet in Boston with mortgage holders, face to face, in person, to go over how mortgage-payment pressures can be eased. “The purpose of this event is to eliminate the faxes, the FedEx mailings and the phone calls to 800 numbers and allow for face-to-face [...]