Category Archives: Mortgage Loan

After three weeks of gains, mortgage applications reversed course and dropped last week, amid rising mortgage rates, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported in its weekly survey. Most of the drop was attributed to a decrease in refinancing. The MBA’s mortgage application index,which reflects applications for refinancing and purchases, dropped 8.1 percent in the week ending Jan. 25. Broken out, refinancing applications, which make up the biggest bulk of the index, dropped 10.2 percent last week. Applications for home purchases, viewed as a leading indicator of future home sales, dropped slightly […]

Mortgage rates were on their way up this week, with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage moving to its highest reading since Sept. 29, 2012, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. Still, fixed-rate mortgages remain near all-time record lows and “should continue to aid in the ongoing housing recovery,” according to Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. Freddie Mac reports the following national averages with mortgage rates for the week ending Jan. 24: 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: averaged 3.42 percent, with an average 0.7 point, rising from last week’s 3.38 […]

Banks cashed in on mortgages last year, reporting record earnings on mortgages in 2012. Banks’ mortgage profits are finally starting to surpass the cost of the faulty loans and foreclosures that have bogged down many lending arms the last few years. If you are looking for a home loan, view site to get a the best rates available. Four major lenders — Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., and U.S. Bancorp — reported $24.4 billion in home mortgages in 2012. Meanwhile, expenses from loan […]

Mortgage defaults increased nationwide in the fourth quarter as more Americans began to default on all types of consumer debt. The S&P Dow Jones/Experian credit default indices made this alarming trend more transparent in data released Tuesday. The indices national composite, which measures all consumer defaults, increased for three consecutive months in a row, reaching a 1.72% default rate in December. This compares to a default rate of 1.64% in November and a much lower rate of 1.55% in October. The first-mortgage default rate followed the same pattern, increasing from […]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled new mortgage rules Thursday that are expected to change how home buyers go about getting approved for a home loan. Loans that meet the agency’s new lending criteria now will be called a “qualified mortgage.” Every company that issues mortgages will be required to follow the new guidelines in order to receive protection from lawsuits filed by troubled borrowers or buyers of mortgage-backed bonds. Some types of loans will be excluded from these rules, such as interest-only mortgages and loans on which the principal […]

A tax break for forgiven mortgage debt that was set to expire Dec. 31 was extended by lawmakers when they dodged the “fiscal cliff” this week. The tax break, which has been extended to the end of 2013, allows home owners facing short sales, reduced loan principals, or foreclosures to avoid paying taxes on any debt still owed to the bank. Otherwise, the debt would have been taxed by the IRS as income. The tax break first took effect in 2007. Home owners had rushed to complete short sales before […]

Mortgage interest rates are expected to rise this year, and the increase will likely curb refinancings and affect move-up home buyers. The Mortgage Bankers Association projects the 30-year fixed rate to increase to an average of 4.1 percent in 2013 and 4.5 percent in 2014, up from 3.7 percent last quarter. The group’s December forecast has the dollar value of refis dropping to $818 billion this year and $350 billion next year, from approximately $1.2 trillion in 2012. Neither higher interest rates nor fewer refis are expected to have a […]

Four years ago, the housing market crashed, leaving servicers on the line to handle thousands of distressed loans. At the time, most mortgage servicing shops used tech systems with dozens of different applications. With mortgage technology and the development of the VDR market in 2022 coming into its own, the emphasis is on ensuring servicers, vendors, borrowers and investors have access to the best loan-level data to serve each loan with the utmost care. Achieving this goal may take servicing and lending shops down various paths, but there certainly was […]

Fixed-rate mortgages ended the year by hovering near record-breaking lows and keeping home buyer affordability high, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. “The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.66 percent for 2012, the lowest annual average in at least 65 years,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Rates on 30-year fixed mortgages were nearly 0.6 percentage points below that of the beginning of the year, which translates into an interest payment savings of nearly $98,600 over the life of a $200,000 loan. Moreover, opting for a 15-year […]

Mortgage applications for home purchases reached a new high for the year for the third consecutive week, as 30-year mortgage rates sank to a new all-time low, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday. The MBA’s index measuring mortgage application activity for both home purchases and refinancing soared 6.2 percent for the week ending Dec. 7.  Applications for home purchases, viewed as a leading indicator of future home sales, rose 0.7 percent and hit another high point of the year. Applications for refinancings — which make up the biggest bulk of […]