Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
Billionaire Warren Buffett’s company is exercising Bank of America Corp. warrants that will work out to a paper profit of $12 billion.
Buffett’s firm, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., in 2011 invested $5 billion in the Charlotte, North Carolina-based financial institution.
At the time, BofA’s shares were in danger of falling below $6 as investors worried about its ability to meet regulatory capital requirements.
From:: Financing
Among several topics covered in an interview with Rep. Jen Hensarling (R-Texas) was his legislation that would be a sweeping rollback of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.
Hensarling, who has represented his district since 2003 and is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, earlier this month secured House passage of the Financial Choice Act.
The lawmaker placed some of the blame for the financial crisis on a ratings agency monopoly, while affordable housing goals for the government-sponsored enterprises had an even bigger impact.
From:: Financing
Long-term interest rates on mortgages fell to the lowest level in over seven months. But next week’s report is likely to reflect much higher rates.
For the month of May, fixed interest rates on conforming 30-year loans to finance the purchase of single-family residence averaged 3.97 percent.
That turned out to be a nice improvement compared to the preceding month, when conforming long-term rates averaged 4.04 percent.
From:: Financing
A new report indicates that residential lending to borrowers who don’t meet Qualified Mortgage rule requirements is not the same as pre-crisis subprime lending.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s QM designation doesn’t mean strong credit, so non-QM mortgages don’t always indicate bad credit or excessive risk.
Pre-crisis subprime programs often required little or no income documentation. But that’s not the case for non-QM loans, where underwriters thoroughly analyze the income.
From:: Financing
An increasing share of home purchase transactions is having a negative impact on the risk of defects, fraud and misrepresentation in home-lending applications.
An estimate of mortgage defect and fraud rates over time, the Loan Application Defect Index, was determined to be 2.5 percent more in May than a month earlier.
That left the risk index at the highest level it has been since 2015. Compared to the same month last year, the Defect Index worsened by 13.7 percent.
From:: Financing
The performance of securitized commercial real estate loans worsened more than it has in over five years as loans made 10 years ago reached maturity. Apartment loan lates skyrocketed.
As of June 2017, delinquency of at least 30 days on loans that are included in commercial mortgage-backed securities finished the month at 5.75 percent.
Compared to the preceding month, the 30-day rate ascended 28 basis points — more than it has increased during any month since March 2012 when it jumped 31 BPS.
From:: Financing
A frustratingly persistent shortage of inventory in the market for pre-owned single-family properties helped drive down pending sales for the third consecutive month.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Pending Home Sales Index was a preliminary 108.5 for the month of May 2017.
The index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, slipped nearly a percent compared to the downwardly revised level for the preceding month.
From:: Financing
A new ranking of financial institutions based on their reputations had the banking sector improving despite a major scandal involving fraudulently created accounts.
Reputations in the banking industry among U.S. consumers have continued to recover, according to the 2017 Survey of Bank Reputations.
In fact, for the only time since tracking of such data began in 2011, the banking industry has achieved a strong reputation score.
From:: Financing
Fresh off a recently made major mortgage acquisition that included a wholesale lending business, Home Point Financial Corp. is expanding the unit.
On May 31, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based mortgage banking firm closed on the acquisition of Stonegate Mortgage Corp., a publicly traded company.
Out of $9.4 billion in total mortgage originations in 2016, Stonegate’s wholesale lending channel was responsible for $2.1 billion of last year’s volume.
From:: Financing
Although mortgage executives plan to relax credit requirements, the easing is not the same as was done before the nation’s housing market collapsed nearly a decade ago.
A survey this week by Fannie Mae indicated that senior residential lending executives expect credit requirements on mortgages to ease over the next few months.
But, according to the secondary lender’s chief economist, Doug Duncan, the easing is not an attempt by lenders to increase demand, as was the case before the financial crisis.
From:: Financing