Mortgage Blog - Industry insights from lenderama

Serving Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate Agents and the Industry as a whole, lenderama is the blog that covers technology, marketing, crime and triumphs in the field of mortgage and real estate. Provider: Lenderama Feed Type: Informational [report]

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Easy Way to Keep Track of Lender Overlays
Let’s say you do business with 5 or 6 lenders. You (or your compliance department) get email updates. Maybe you get them one at a time. Maybe you get 10 changes at one time. An easy way to keep track of all lenders, all at one time is by subscribing to www.LendingArt.com. It’s free and [...]

Bernanke Speaks, and Markets React Strongly
Meanwhile, though, the bigger factor that worries economists is the employment situation. In the long term, the only way that the economy can sustain growth, is by adding jobs. Every week, we get a peek at one aspect of this situation, the weekly unemployment claims report. Last week, the report showed claims had dipped from the prior week's 504,000 claims to 473,000. While the decrease was welcomed, the level of unemployment claims is still too high to indicate the strong growth in employment that would be reflective of solid economic growth.

VA Pushes Lenders to Ease Burden for Gulf Coast Vets
Several mortgage companies have offered to loosen up on late payments and credit bureau reporting for veterans affected by the Gulf Oil spill. The Veterans Administration this week urged everyone else to climb aboard. VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki issued a statement Monday asking all mortgage companies to provide veterans with some breathing room when [...]

Sparse Data, even Fewer Traders Define Week
In a week in which it appeared that half of Wall Street had run off to the Hamptons, economic data showing the economy might or might not be as well off as it was 2-3 months ago caused some wild swings in mortgage pricing. Mortgage pricing is close to its all-time peak right now, meaning that investors who bought mortgage-backed securities when the average 30-year fixed rate was 4.75% have substantial unrealized gains now that the average 30-year fixed rate is 4.42%. Because of this, many of those traders have been hasty to sell anytime market trends, or economic data, point to some hint of a silver lining.

Poor Data Lead to Fed Action; Quiet Week Ahead
On Tuesday, the FOMC announced it would use funds received from prepayments on its MBS holdings to purchase Treasury securities on the open market, effectively allowing it to return those funds into the financial system.

VA Loans Getting Tougher to Secure
VA loans remain one of the safest and most powerful lending options on the market for military borrowers. But they’ve definitely lost a bit of their flexibility in the wake of the subprime mortgage collapse. These government-backed loans continue to post low foreclosure rates — the lowest of any of the major loan types, in [...]

Mortgage Market Update
Last week was fairly boring, though it did get interesting towards the end.  One thing that never seems to amaze me is the two-faced types out there, even among the “gurus”, when it comes to forecasting mortgage rates.  I mean, look at how many (especially those that simply regurgitate what the rate alert services say) [...]