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HomeWhen Is ‘Uncle Sam’ Moving Out of the House?
Posted by Larry Doyle on April 12th, 2012 7:14 AM |
“The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Uncle Sam and his friends in officialdom around the world may believe their ideas are of larger size and greater dimension. That point is open to debate. How do the old man’s ideas mesh with the principles of freedom and liberty?
Uncle Sam and his ‘friends’ make for very strange bedfellows . . . and lousy business partners. I cautioned people on this front a few years back.
The sanctity of contracts? Fuhgeddaboutit. The primacy of market based principles? How inconvenient! Protecting private capital? Why bother? (more…)
Fannie and Freddie Ordered to Delist from NYSE
Posted by Larry Doyle on June 16th, 2010 11:28 AM |
Fannie and Freddie don’t live here anymore.
News just broke that the stocks of our two government stepchildren, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been ordered to delist from the NYSE. The Washington Post reports, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to Delist Shares from NYSE:
The companies’ regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said Wednesday that it expects Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares to trade on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board, an electronic quotation service. (more…)
Fannie Mae Plays “Let’s Make a Deal”
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 5th, 2010 12:38 PM |
“Let’s see, do you want to go for the prize behind Door #1 or take a chance on what’s in the big box?”
“Well Monty, I’m playing with your money so it doesn’t really matter now, does it?”
1970’s vintage TV may have been entertaining, but is the current deal-making used by Fannie Mae to liquidate housing inventory truly the way to develop a healthy and robust housing market?
Just what is Fannie Mae doing? (more…)
Cash Strapped Seniors Beware!!
Posted by Larry Doyle on October 6th, 2009 2:53 PM |
Tapping home equity was a prime driver in leading us into our current economic crisis. The same dynamic with an added twist may very well be setting the table for another round of fraud and accompanying problems.
I refer to the housing finance product known as a reverse mortgage. This product is targeted primarily at our senior citizens who are cash strapped. Rest assured many a mortgage banker who is currently hard pressed to generate fees and earnings will attempt to take Grandma and Grandpa ‘to the hoop’ with this product.
While many quality professionals within the mortgage industry will work to highlight the potential pitfalls with reverse mortgages, do not think for a second that those messages will make their way to every customer.
Bloomberg highlights that our legal profession is starting to take notice of this ‘racket’ and writes, Reverse Mortgages May Be ‘Subprime Revisited’:
Reverse mortgages may be the next subprime crisis, according to the National Consumer Law Center.
Some of the same U.S. lenders that helped drive the real estate boom with loans to home buyers who couldn’t afford the payments are now targeting seniors, the center said. Brokers, who are given financial incentives to sell the loans, may be making misleading claims to potential customers, according to a report released today by the Boston-based NCLC.
“This market is designed to serve seniors, so when we find abuses cropping up and migrating from the subprime market to the senior market, that sounds an especially loud warning bell,” said Rick Jurgens, an advocate at the National Consumer Law Center, who contributed to the report.
Reverse mortgages enable people aged 62 and over who are looking for extra cash to use the equity in their homes and receive lump-sum payments, periodic checks, a line of credit, or a combination of the three. Lenders are repaid from the sale of the home when the borrowers die or move.
The former maximum payout for reverse mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration was $417,000. That limit was increased temporarily to $625,500 in February. Origination fees are capped at $6,000. In 2008, more than 100,000 seniors used reverse mortgages to tap over $17 billion in home equity, according to the Housing and Urban Development Department.
I implore anybody who reads this commentary to fully explore the implied mortgage rate and home appraisal values utilized with reverse mortgages.
Any questions, please do not hesitate to ask or to utilize the mortgage primers (in the left sidebar) here at Sense on Cents to learn more about this product.
LD
Water Finds Its Own Level
Posted by Larry Doyle on May 6th, 2009 5:15 AM |
If housing led us into this mess and is going to lead us out, then bring an extra pair of boots because we still have a long way to go.
Could the government intervention in the housing market promote short term support but also long term pressure? What do I mean? As I wrote yesterday in Mortgage Magic or Mortgage Mayhem, the government is providing real subsidies in terms of mortgage rates, guarantees, closing costs, and points. These subsidies are generating support to segments of the housing market. That said, housing in general remains under severe pressure in many regions. The higher priced markets with very limited government intervention are virtually stagnant.
Pressure from the higher end is actually prompting some banks to allow for short sales in which the bank absorbs the loss from a home sold below the outstanding mortgage balance. Why would a bank do that? Very simply because the bank believes a sale now, even at a loss, is better than a foreclosure later generating an even greater loss.
I think we will see further downward pressure on prices and a delay in real improvement in housing due to the fact that more homeowners are now under water on their mortgages. The WSJ reports, House Price Drops Leave More Underwater. How many are underwater? Almost a third of American homeowners!!
Government intervention is simply attempting to apply sandbags to this problem. While I fully empathize with the families impacted, these sandbags are no remedy or foundation for a long term fix. In fact, I think these sandbags are potentially causing pools of private capital to refrain from entering the market. Why is that? A market that is being artificially supported will always cause real money to wait in the wings.
As the water finds its own level, the private capital will definitely enter. In so doing, it is very likely the private capital will ultimately push the market to levels even higher than current.
Any market participant knows, though, that a market that is manipulated may stay elevated for a short stretch but will move lower, find its natural clearing level, and then move higher. Housing is no different.
LD
Uncle Sam and State Brethren Are Now Mortgage Brokers
Posted by Larry Doyle on May 4th, 2009 11:56 AM |
Hat tip to KD for highlighting a recent article in the L.A. Times, States Taking Steps To Turn $8,000 Home Purchase Tax Credit Into Cash. I am a proponent of providing tax incentives for purchasing homes. Have Uncle Sam and his state brethren morphed into mortgage brokers, though, in the process?
My concern with this program is the discipline provided by lenders working with borrowers under this program. Is the government so desperate to support housing that it will forward a down payment in the form of a short term bridge loan to prospective buyers? If the borrower can not repay the bridge loan when receiving the credit next year, the loan becomes a second lien.
This program will support home purchases. However, irresponsible lending on behalf of unscrupulous lenders did the same. As the L.A. Times reports,
In recent weeks, at least 10 states say they’ve come up with ways to work this monetary magic. They have created innovative bridge-loan programs that advance credit-eligible buyers the cash they need for their closings. Generally the advances take the form of second mortgages — with or without interest charges — that become due and payable whenever buyers receive their credits in the form of refunds from the Internal Revenue Service.
In Missouri, which was the first state to create such a program, buyers can get a no-cost “tax credit advance” of up to 6% of the home price. The advance is actually an interest-free second lien that is repayable no later than June 2010, once the buyers have received their $8,000 tax credit.
If buyers can’t meet that repayment deadline, the advance morphs into a traditional second mortgage with a 10-year payback term and a fixed interest rate one-half a percentage point higher than their first mortgage rate.
The idea that a prospective borrower may need a second mortgage within 12 months of a home purchase strikes me as an immediate red flag.
As we enter the brave new world of moral hazard and government control of industry, I guess I am going to have to get used to accepting that fiscal discipline and responsible lending aren’t what they used to be.
LD
