According to a number of sources including DSNews, Fannie Mae has put a block of 2,490 REOs up for sale. It’s the first pilot transaction of the federal government’s Real-Estate Owned (REO) Initiative announced in August 2011, which aims to sell homes repossessed by government agencies to private investors for the purpose of turning the properties into...
Read MoreBig Four Lenders on Board with HARP Refi Program
DSNwes reports that Bank of America, Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo have agrred to participate in the new HARP program. This program, expected to be rolled out in FEB or MARCH will allow homeowners with Freddie Mac or Fannie Nae backed mortagges to refinance. The good news about this program is that there are few restrictions, except that the homeowner...
Read MoreHome Affordable Programs Need Some Work
Treasury has released a new progress report on its Making Home Affordable initiative, covering all the “H” acronyms – HAMP, HARP, and HAFA.Since the program started in April 2009, 857,000 homeowners have received permanent loan restructurings under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), and 894,000 have refinanced their mortgages through the...
Read MoreFannie May Wants More Money From Treasury
Read, Taxpayers instead of Treasury. Although I’m “excited” that Fannie has narrowed it’s quarterly losses to a little over $2 billion, I’m not for giving them any more money. Between the GSEs, HAFA and HAMP, the government has done a miserable job trying to manage the housing crisis. They need to get out of the housing...
Read MoreGSE Reforms to Squeeze Out Small Banks??
I found this article pretty interesting as it came from a point of view I hadn’t thought of. Obviously GSE reform has many ramifications no matter how it is accomplished but I hadn’t thought about the fact that it might do exactly what the author mentions: shift all lending to a few mega-lenders with very few options. Being very wary of the...
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