HAMP - St Louis Real Estate News

More On The Housing Boom and Bust; Cause and Effect

By Dennis Norman, on July 5th, 2010

Dennis Norman

While there has been much discussion about the causes and effects of the Housing Boom as well as the Bust (including by yours truly in prior posts) I don’t think we need to refrain from continuing to examine this part of history that is affecting millions of people across the country. Perhaps we can learn some lessons from this that will help us avoid another such collapse of the housing market in the future.

My topic today actually has a silver lining of sorts. The topic is debt and how so many homeowners across the country Continue Reading →

Fannie Mae’s New Rule Punishes Borrowers That ‘Walk-Away’

By Dennis Norman, on June 23rd, 2010

Dennis Norman

So, you have the money to pay on your ‘underwater’ mortgage, or to afford the reduced payment amount offered to you under the HAMP program, but think, rather than throw good money after bad you’ll just do like so many borrowers are doing and ‘walk-away‘? Well, if you have any plans to buy a house again in, say the next seven years, particularly with a Fannie Mae loan, think again.

Today Fannie Mae announced policy changes to “encourage borrowers to work with their servicers”. These policy changes include, a seven-year “lock-out” period for borrowers that Continue Reading →

Loan Modification Scams On the Rise

By Dennis Norman, on June 8th, 2010

Dennis Norman

According to data from NeighborWorks America, a national nonprofit organization created by Congress to provide community-based revitalization efforts, every 13 seconds in America, there is another foreclosure filing. This means there are more than 6,600 home foreclosure filings per day and currently, more than 4.5 million households are at risk of foreclosure. Unfortunately there is no end in site as industry experts are predicting 1.5 – 2.0 million new foreclosures in 2010 and as many as a total of 8.1 million by 2012.

This many people in financial distress provides great opportunity for loan modification scam Continue Reading →

Fannie Mae Issues Guidelines For HAFA Short-Sales and Deed-in-Lieu

By Dennis Norman, on June 1st, 2010

UPDATE- June 2, 2010: The National Association of REALTORS obtained answers from the Treasury Department on 3 common questions about HAFA:

agents are not permitted to rebate a portion of their commission to the buyer, sellers who are real estate agents must list their home for sale with another broker, not their own broker, and the incentive allowed for subordinate lien holders (6% of any one subordinate lien, up to a total of $6,000 for all subordinate liens) is a hard cap and may not be supplemented from any source.

Dennis Norman

In March I did an update on Continue Reading →

Mortgage Delinquencies Fall in 1st Quarter; First Decline Since 2006

By Dennis Norman, on May 10th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Consistent with the report on mortgage delinquencies from LPS that I wrote about last week, today TransUnion released it’s report on mortgage delinquencies showing they fell 1.74 percent in the first quarter of this year, which is the first quarterly decline since 2006. This is good news, however, not to rain on the parade, but we do need to remember that the 4th quarter of 2009 had a record-setting mortgage delinquency rate so to have the rate for the following quarter drop simply means, if you want to do the glass half-empty thing, this quarter didn’t Continue Reading →

Champion Bank Closed by the Missouri Division of Finance

By News Desk, on April 30th, 2010

Champion Bank, in Creve Coeur, was closed today by the Missouri Division of Finance, which appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. To protect the depositors, the FDIC entered into a purchase and assumption agreement with BankLiberty, Liberty, Missouri, to assume all of the deposits of Champion Bank.

Continue Reading →

Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) Update

By Dennis Norman, on April 15th, 2010

Dennis Norman

As readers know, I have been somewhat critical of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) which is part of the Obama administrations’ Making Home Affordable Program for a few reasons, one is I believe it is just a temporary “band-aid” and not a cure for the problem and two, it does not appear the program is going to help near as many people as the Obama administration initially said it would. Yesterday a report was issued that shows there is progress being made and, through the end of March, a total of 230,000 homeowners Continue Reading →

Obama Administration HAMP Loan Modification Program Falling Short

By Dennis Norman, on April 1st, 2010

Dennis Norman

The Treasury Department Plans to Spend $50 Billion on HAMP…Is it Going to “help keep “3 to 4 million Americans in their homes” as Promised Though?

Last week Herbert M. Allison, Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability for the U.S. Department of the Treasury, testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as to “Is the Home Affordable Modification Program Preserving Homeownership?”.

Early in his testimony Allison states that, at the time the HAMP program was announced, President Obama said the program would “enable as many as 3 to 4 million homeowners to modify Continue Reading →

Help for homeowners facing foreclosure or are underwater

By Dennis Norman, on March 26th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Back in early December I did a post about a new program that was announced in November, the Home Affordable Foreclosures Alternative (HAFA) Program which is scheduled to go into effect April 5, 2010. There was recently supplemental documentation published as well as FAQ’s about the program and I have to admit, it seems to me the government is getting it right with this program.

THE HAFA PROGRAM:

The Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program provides financial incentives to loan servicers as well as borrowers who do a short-sale or a deed-in-lieu to avoid foreclosure on Continue Reading →

Pending Home Sales Drop In January; Weather Named as Cause

By Dennis Norman, on March 4th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Today the National Association of REALTORS released it’s January Pending Home Sales Index showing a decrease of 7.6 percent in the index from December, 2009 to January 2010 (seasonally adjusted) and a 12.3 percent increase from last year.

Here are highlights from the report:

January”s pending home sales index (seasonally adjusted) was 90.4 (the index is based upon 100.0 being equal to the average level of sales activity in 2001 which we could call the last “normal” year) which was a decrease of 7.6 percent in the index from December’s revised index of 97.8 and an Continue Reading →

FDIC’s Sale of IndyMac to One West Bank – Sweetheart deal or not?

By Dennis Norman, on February 15th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Last week a friend emailed me a link to a video titled “The Indymac Slap in Our Face” that was created by Think Big Work Small. I watched the video which gave a recap of the failure of Indymac bank back resulting in it’s seizure by the FDIC in July, 2008, and the ultimate sale by the FDIC of Indymac Bank to One West Bank in March, 2009.

According to the video, One West Bank received a cushy, “sweetheart deal” and implied it was related to the fact that the owners of One West Bank include Continue Reading →

Bank of America to do HAMP Second-Lien Modification Program

By Dennis Norman, on February 4th, 2010

Dennis Norman

Bank of America announced that it is the first mortgage servicer to sign an agreement formally committing to participation in the pending second-lien component of the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

Bank of America has systems in place to begin implementing the Second Lien Modification Program (2MP) with the release of final program policies and guidelines by federal regulatory agencies, which is expected soon. 2MP will require modifications that reduce the monthly payments on qualifying home equity loans and lines of credit under certain conditions, including completion of a HAMP modification on the first Continue Reading →

St Louis Real Estate – Permanent Loan Modifications under HAMP triples in December

By Dennis Norman, on January 28th, 2010

Dennis Norman

This week the Treasury Department issed a report which included stats on the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) which is part of the Obama administrations’ Making Home Affordable Program and “is a loan modification program designed to reduce delinquent and at-risk borrowers’ monthly mortgage payments”. The HAMP program got underway around March of this year and is set to expire December 31, 2012. According to the government website HAMP is intended to help keep “3 to 4 million Americans in their homes by preventing avoidable foreclosures.”

Permanent modifications triple in December from November:

According to the Continue Reading →

What Should Be Done To Help Underwater Borrowers?

By Dennis Norman, on December 17th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Last week I did a post about the Obama Administrations’ Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) and showed how it really has not been effective in helping keep families in their homes and avoid foreclosure as was the intention by the administration. When my kids tell me they don’t like the way I want them to do something I usually challenge them with “if you don’t like my way, tell me a better way to do it“. So with this in mind I went looking for an answer to this question.

In my search I ran accross a Continue Reading →

Is the Obama Administrations’ Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) working?

By Dennis Norman, on December 11th, 2009

Dennis Norman

So is the Loan Modification plan working?

To try to Continue Reading →

Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA) Launched

By Dennis Norman, on December 4th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Last week the Treasury Department announced the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program (HAFA), the latest program under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), designed to offer alternatives to homeowners facing foreclosure.

THE HAFA PROGRAM:

Continue Reading →

HAMP loan modifications up 40 percent in September; Serious mortgage delinquencies up 147 percent in past year

By Dennis Norman, on October 20th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Yesterday the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s trial mortgage loan modifications under the Obama Administrations Home Affordable Modification Plan (HAMP) were up more than 40 percent in September 2009 from the previous month. According to the report, mortgage loans that are 60-plus-days delinquent increased to 1,401,000 borrowers in July, up a whopping 147 percent from July, 2008 when there were 566,000 borrowers 60 plus days delinquent.

Here are highlights from the report (all the data, unless noted otherwise is from July 31, 2009):

Continue Reading →

Over 360,000 borrowers have taken advantage of Fed’s Loan Modification Program

By Dennis Norman, on October 9th, 2009

Dennis Norman

By: Dennis Norman

Earlier this week the Treasury Department released it’s eight “Tranche” report updating the status of the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) which includes the Home Affordable Modification Programthat I have written about on several occasions. The report shows that progress is being made with regard to loan modifications with $27.07 billion, of the $50 billion available) committed to loan modifications through September 30, 2009 (see “HAMP” details on chart below). Continue Reading →

Mortgage Programs Fall Short in Keeping Homeowners out of Foreclosure

By Dennis Norman, on October 7th, 2009

To alleviate some suffering by homeowners, the Obama Administration introduced the “Making Homes Affordable” plan last March. Unfortunately, the plan has not yet had the intended effect.

Article by the Grand Law Firm

Economists debate whether or not the country is actually currently in a recession. Some say that there are positive signs that we have reached the bottom and the economy is turning around. Others, however, suggest that the country still has a long way to go and it may be years yet before we truly reach financial recovery. Regardless of who is right though, one thing is clear: Continue Reading →

Fed’s plan to modify loans to prevent foreclosure shows progress; but only for 12 percent of those eligible

By Dennis Norman, on September 14th, 2009

Dennis Norman

Included in the “Making Home Affordable” program from the Obama administration is the “Home Affordable Modification Plan” (HAMP) designed to help 3 to 4 million home owners by modifying their existing loans to help them be more affordable. Last week, Michael S. Barr, the Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, testified before a congressional sub-committee on the status of these programs. In his testimony Mr. Barr said that weakness in the US housing market developed over many years and that during this period “inadequate regulation of lending and securitization practices, including lax underwriting standards, helped cause widespread over-leveraging Continue Reading →