DTI Calculation Excluding Current Mortgage Payments! Back in 2019 we highlighted a fantastic national mortgage program being offered by a major money-center institution, Citicorp, that actually excludes current mortgage payments from the debt-to-income (DTI) calculation for a homebuyer who is actively looking for a new home and will be selling the current one! Given the current […]
The average size of home loans, tracked by a Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) survey since 1990, have never been larger seeming to confirm the narrative that high demand and low inventory is pushing prices higher! __________________________________ Do you know everything that you need to know about your title insurance? Who is your underwriter? What is the […]
Some old adages for investing go that ‘nothing goes up in a straight-line’, that ‘you don’t want to be the last one standing when the music stops’ and that ‘bulls and bears make money but pigs get slaughtered’! Investors in real estate and mortgages learned this lesson the hard way heading into, and then following, the […]
(Note: This article also appears at econintersect.com) This week both the Bank of Japan and the Federal Reserve will be meeting to chart the future course of interest rates! In the U.S. where prior to the recent small interest rate hike ZIRP or zero interest rate policy had been in place, speculation over whether the Fed will raise or stand […]
Is there a loophole in the federal settlement with mortgage servicers that could spell trouble for the lenders holding second mortgages in distressed property? An article from The New York Times titled ‘The Second-Mortgage Shell Game‘ talks about the problem: “IN January, federal regulators announced an $8.5 billion agreement with 10 mortgage servicers to settle claims […]
On Monday November 7, 2011 a Public Hearing was held in Manhattan to discuss the topic of “Mortgage Foreclosures in New York.” For those interested, a brief summary is provided by an attendee in addition to this link for an article at Thomson Reuters that also examines the discussions that took place. Meeting Summary “Today I attended […]
What is a mortgage securitization audit? First things first, what is a mortgage securitization? This topic is vast and it opens up the world of Wall Street, the mortgage industry, the real estate boom, foreclosures and an investment product that you may or may not have heard of by the name of REMIC’s. It gets […]
The Hallmark Abstract Sentinel, after an extended hiatus, is back with a vengeance! Hallmark Abstract will now be providing updates and insights to the mortgage and title industry on a regular basis going forward. In the current climate that includes questions surrounding foreclosures and terms that were once foreign to most including MERS, REMIC’s, robo-signing […]
Tighter lending requirements for loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration may leave some borrowers unable to get mortgages, but economists are divided on the impact they could have on housing’s recovery. The changes, aimed at strengthening the FHA‘s reserves in the face of rising foreclosures, shouldn’t hurt too many borrowers, officials say. “We don’t expect this to […]
