Housing: Making Home Affordable mortgage modification plan poll…
Aloha. Please take a second to click the poll below. A few emails have come in requesting an in-depth drilldown of details and expanded coverage of the Making Home Affordable Modification program and I have spent weeks researching for my own interests but before I dive in to more posts on the subject I want to get an idea of how many people want/need the additional info. Gracias.
Housing Update: Median Home Price drops 16.8% y/y….MBA makes 700B downward revision to ’09 originations forecast…
Ouch: National Median Home Price at $173,000 for May, a drop of 16.8% year over year….May existing home sales up 2.4%, same as April….much lower than needed for this inventory, especially since roughly 45% of the sales are foreclosure sales to investors….dollar is extending its losses and markets are down, DOW off 40 now to 8298….10 yr yield 3.63%….Gold 918….Oil down to 67…
So taking a closer look at the incredible revisions by MBA yesterday, it appears as though the Making Home Affordable Program has been a failure to date. Not the EPIC FAIL of Hank Paulson’s original plan, but a FAIL nonetheless….
MBA dropped the hammer on the outlook yesterday:
…The Mortgage Bankers Association cut its forecast of home-mortgage lending this year by 27% amid deflating hopes for a boom in refinancing. The trade group said Monday that it now expects $2.034 trillion of originations of mortgages for one- to four-family homes in 2009, down from a forecast of $2.780 trillion in March, when falling interest rates spurred expectations for huge volumes of refinancing….
Here are the numbers, of the millions of homeowners facing foreclosure, a grand total of 13,000 loans have been modified/refi’d. Yep.
…Meanwhile, the MBA said, the volume of refinancing under the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Refinance Program so far has been “very low.” This program is designed to help borrowers whose loans are backed by government-owned investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the biggest providers of funding for U.S. mortgages.
“While the number of loans completed under this program is likely to increase, it is difficult to craft a scenario under which origination volumes would come anywhere close to reaching the numbers originally envisioned for the program, particularly under our higher rate environment,” the trade group said.
So how low is it? Let’s check in on the housing beat with Diana Olick of CNBC who has the real scoop:
…Today the Mortgage Bankers Association put out a revision in its 2009 originations forecast. A big revision. A $700 billion revision. “$84 billion of the drop is due to lower purchase originations and the rest is due to lower rate/term refinances and very low volumes in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP).”
…The MBA had raised its forecast by over $800 billion in March following the drop in interest rates associated with the Fed’s announcement on the Treasury bond and mortgage-backed securities purchases programs as well as the implementation of the HARP….
……The refi’s dropped off for two reasons, one being the interest rate rise, and the second being the poor results on the HARP….While generally accepted estimates were that around 1.5 to 2 million borrowers might avail themselves of this program, with many more potentially eligible, to date only about 13,000 loans have been completed,” notes the MBA’s chief economist, Jay Brinkmann. …
Did anyone else catch Larry Kudlow get curt and rather harsh with Diana on The Call last week? Diana makes it clear in this blog report her position and reporting on the housing market is based on the facts, not the ‘Goldilocks wannabe green shoots’ scenario we all know Larry wants to find…..the harsh reality of our housing market, and it is pretty damned harsh here in AZ lemme tell ya:
…A lot of folks out there contend that I am overly bearish on the beat I cover. Some go so far as to call me “miserable,” while others claim I choose to see the glass half empty. I am and do neither. I’m not a bear; I’m a realist. It’s your right to have an opinion, but it’s not my job. My job is to gather for you and funnel to you the facts: The numbers, the trends, the industry forecasts and the experts’ analyses. I have no agenda and frankly gain nothing from being either a bull or a bear. If anything, I’d be better off personally as a housing bull. CNBC doesn’t allow me to own stock, but I can own a house, and I do. If you think housing has bottomed, that’s your opinion, but that’s just what it is: Opinion.
Housing Update: WTF?! Give Me My Cheap Loan!
Courtesy of TheStreet.com:
Vodpod videos no longer available.Housing Update: AZ : May 2nd Foreclosure Prevention Task Force Workshop with Rep. Mitchell….
If you are in Metro Phoenix, Congressman Harry Mitchell has put together a ‘Foreclosure Survival and Prevention Workshop’ with the task force of that name.
The really good news is the list of items to bring includes everything you would need to apply for a loan so it is my hope people will be able to apply for the various Hope for Homeowners, Making Home Affordable and HUD mortgage modification, refinancing plans while there.
Here are the details, everything here is straight from the flyer from Congressman Mitchell:
Saturday, May 2nd 8:30am-11:30am
Granite Reef Senior Center 1700 North Granite Reef Rd, Scottsdale
Featuring HUD-certified housing and finance professionals to counsel one on one about foreclosure problems. To get the most accurate help possible, please bring as many of these documents as are applicable:
- The closing packet for your mortgage
- Recent bank statements and mortgage bills
- Federal tax returns for 2 years and pay stubs (doesnt say but bring two most recent )
- Unemployment documentation for the last month;
In addition you may need to bring:
- Pay stubs for last 30 days for each member of household;
- Social Security/Unemployment/Pension Income statements;
- Statements/bills for all household expenses;
- ALL correspondence, letters from banks, courts, or anyone regarding your home or foreclosure;
- Any Trustee Sale information from your mortgage company or its attorney;
- Evidence of outstanding judgements or tax liens;
Workshop Agenda:
8:30 am – Registration and One-on-One Counseling Begins
9:00 am – Welcome by U.S. Congressman Harry Mitchell
On going presentations from the Arizona Foreclsoure Prevention Task Force include:
9:15 am – Foreclosure Timeline and Scams to Look Out For
10:00 am – Creating a Crisis Budget
10:45 am – Rebuilding after Foreclosure and Building Your Home’s Value
If you need immediate help, please contact the AZ Foreclosure Helpline at (877) 448-1211, or HOPE NOW, a HUD approved counseling organization at (888) 995-HOPE. For further information on this workshop contact me (Rep. Mitchell if you are in the district) at (480) 946-2411
Market Mover Tuesday: Case-Shiller Housing Index…
Just released Case-Shiller Housing Index:
10 of 29 Metro Areas show record rates of annual decline
15 metro areas showed price declines of over 10% vs Feb of 08
10 city composite posts annual decline of 18.8% in February
20 city composite down 18.6%
here is how CNBC morning crew is spinning this to be a good number:
Annual home price decline did not set a new record for the first time in 16 months
well alrighty then, let me pop my Korbel cork right now, LOL…..
So the Delta is slowing, that would be IMO the foreclosure sales, however we still have a RECORD inventory out there and with the foreclosure moratoriums ending I suspect prices will fall farther as those ‘shadow inventory’ short sales hit the market…but by all means it is good if the rate of decline would frakkin slow or better stop…or you know actually show an increase in value, HA!
Dow futures are sharply lower after the Dow ended yesterday down 50+, futures down -103 before the open…
*VH House of Pain courtesy of 5150EVH5150
*Straight off of the Gene Simmons Demos, the House Of Pain! Its basically just the basic riff from the 1984 HOP, with different choruses, different verses, and a different solo. The Intro and outro to the solo are also in the 198 HOP, although in different places here. Enjoy!
Update: CA Foreclosures up 80% in 1Q y/y…Las Vegas Leads Foreclosure Rates, CA, FL, NV highest – Bloomberg
Update: Diana Olick CNBC reports:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Vodpod videos no longer available.