Mortgage insurance will be tax deductible for some home buyers (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Mortgage insurance will be tax deductible for some home buyers (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Mortgage insurance will be tax-deductible in 2007. For some homeowners, the new law means it will cheaper to get mortgage insurance instead of getting piggyback loans.


Essentially this means that instead of getting a piggyback loan (which was tax deductible) you can now deduct the cost of PMI on your taxes. Given that PMI is typically cheaper than the interest rate on the piggy back loan this makes this a viable option again. Please note this is a federal change so everyone benefits.

california mortgages california

Millenium Holding Group Announces Agreement to Develop Real Estate in Barstow, California (Market Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

Millenium Holding Group Announces Agreement to Develop Real Estate in Barstow, California (Market Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
Millenium Holding Group, Inc. today announced that the Company through its wholly owned real estate subsidiary FYNRE entered into an agreement with MGM Development LLC to develop a 7.75 acre property in Barstow, California. Barstow, California is one of the fastest growing communities in that part of the country. The development, called Sun Ridge I, consists of 44 lots which will have modular ...

Moving inland to less desirable areas has always been California's response to continued growth. Barstow is affordable. Remember my post on Bakersfield being the new hot spot?

california mortgages california

Ownit - California sub prime lender closes 800 laid off

Ownit Mortgage Solutions, a California company that described itself as one of the top 15 lenders to homeowners with weak or no credit histories, has shut down, citing "the current unfavorable conditions of the mortgage industry."

Merrill Lynch & Co. (MER) and private equity firm CIVC Partners hold stakes in Ownit, which built its book of new loans to $8.3 billion in 2005 from $1.1 billion in 2003, in part by introducing products like 45-year mortgages, according to its Web site. Ownit's demise comes as subprime mortgage lenders are being squeezed by higher funding costs, weakening loan demand and rising delinquencies.
"Effective Dec. 5, Ownit closed its doors, and we are no longer able to fund or process your loans," the company said on a recorded telephone message. "We apologize for any inconvenience."

Ownit ran out of cash needed to meet its obligations to repurchase loans from investment banks and others who bought them in the secondary market, people in the industry said. The banks, which convert the loan payments into mortgage-backed securities for sale to investors, can force the original lenders to repurchase loans if the mortgage borrowers default.

Bruce Dickinson, Ownit's chief operating officer, said he couldn't immediately comment pending discussions with lawyers.

In a letter to mortgage bankers and other business associates emailed Dec. 5, Ownit said, "For the past three years, we have pursued a mission to influence the mortgage industry toward increased affordability options for a changing market of home buyers. Change takes time, and we are saddened that the current unfavorable conditions of the mortgage industry did not afford us sufficient time to see our mission through."

Worsening conditions have pushed many owners of subprime mortgage firms to try to sell the businesses. Morgan Stanley (MS) bought Saxon Capital Inc. for $706 million earlier this month and Merrill plans to complete its $1.3 billion purchase of First Franklin Financial Corp., a large subprime lender that is owned by Cleveland-based National City Corp. (NCC) in the next few weeks.

National City bought First Franklin, which together with affiliates has $29 billion of mortgage loans, from its founder Bill Dallas, who went on to become chief executive of Ownit. Dallas didn't return a call for comment.
Merrill is believed to own about 20% of Ownit. A Merrill Lynch spokeswoman declined to comment. CIVC Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, also has a stake in Ownit and was an investor in First Franklin before Dallas sold it to National City. CIVC's Dan Helly, who oversees the Ownit investment, didn't return a call for comment.

The end came quickly for Ownit. "We were all working yesterday, assuming we were fine," Dave Hanthorn, a New Jersey-based employee who sells the firm's loans to mortgage brokers, said Wednesday evening. "At 5:15 last night we got the call that we were ceasing operations." He said the company gave no explanation for its funding problems.

Ownit laid off all its staff, according to a headhunter, who received an email that was reviewed by Dow Jones from a friend who worked at the firm. A voicemail message at the number of LesLee Delaney, a representative of Ownit in California, said the company will help mortgage brokers and other wholesale customers try to get their loans transferred to other lenders.

LoanWeb Honored by Los Angeles Business Journal

LoanWeb Honored by Los Angeles Business Journal (PR Web)

Online mortgage marketing company recognized in top 100 fastest-growing.

Despite the LA Business Journal mostly being a vanity publication, it's refreshing to see a company like Loanweb continuing to thrive in today's tough market. Loanweb was one of the first brokers to really embrace the internet as a lead generation tool. They are based in Calabasas and have been doing online loan applications since 1996.

PUBC Announces New Client Contract With Castleview Home Loans

PUBC Announces New Client Contract With Castleview Home Loans (SYS-CON Media)

Public Company Management Corporation (OTCBB: PUBC) announced that it has signed a contract with Castleview Home Loans, a 16-year-old mortgage banker and originator of first and second mortgages in California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, and Oregon.Under the contract, PUBC, through its subsidiaries GoPublicToday.com, Inc.,will provide management consulting services and advice to ., will provide management consulting services and advice to Castleview concerning various corporate and securities matters including Castleview's efforts to become a fully reporting public company.

This doesn't have a huge amount to do with the California market. Castle View is only a player in the second mortgage market in California. On the other hand a public offering is a big step for a company like Castle View. They don't have a huge presence in the sub prime market yet I question the timing of the announcement. Could they be going to the public markets in order to get the founders liquidity or do they need financing for other reasons.

Accelerating Mortgage Payments

Accelerating your mortgage payment is the quickest way to pay off your home faster. Most people have had the opposite approach to their homes, using them like an ATM. Flooding the market with cheap credit has driven up the price of homes which then has encouraged the same wealth effect that people saw with their stock portfolios with their homes. Needless to say the tables have turned and people begun to look to pay off their debt faster.

Accelerating your mortgage payment is easy. First pay off any seconds or home equity lines of credit first. The interest there is far higher. Then simply include additional payments toward principal. Simply including one additional payment a year will shave 5 years off a 30 year mortage.

James P. Giraldin Re-Elected to the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Board of Directors

James P. Giraldin Re-Elected to the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Board of Directors (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)

SANTA MONICA, Calif.----James P. Giraldin, President, Chief Operating Officer and board member of First Federal Bank of California, the wholly-owned subsidiary of FirstFed Financial Corp. and the third largest Los Angeles-based financial institution, has been re-elected to a three-year term beginning January 1, 2007 on the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco.

Which is good to hear. James is a good guy and his experience and work at FirstFed should help on the Board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco. They face a number of challenges there including a number of foreclosures in the East Bay.

Guide to Federal Grants and Government Assistance to Small Business

>

2003 Guide to Federal Grants and Government Assistance to Small Business: Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, Loans, Grants, Surplus Equipment, SBA, GSA, SEC Information for Entrepreneurs, Startup Kit, Loan Programs, Financing, Law, Regulations, Reports, Workbooks ¿ Applying for Federal Assistance (CD-ROM) This is a spectacular collection of federal documents and resources compiled from the complete contents of two of our popular CD-ROMs (ISBN 193182889X and ISBN 1592480373). It's a great value - purchased individually, these CD-ROMs would cost $49.90, so you save over 60% by purchasing this CD-ROM!

FEDERAL GRANTSHere is the OFFICIAL guide to Federal Grants and other assistance, produced by the Federal Government, with over 16,000 pages of loans, grants, surplus equipment, and training from 1482 agency programs worth $300 billion!

In addition to the comprehensive, extensively cross-referenced catalog of programs, there is information on developing and writing grant proposals and applying for federal assistance. It is produced by the General Services Administration, Office of Government wide Policy. Our reproduction is substantially less expensive than the printed version offered by the Government Printing Office at $63, and more convenient than the CFDA website. As the catalog itself says, "Get started today exploring the amazing world of grants and loans provided by the Federal Government!"

The "Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance" gives you access to a listing of all Federal programs available to State and local governments (including the District of Columbia); federally recognized Indian tribal governments; Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals. You can find assistance programs meeting your requirements and for which you are eligible. You can then contact the office that administers the program and find out how to apply.

Features of the catalog include:

• September 11th: Assistance Programs relating to recovery/response and U.S. Government Resources for the events of September 11th
  
• Types of Assistance
  
• Applying for Federal Assistance
  
• Developing and Writing Grant Proposals
  
• Top 10% Program List
  
• All Programs Listed Numerically
  
• 2001 Formula Report
  
• Historical Index
  

The catalog includes this "note for individuals": "Many individuals [expect] to find some way to apply for a grant or loan directly from the Federal Government. While there are a limited number of programs offering direct loans to individuals, most programs provide funds to state and local governments or other organization to manage the distribution of assistance according to local needs. For example, a VA or FHA loan comes from a financial institution such as a bank, credit union, or mortgage company, not directly from the Federal Government." e Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Please see the Table of Contents tab for a complete list of the agencies with programs included on this CD-ROM.

SMALL BUSINESS ASSISTANCE This electronic book on CD-ROM presents comprehensive information for entrepreneurs with documents, forms, and materials from the Small Business Administration (SBA), General Services Administration (GSA), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It includes the complete SBA contents from our SBA disc (ISBN 1592480357) plus material from the GSA and SEC for small business owners and investors. SBA material includes:

SBA library of documents, forms, startup kit for small business, information about loan programs and financing, laws and regulations, small business research reports, success stories, training workbooks, disaster and terrorist relief loans and aid, franchising information, international trade assistance, listings and directories, and SBA standard operating procedures. A full set of "frequently asked questions" (FAQs) provides a wealth of information about how the SBA can assist small business owners.

GSA material includes information on small business support. The SEC material includes questions and answers, rules and pending rules that apply to small businesses, small business forms and associated regulations, and other information from the SEC Office of Small Business Policy.

The documents are reproduced using Adobe Acrobat PDF software - allowing direct viewing on Windows and Apple Macintosh systems. Reader software is included on the CD-ROM.

Our CD-ROMs are privately-compiled collections of official public domain U.S. government files and documents - they are not produced by the federal government.. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work utilizing the benefits of the Adobe Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed, searched by finding specific words, or printed without untold hours of tedious research and downloading. Vast archives of important public domain government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are. This book-on-a-disc makes a great reference work and educational tool. There is no other reference that is as fast, convenient, comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and portable - everything you need to know, from the federal sources you trust.

Ok loose credit standards personified.

This self aggrandizing 24 year old UNEMPLOYED web designer managed to buy 6 homes in less than two years using liars loans. The fact that he lied on his loans on his loans isn't surprising. I think it's the fact that he thinks getting enough media attention will bail him out. It will have the opposite effect especially since he has already admitted to mortgage fraud multiple times on his blog. Said thing is we predicted something like this would come out during the current run up of real estate in California over a year ago on this blog.

Flip that House showing signs of market corrections

My wife Roxane is HGTV addict. She regularly watches the nearly every home improvement show on almost every channel. One she has been watching is "Flip that House" since she was in charge of the improvements we put into our California home before selling. We had quite a bit of work done on the house which included air conditioning, redoing the hardword floors, redoing the kitchen with granite and a new period accurate tile back splash. We also repainted the entire house.

On trend we have both noticed is the houses on "Flip that House" are no longer actually selling. Previously on the show they would show the actual profit from flipping the house. Now they just show the "projected profit." There's a problem with this - these shows take a year or so to produce - If the house sold then it's a simple matter of adding the graphic at the end of the show showing the actual profit. They have stopped doing that and only show what the "projected profit" at the end work on the house. They haven't included the carrying cost on the house (that no interest mortgage) nor do they include realtor's fees!

This struck me as odd as I watched a California couple attempted to flip a home in Thousand Oaks. They bought the house for 1.1 million, put $50,000 into and then attemped to put it on the market for 1.25 million. This couple had previously been flipping condos and so were used to just literally throwing on new paint and window treatment and then selling the condo. The problem of course was their expectations and the buyers expectations were completely at odds. For example in re-doing the kitchen they left the original plain white appliances. Someone buying a home for 1.25 million is going to want stainless steel and Traulsen fridges. On the island they went for granite tile instead of a solid custom cut piece of granite! When the agent asked why, they mentioned it would have been too much work! Yes but buyers in this market expect it

They didn't put in hardwood floors and instead put new plantation blinds throughout the house. Here's a hint guys - a million dollar home buyer is not gonna be impressed with the $800 you spent on blinds at Pier One.

The other problem of course is that they bought at the height of the California market were trying to flip it without understanding the market they were selling to. A million + home buyer has certain set of expectations. Even our home we put custom granite and tile with redone hardword floors. For 1.25 million - I expect hardwood floors throughout the home and a better kitchen.

Mortgage Rates Up For First Time In Seven Weeks

Mortgage Rates Up For First Time In Seven Weeks

Mortgage rates reversed a six week downward trend, increasing slightly during the week ended September 7 according to the Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey released by Freddie Mac.

Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist said "We expect that mortgage rates will continue to fluctuate as new economic data are released, but hold steady in the meantime".

Small increases in marginal rates aren't having the effects that they would normally on home sales because affordability concerns seem to still trump them. Buyers are keenly aware that today's distressed seller is going to be even more distressed tomorrow, thus pushing prices and demand even further.

Mortgage Rates Continue Up and Down Pattern

Mortgage Rates Continue Up and Down Pattern

And this week, they are down.

Mortgage rates, that is. The one week up, two weeks down, two weeks up pattern continues as the markets try to outguess where the Federal Reserve is going with rates, fewer people apply for mortgages, and housing sales in some parts of the country also slide.

This is a holding pattern design to signal the markets not to panic. Aggressive moves in either direction would signal panic. Begin cutting rates and the market would perceive that the you are trying to jumpstart the housing sector again. Raising rates would also be equally problematic. So expect the continued pattern of up/down.

Peer-To-Peer Lending: A Prototype For The Future Of Mortgage Lending

Peer-To-Peer Lending: A Prototype For The Future Of Mortgage Lending

Newsweek Magazine's Tip Sheet section last week featured two Web sites that have nothing to do with real estate or mortgage financing but may illustrate the future of the mortgage lending game.

It is not such a stretch to see a prospective homebuyer logging on to (example) Helpmebuy.com or some such with a request for the $250,000 he figures he needs to buy a home and the rate he is willing to pay and be pre-approved by a single lender or 1,000 of them in a matter of hours. This would truly be "lenders bidding for your business".

Per to per lending is more viable when dealing with business proposition. For example getting micro loans for a new startup. I have considered using Prosper.com for various projects. Using them to buy a loan just isn't viable I think since it's apparent raising $20,000-$30,000 this way simply isn't viable for most people. Most stories tend to be hard luck cases or attractive females.

Housing Bubble Watch: Building Stats Slip As Does Builder Confidence

Housing Bubble Watch: Building Stats Slip As Does Builder Confidence

The two monthly reports that measure the health of the home construction industry were released this week. The U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued its report on housing starts in June and the National Association of Home Builders in conjunction with Wells Fargo published their monthly Housing Market Index (HMI) for July. Taken together the two reports are...

Read More Now

california mortgages california

ARMS - Driving up foreclosures!

This is a pretty good article which comes the AP via Yahoo. The article is surprisingly good and highlights what loose credit standards combined with ARMS leads to. All the examples cited in the article are on the margins, ie lower value homes, sub prime loans and in markets not nearly as hot as California. Overall according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, foreclosures fell in all categories except sub prime loans. My gut tells me that the numbers will be way up for sub prime loans as these are people who cannot get credit elsewhere and very often cannot re-finance into a fixed loan because of poor credit.

""ARMs are a ticking time bomb," said Brad Geisen, president and chief executive of property tracker Foreclosure.com. "Through 2006 and 2007, I'm pretty sure we'll see a high volume of foreclosures."

Last year, foreclosures hit a historical low nationwide at about 50,000. But that number has more than doubled since then, according to Foreclosure.com.

Let's keep in mind something. The number has doubled it's only JUNE! That means we are on pace to having four times the number of foreclosures in 2006 than we did in 2005. That's a huge spike and pretty frightening.

This won't have as much of an effect on California just yet,

"Gaines pointed out that although California's default notices are rising by the thousands, actual foreclosure sales remain in the hundreds. Because of California's still-active housing market, homeowners there can sell their properties before going into foreclosure.

On the flip side, in less active markets like Texas and Georgia, homeowners can't find a buyer in time and are forced into foreclosure."

A bit of statistics manipulation and things don't seem as bad as things really are in the Golden State

California, where the median home price reached $468,000 in April, leads the nation in the percentage of homes purchased with adjustable rate mortgages. Nationwide, ARMs account for 24 percent of all home loans.

"In our zeal to make mortgage lending more available to a greater number of people, it's normal to expect the foreclosure rate to go up," Gaines said.

The problem with this number is that it takes all mortgages and lumps together. So my father in law who purchased his home in 1977 for $77,000 (now worth well over $750,00 0) is lumped in. This hides and understates the real problems that ARMs are going to be in California. As I covered in a recent post 61% of new mortgages in 2005 are interest only! So people buying at the very top of the market with financial instruments set to reset in 2007 and 2008. 2008 is going to be a very tough year for anyone who bought with an ARM.

Report Attempts To Soothe Housing Bubble Fears

Report Attempts To Soothe Housing Bubble Fears

Freddie Mac's monthly Economic Outlook for June was released last week. In what has become a mantra, the corporations Office of the Chief Economist, quoting Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke's recent remarks, is predicting an "orderly and moderate cooling of the housing sector."

You say tomato, I say tomatoe! One man's "orderly and moderate cooling" is another's catastophic drop in price! When you have 6-7 months of price declines is that an orderly cooling? For those owners who bought at the top of the market with no money done, their entire house of cards comes tumbling down. As home values continue to decline, depending on your situation and how stretched you are it certainly might become catastrophic.

Two New Reports Show Housing Exuberance Is Waning

Two New Reports Show Housing Exuberance Is Waning

Further evidence that the real estate boom is moderating came from the National Association of Realtors last week.

Quarterly figures on existing home sales which include single family houses and condominium units trended downward for the second straight quarter during the first three months of 2006.

This downward trend is natural given the rise in prices and the expectations of customer's minds that the market is cooling. If you can get a better deal by waiting a few months then you will, especially on a purchase as large as a house. Rates are already lower now then they were last year at this time so it's not the prime mortgage rates.

Mortgage Rates Drop

USA Today has a great article mentioning the recent drop in mortgage applications. The old standard 30 year fixed is currently 6.66%. Remarkably despite all the media coverage of the real danger of ARMs,

The ARM share of activity edged up to 30.7% of total applications last week from 30.5% the previous week. It was the highest ARM share since late January

People seem to be using them - largely because the interest rates still trail 30 fixed but by less than a percentage point. Seems to me the market certainly in California is still frothy.

May Economic Outlook Report Lowers Expectations

May Economic Outlook Report Lowers Expectations

Last month we ended our report on Freddie Mac's April Economic Outlook with the statement that "Freddie Mac's April Economic Outlook deviates only slightly from predictions in earlier months; the housing market is slowing but certainly not screeching to a halt."

May's report which was issued this week paints a slightly less optimistic picture.

Mortgage Rates Continue Uptick While Refinancing At Two Year Low

Mortgage Rates Continue Uptick While Refinancing At Two Year Low

Mortgage rates barely moved during the past week according to Freddie Mac reporting for the period ending May 4 and the Mortgage Bankers Association for the week ending May 5. While the trend continued, as it has for some time, to be up for most products the one-year adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) actually declined according to both organizations.

Applications to refinance as a percent of overall mortgage activity decreased to ...

Read More Now

california mortgages california

Mortgage Rates, Applications, Cash Out Refinancing All Up

Mortgage Rates, Applications, Cash Out Refinancing All Up

Fixed mortgage rates increased for the fifth straight week according to Freddie Mac's Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ended April 27 and adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) logged the sixth consecutive week of increases.

In a separate report Freddie Mac announced that cash-out financing of its owned loans recently hit the highest level since the third quarter of 1990.

Freddie Mac estimated that $170 billion in home equity will be converted to cash through refinancing during 2006.

Why Get Renters Insurance? We will Tell You.

Why Get Renters Insurance? We will Tell You.

The news last month was full of awful pictures of the tornado damage that occurred throughout Missouri and Illinois. Along with the continuing debacle in Louisiana and Mississippi, the topic of insurance is once again on our minds.

Renter's insurance is remarkably cheap and quite frankly disaster can strike a renter as easily as it can strike a home owner. The fact that most renters don't have renters shouldn't be that surprising, most renters tend to be young and quite frankly not responsible. But a few bucks a month can save that DVD collection if something should happen to it.

Housing Bubble vs. Housing Market Slowdown

Housing Bubble vs. Housing Market Slowdown

The central issue addressed by the April 2006 Economic Outlook issued by Freddie Mac on Monday is the conflict created between the strength of the economy and the increasing lack of housing affordability.

The report goes on to tie this lack of affordability to the growth in the popularity of adjustable rates mortgages and especially to nontraditional ARM products such as negative amortization and interest only loans. Use of these types of loans is often the only way families can qualify for a mortgage in these high cost communities. People buying homes with negative amortization loans are purely speculating in the market and they are speculating with someone else's money. This has driven the market onward and upward and pushed housing out of reach for many people in the market.

california mortgages california

Websites For The Home With No Homeowners Manual

Seems strange that a vacuum, a refrigerator, bicycle, even a 4 inch house plant from Home Depot, comes with a manual or at least a set of instructions (place in indirect light, water only when soil is completely dry) but a homeowner is pretty much on his own when trying to operate, maintain, and protect his largest and probably most complicated investment.

As with so many things today, the Internet comes to the rescue. We found dozens of websites from a simple search for "home maintenance". Several of those we reviewed provided excellent information that can fill in for that missing home owner's manual. Each of the three listed below has its place and we recommend checking them out and then book marking them for future reference.

• Home inspector locator
  
• All About Home?
  
• Home Management
  

Housing Bubble Conflicting Data Released

Housing Bubble Conflicting Data Released

The housing market threw the world another curve on Thursday. After five straight months of declining sales of existing homes, a sixth dreary month was pretty generally expected. Instead the National Association of Realtors announced that February sales of previously-owned homes had jumped 5.2 percent from similar sales in January. This was the largest monthly increase in two years.

Wow, so much for the housing bubble bursting. All of the "experts" are wrong. The national love affair with real estate continues. NAR itself said that the encouraging report was a sign that the market was "stabilizing" and should "level out" in the months ahead.

Of course this jump in sales was preceded by six months of price declines. So eventually the market had to readjust remember NAR has a vested interest in keeping prices high and keeping people buying

Credit Bureaus Roll Out VantageScore Credit Scoring System

Credit Bureaus Roll Out VantageScore Credit Scoring System

...So, now that we are comfortable with what constitutes a score, what our own scores are, and how that indicates that we stack up, it is all going to change.

On March 14 the three bureaus announced that they have collaborated on a new credit scoring system "to benefit consumers and credit grantors." The new system named...

Read More Now

california mortgages california

Second Home Sales Increase Their Share Of Real Estate Market

Second Home Sales Increase Their Share Of Real Estate Market

The National Association of Realtors recently released an interesting report about the sale of second homes in the United States. While the survey is a little outdated, the data covers sales over five years to the end of 2004, it still provides a perspective as to who, where, and how non-primary residences are being purchased.

For example, during the years from 2001 to 2004, second home sales (which include both recreational/vacation property and investment property) more than doubled

This really isn't surprising, many home owners in the markets experiencing the most growth were taking equity from their rapidly appreciating California home and where investing it other markets. As these other markets cooled, the second home buyers were the first to leave.
Read More Now

california mortgages california