Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Act three years ago to remedy lending excesses that took root prior to the financial crisis, but the real outcome of this intervention is a modern mortgage market where big banks can no longer lend to lower- and lower-middle class borrowers, banking analyst Dick Bove with Rafferty Capital Markets said Monday. […]

A top executive at Ally Financial Inc, is now going to Freddie Mac to serve as its chief financial officer. …read more

Housing stocks and banking giants on the HW 30 spiraled downward Monday as the market reacted to the government inching closer to a shut down. …read more

The list of business groups and investors fighting eminent domain continues to grow. A major California public pension fund entered the ring this week. …read more

By Ryan Lundquist The series Breaking Bad just finished up yesterday. Everyone is talking about it, so I wanted to pitch in a few thoughts from a real estate angle. Buying a Meth House: Would you buy a house that was previously used as a meth lab? Most people probably wouldn’t because of the fear […]

Whether you’re dealing with a legal dispute over loan modifications, eminent domain or a push back against foreclosures, the mortgage litigation storm is silently raising various constitutional arguments that relate to the legal concepts of fundamental fairness, contract law, equal protection and due process. …read more

A hidden computer glitch in Fannie Mae’s underwriting system played a role in blocking borrowers from obtaining a loan. But come November, the enterprise will be implementing a new underwriting system to ensure the glitch never re-surfaces again. …read more

HUD rolled out a proposal to define a qualified mortgage that would be insured, guaranteed or administered by the housing agency, including single-family mortgages insured by FHA. …read more

While automated home value estimates help buyers obtain real-time information, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland believes AVMs magnify price volatility in housing markets and hurt housing sales. …read more

By Mandelman The idea of turning worthless metal into gold has fascinated us for thousands of years. The word, alchemy, is derived from the Greek meaning, “The Egyptian Art”. And Lapis philosophorum, referred to as the philosophers’ stone, is the legendary alchemical substance, that was said to be capable of turning base metals, especially lead, […]

Entrust Your Retirement to ……Yourself!The Roanoke StarVarious municipalities like Detroit and Stockton have been forced into bankruptcy due to unfunded pension liabilities and corporate and union plans have fared no better. Chicago’s long-time Mayor Daley gamed the … We must develop a budget featuring … …read more

A cash-strapped city in New Jersey failed to collect thousands of dollars in revenue from foreclosure cases. The reason? The city laid off real estate staff workers, hindering its ability to collect dollars owed to the municipality. …read more

While the Federal Reserve has been playing “buyer of last resort” in snapping up agency mortgage-backed securities throughout the crisis and beyond — through three successive rounds of so-called quantitative easing — the government hasn’t been the only buyer. …read more

A full-blown housing recovery could push the nation closer to full employment, but a confluence of factors have made this an illusory goal, researchers claim in a new report from Moody’s Analytics and the Urban Institute. …read more

The talk of whether there is now a new bubble in housing is becoming cocktail-party discussion fodder yet again. But is there actually a bubble? Yale economics professor and co-namesake of perhaps the most popular housing price index (the S&P/Case-Shiller HPI) weighs in on the topic this weekend in an op-ed in The New York […]

Unless both sides of the aisle can reach a compromise or one-side folds, the government will have its first shutdown in 17 years, creating even more uncertainty for the already uncertain mortgage market. …read more

Citigroup is replacing JPMorgan Chase as the next potential target of legal and regulatory scrutiny among the big banks. …read more

The “hustle” case brought by the U.S. government against Bank of America (BAC) for mortgages underwritten by Countrywide is a big case, as it’s the first time the government has pursued a major bank over loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But apparently, at least one of the jurors wishes s/he wasn’t involved. […]

The Justice Department and other federal and state agencies are looking into bubble-era bank practices surrounding issuance of RMBS, going on what Clayton Holdings attorneys characterized as a “fishing expedition” is response to a government subpeona. …read more

Good news for HW 30 component Old Republic International Corp (ORI), which saw Fitch Ratings move the insurer to investment grade, raising the holding company’s senior debt rating from ‘BB+’ to ‘BBB-‘ late Friday. …read more

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about how tight lending standards are — the latest crimp in guidelines is an interesting one. Part time workers are having a hard time using their income to qualify for a mortgage. …read more

o, quick: will the Fed’s easy-money policies cause rampant inflation? How about any inflation at all? A prescient story over at the WSJ demonstrates one of the potential problems facing the Fed — the monetary policy driver’s own inability to forecast inflation accurately. …read more

Jay Brinkmann will be retiring in early 2014 after 13 years of service at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Brinkmann has served the trade group as chief economist since 2008. …read more

While some pundits claim the Fed’s decision not to taper was driven by a myriad of factors — from Syria to the debt ceiling — the truth is far simpler than that: mortgages matter, according to an op-ed at the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel. …read more

Kurt Rosenwald rejoins Mortgage Network and will lead a new branch office in Medina, Ohio. He brings over 14 years of industry experience to his new role. …read more