| A new leniency in mortgage rescues
The mortgage industry gladly helps people buy homes when the market is up. How much will it help borrowers keep their homes in down times? Last week, the Bush administration got an answer: When all parties win in loan readjustments. Since August, the Treasury Department has corralled top players in the business to set a new industry standard for rescuing homeowners who will face higher interest rates in the next couple years under what are called subprime loans, or 6.5 percent of all mortgages. A collective response by lenders will be one small step for easing a housing depression and a giant leap for many borrowers. By winning such a pact to aid troubled homeowners who meet certain credit thresholds, the government must now watch closely to see how this finely threaded deal plays out – and how fast.
Housing in Turmoil: Some discover they can do well in the downturn
Sales Advice Tips to avoid trouble Counseling Resources Bay Area rebuffs real estate slump Sometimes staying put is the best decision Time to scale back our expectations They sold their home in the nick of time With faith and a new loan, couple hung on to dream .
PNC aids bid to prevent foreclosures
PNC Financial Services Group is putting up $5 million to jump-start a foreclosure-prevention fund for homeowners in Southeastern Pennsylvania. "As Pennsylvania's largest financial institution, we felt it was necessary to step in," PNC Bank regional president J. William Mills II said yesterday during a news conference with city and state officials at Philadelphia City Hall. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency will use PNC's 15-year, low-interest loan to buy severely delinquent mortgages - sometimes at a discount - from private lenders. The agency then will set up affordable repayment plans for the borrowers and contribute some of the interest income from those loans to a reserve fund to cover potential losses. The housing-finance agency then will use the loss-reserve fund, which already has $1 million each from Philadelphia's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and the housing agency, as a basis for borrowing money in the bond market, said Brian Hudson, executive director of the state housing agency.
In Search of a Subprime Villain
The panic of 1869 had Jay Gould and Jim Fisk. The junk-bond insider scandals had Ivan Boesky and Mike Milken. And turn-of-the-21st century book-cooking had poster boys Jeff Skilling and Bernie Ebbers. Now, the subprime meltdown cries out for its own icon—an easily vilified, Leno-quotable, high-seven-figured household name. If there were Vegas odds for this kind of thing, the money would be on Angelo Mozilo, founder and chief executive of Countrywide Financial (CFC), the largest U.S. mortgage lender and the source of so many of the bad home loans that have gummed up the global financial system. But don't finger Mozilo just yet. The scale, ripple effect, and emotional particulars of this bust make it uniquely hard to pin on one character. Countrywide will become less newsworthy as it is acquired by Bank of America (BAC), an outcome regulators want to hasten.
SWBC Mortgage buys new branches, hires over 100 employees
Southwest Business Corp.'s mortgage division has purchased the assets of 15 branches of lender Home Loan Corp. As a result, SWBC Mortgage Corp. has picked up 114 new employees and new locations nationwide. Company officials would not reveal the purchase price of the branches. Houston-based Home Loan Corp. is a mortgage lender that's licensed in nine states. The company continues to operate branches not included in the purchase agreement with SWBC. SWBC Mortgage now has additional offices in Arlington, Austin, Clear Lake and Spring, Texas; Baton Rouge and Shreveport, La.; Olympia, Wash.; and Bountiful, Utah. "The new group both supports and strengthens our existing talent pool which complements our future growth strategy nicely," says Susan Stewart, president and CEO of SWBC Mortgage.
'Yo-yo tactic' prompts loan officer to question automobile sales ...
In October, she selected an unused, white Nissan Altima at North Texas Nissan in Corinth, signed the paperwork with salesman Brian Hall, turned over her old car as a trade-in, and took her new car home."I just fell in love with the car," said Judy Miller, a senior loan officer with Maverick Residential Mortgage in Gainesville.Miller had the car for two weeks when Ruth, one of Hall's assistants at the dealership, called to tell her the bank could not accept the terms she and Hall had agreed on."I was told that everything was a done deal, and I would begin making payments on my car on Nov. 26," she said. "I was shocked."Miller explained to Ruth that she had a copy of her signed contract."They couldn't just change the terms," Miller said she told the assistant.Then Ruth told Miller about a car contract provision Miller had never heard of."She informed me that the dealership had done a 'spot delivery' and that they could, in fact, change whatever they wanted," Miller said.Miller had the option of agreeing to a new contract with new terms or bringing back the new Nissan.Miller turned to the Internet where she said she found lots of auto dealership horror stories."I could not believe what I was reading," she said.
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