Housing market analysts are expecting around 2,600 foreclosures to be recorded in the county by the end of 2010. The projected number was based on latest housing figures which showed that as of September of this year, 1,893 properties have already fallen into foreclosure. As of the middle of November, the number has risen to 2,321.

Local housing data showed that about 10 foreclosures are being processed each day at the county. If the number continues to rise, the county is facing a record year in terms of foreclosures, although officials stated that this cannot be verified until early next year. They stated that there is still hope that troubled homeowners will be able to pay their delinquent loans or get home mortgage refinancing.

County officials have explained that before a foreclosed home can be sold at a Sheriff's sale, homeowners can explore other alternatives like paying part of the delayed loans, refinancing their loans or finding other ways to come up with the money necessary to cover past due payments. The rising number of delinquent homeowners is raising concerns that foreclosures will only get worse in the county before they get better.

Last year, a total of 2,498 foreclosures were recorded in the area. This is higher than the 2,079 posted in 2008 and higher still than the 1,660 recorded in 2007. Based on these figures, local officials stated that it is obvious that the numbers are following an upward trend and it seems that they will be even higher for this year.

Officials have stated that the rising number of foreclosures shows that options like home mortgage refinancing and other government-supported efforts are unable to stem the tide of foreclosure. They added that they expect foreclosures to continue to flood the area until the early part of next year.

Home Mortgage Refinancing Unable to Control Rising Foreclosures is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

For 15-year fixed mortgages, the average rate is pegged at 3.66%. It also represents an increase from last week's 3.64% average. Base on mortgage industry data, loan rates have been declining steadily since April 2010. Analysts have explained that rates have remained low in October primarily because investors are buying up bonds from Treasury to prepare for the next move of the Federal Reserve.

According to analysts, investors are expecting the Fed to buy Treasury bonds in an effort to stimulate the U.S. economy. This expected action resulted in lower Treasury yields and in turn resulted in the rise of mortgage rates. Analysts further added that although lower home mortgage loan rates were unable to stimulate the housing industry, they did result in refinancing improvements.

Meanwhile, rates for adjustable five-year loans averaged 3.41%, representing a decline from the previous week's average of 3.45%. For adjustable one-year loans, rates remained the same for the second consecutive week at 3.3%. According to mortgage industry analysts, these rates are exclusive of points or add-on fees. They explained that one point has the equivalent of 1% of the total amount of mortgage loan.

A survey by Freddie Mac revealed that the loan fee average for 30-year mortgages is 0.8 per point. For 15-year and one-year loans, the average is 0.7 per point, while five-year loans have an average of 0.6 per point. To come up with the average loan rates, Freddie Mac gathers rates from banks and lenders all over the U.S. during the first three working days of each week. These rates though, can change significantly within a single day.

Home mortgage loan rates this week are still close to the lowest levels on record, but analysts declare that it is an increase just the same. However, they stated that the impact of the increase on the housing market will not be fully determined until the Federal Reserve has taken action.

Home Mortgage Loan Rates Rise, But Maintain Low Level is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

Despite record declines in previous weeks, loan rates were not able to contribute much to the improvement of the country's housing market. And now that rates are climbing back up, most analysts have become even less confident of any significant recovery in the housing market. However, they stated that a rise in mortgage rates will also not cause a drastic crash in the property market.

Market analysts have stated that more than the rates of mortgages and bargain home financing, it will be the issue of unemployment that will decide whether the housing market will rebound or continue to sink. They explained that the residential property market is not being hurt by rates of mortgages, but by the lack of homebuyers and lack of confidence in the industry which are largely due to the high number of people who are unemployed and the continuous downturn in the national economy.

More than anything else, market observers believe that people's fear of losing their jobs is the greatest factor behind housing market performance. This is evident in the fact that even when mortgage interest rates are at their lowest, homebuyers and investors still stayed away from the market.

Rates have continuously declined since spring, mainly because investors are putting money into Treasury bonds, causing Treasury yields to decline and consequently leading to lower rates. Even during the period when the lowest rates were recorded, sales of homes were declining. The National Association of Realtors has reported that sales for July of previously occupied dwellings dipped by 27%, producing the worst month of performance for the category in 15 years.

Housing market analysts have stated that even if home prices continue to decline and mortgage interest rates return to record lows, the housing market will not be able to recover until buyers decide to pluck properties out of the market. And this will only happen if unemployment rates are cut into manageable levels.

Mortgage Interest Rates on the Rise Again is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

According to market analysts, the cost of bailing out the two mortgage providers following the foreclosure crisis had been shouldered by American taxpayers. With Fannie Mae's statement on less financial assistance, analysts are optimistic that tax payment problems faced by U.S. residents will somehow diminish.

The company has reportedly stated that it has enough money set aside to cover the losses incurred from unpaid mortgage loans between the years of 2005 and 2008. The firm reportedly asked for taxpayer aid worth $1.5 billion, less than what was expected, following its strongest quarterly result since September 2008 when it was first put under the control of the federal government. The amount is also the smallest financial request by quarters since November 2008.

Despite analysts' belief that the lower amount will help taxpayers, they still cautioned that there is a chance that the home mortgage company's finances will weaken some time in the near future and it might need to ask for a more substantial financial aid from the government. Real estate market observers have stated that foreclosure rates are threatening to rise further in some areas of the U.S. They added that the lower rates of foreclosures during the first half of the current year have been masked by the tax incentive and the delay in banks' processing of foreclosure cases.

Fannie Mae officials have revealed that the firm's loss for the April to June 2010 quarter totaled $3.13 billion, a figure that is significantly lower than the $15.2 billion worth of loss recorded during the same period of 2009. The current loss amount also took into consideration the paid dividends to the Department of Treasury which was worth $1.9 billion.

Officials from the home mortgage giant also said that improving lending and buying behaviors within the housing industry have made a lot of difference to the company's financial status and present a more positive future for the real estate market.

Home Mortgage Giant Sought Less Financial Assistance is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

Under the new law, mortgage industry professionals are required to renew their licenses once every year by reapplying and submitting new criminal background reports and new credit reports each time.

License applicants also need to take a national mortgage licensing exam, in addition to the state exam. There would also be continuing education course requirements in some cases. Application for licenses under the new program will start on October 1 and end on December 31.

According to the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, license processing normally take three or four months, but with the expected flood of applications in the fourth quarter, processing may take several months to a year to process all applications.

According to several mortgage brokers interviewed, some of the requirements are too harsh and could make a number of mortgage professionals jobless. They argued that there are good and honest mortgage brokers who are going through financial difficulties because of unexpected events in their lives.

The case of a mortgage brokerage owner who is at risk of losing her home and car due to tight business conditions, but who has worked with integrity for almost two decades in the mortgage business is an example.

In response, proponents and supporters of the new licensing rules explained that the new law will help prevent conditions in the mortgage sector that led to the crisis. They said that a significant number of mortgage professionals during the housing boom offered risky mortgages to borrowers and did not follow standard underwriting guidelines.

Under the new program, every mortgage file will record the identification number of every person handling the file, so any mistake or misdeed will be traced back to the doer.

Throughout the country, some mortgage brokers are now rethinking their careers and pondering whether they have enough passion to continue in the mortgage industry despite additional challenges.

More Hurdles for Mortgage Brokers in Florida is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

However, market analysts are predicting that this opportunity might disappear soon once investors regain their confidence and decide to move their money out of government bonds, a primary factor behind the movement of mortgage rates.

Real estate market observers have asserted that homeowners and borrowers should take advantage of the low rates of mortgages, with 30-year fixed rate loans declining to 4.78% during the last week of May. This makes it the lowest rate for the whole 2010. Fifteen-year mortgages are also at their lowest level in the past two decades.

According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, some homeowners did heed the encouragement of market analysts, with applications for refinancing rising in the last week of May to their highest number in the past seven months.

Market observers have stated that investors have become worried over the debt crisis in Europe, leading them to focus their attentions on Treasury bonds. This type of investment is being viewed right now as a safer option than other forms of investments. As a result, yields of Treasury declined, taking mortgage loans rates with them.

Despite the low rates of mortgages, loans for buying residential properties remain at their lowest in over 13 years. This trend has been explained by market observers as the result of the tax incentive which expired on April 2010. According to analysts, many homebuyers already closed purchase contracts before and right at the deadline date of the tax credit.

In addition, some homebuyers are finding it hard to secure financing since banks have made qualifying for a mortgage even more difficult than before. Homebuyers are required to have a good credit history and are being asked for down payments of at least 3.5%. Tighter lending rules, analysts have stated, are direct results of banks learning their lessons from the housing market bust that started a few years ago.

Housing market experts have warned homebuyers and homeowners seeking refinancing to take advantage of the low mortgage loans rates. According to them, if the country’s economy continues to recover, investors will likely move into stocks and drop out of bonds, which would make mortgage prices return to high levels.

Rates of Mortgage Loans Nearing Record Low is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

Profits of Financial Companies Hit by Losses in Mortgage Loans is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

The FHA loan, the most popular for first time home buyers today, now features changes after federal officials and lawmakers expressed their concern about the declining level of FHA reserves.

Among this is the mortgage insurance premium, which will increase from 1.75 percent of the base home loan amount to 2.25 percent starting April 5. If you are planning to buy a home using an FHA loan, start saving for your insurance premium now.

Be prepared also for a possible increase in mortgage rates, as the Federal Reserve has decided to stop buying mortgage securities by March 31. The Fed mortgage purchase program has been largely responsible for the stability of mortgage rates.

The FHA has also proposed to make its lending program more rigorous for applicants in order to weed out those who cannot pay in the long term. The FHA needs to cut down its mortgage delinquency rate, which has already reached 9.4 percent of all FHA home loans as of January.

Almost 560,000 FHA mortgage loans were already in default by more than three months as of the last week of January.

The FHA has also overshot its budget for mortgage loans. As of the first week of March, it only has $3.6 billion in its reserves, a teeny weeny bit when compared to the $658 billion it has allotted for residential mortgages.

Under the new proposal, only loan applicants with credit scores above 580 will qualify for FHA loans with 3.5-percent down payment and those with scores below 500 will be rejected.

On the other hand, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has not made any significant change in its home lending program. It is still among the most affordable home loans, but it is not as known as FHA loans because of one requirement: that the house to be purchased is located in one of the rural development eligible areas in the country.

When planning to buy a property in a small town, check if your desired home is located in a rural-development area as USDA home loans require no down payment and no price limit and also come with other attractive options.

FHA and USDA Home Loans Have Changes You Need to Know is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

In addition, some banks estimate that they are able to cut their losses in foreclosure as opposed to short sales, particularly in mortgages guaranteed by government agencies like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or the Federal Housing Administration.

In Florida, real estate professional Peter Murphy said that despite much higher price offers from buyers interested in short sales, lenders still foreclose on the desired properties, even if the foreclosure prices are much lower than the short sale offers.

Murphy added that last year, properties sold in short sales were priced at $68 per square foot while real estate owned properties were priced at a much lower price of $55 per square foot.

He also added that in order for home prices to stabilize, banks must approve more short sales to preserve prices. He explained that while bank owned homes are being sold at around 54 percent of conventional sale prices, short sales can be closed at about 80 percent of conventional sale price levels.

However, despite the record number of distressed homeowners asking permission for short sales from financial companies, these requests are not being addressed. Typically, banks take an average of 298 days to complete a short sale, but when they foreclose, they complete the process quickly, just slowing the process a little to comply with foreclosure laws, according to realtors in Florida.

The case of Texas homeowner Chandra Persaud is illustrative of the attitude of banks toward distressed sales. At the time Persaud was in default on her loan, she still owned $295,000 on the $350,000 she borrowed in 2005.

She negotiated a short sale offer of $240,000 in cash with her lender Bank of America, but to her frustration, the bank still pursued foreclosure action on the property and sold it later for only $205,000, an amount $35,000 lower than her cash short sale offer.

According to Bank of America spokesperson Rick Simon, short sales require complex transactions and take a long time to carry out. They also involve several parties, such as agents, sellers, buyers, servicers, investors, insurers and subordinate lien owners.

Financial companies recognize short sales as a tool to prevent foreclosure, according to Simon, but short sales consume a lot of time and effort particularly in an environment of high volumes of distressed properties.

Financial Companies Choosing Foreclosures over Short Sales is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles

For the period from January to September this year, Freddie Mac has returned around $2.7 billion worth of single-family mortgage loans to lenders, more than twice the $1.2 billion worth of loans returned last year. Freddie and Fannie do not directly provide home loans, but they purchase or guarantee home loans from lenders.

During the same period, the number of real-estate owned properties in Fannie Mae books increased to 98,428 units, an increase from the 94,652 units repossessed after foreclosure in 2008. Last year, Fannie Mae returned about one-fourth of these REO to lenders and expects to return about the same percentage to lenders this year and next year.

Major lenders, such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase, have been rejecting some of the loans or properties being returned by Fannie and Freddie because most of the mortgages were provided to creditworthy borrowers and most were fixed-rate 30-year mortgages, but Freddie and Fannie insist that every mortgage company needs to re-examine its underwriting practices and the extensive guidelines provided by Freddie and Fannie Mae.

Michael Cosgrove, spokesperson for Freddie Mac, said that Freddie has been looking for ways to reduce potential losses and has been examining guaranteed loans more thoroughly.

According to Inside Mortgage Finance, 3 million mortgage loans were in default or in foreclosure as of September 30, which is equivalent to $750 billion, assuming an average loan amount of $250,000.

Maria Brewster, head of the Centralized Repurchase Team of Fannie Mae, explained that the decision of Fannie to return poorly underwritten loans will force lenders to become accountable for their lending practices and will spur them to clean up their operations. Brewster also added that Fannie and Freddie, which are controlled by the federal government and funded by taxpayers, should not be made to pay for the mistakes of lenders.

In the third quarter, Wells Fargo increased its reserves for loan repurchase by $146 million in anticipation of more defaults and repurchase demands. Similarly, J.P. Morgan allocated $1.1 billion to meet repurchase demands from investors.

Bank of America, meanwhile, stated that it has repurchased $922 million of mortgage loans which were deemed to be faulty for the period January to September.

One mortgage company that failed due to inadequate reserves for faulty loan repurchase was New Century Financial. It collapsed when it overstated its financial condition and failed to repurchase faulty loans.

Upshot for Mortgage Company That Issues Defective Loans is a post from: Mortgage News | Refinancing Articles