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    <title>Marc's Blog</title>
    <link>http://activerain.com/blogs/merlin</link>
    <description></description>
    <language>en-us</language>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/802128/100-financing-with-va-can-you-have-2-va-loans-at-once-</guid>
      <title>100% Financing with VA:  Can You Have 2 VA Loans at Once?</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;In the ongoing quest to unearth the few remaining 100% home loan options, I wrote a recent article about VA loans called&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/11/06/100-financing-focusing-on-va/&quot; title=&quot;Permanent Link to 100% Financing:  Focusing on VA&quot; rel=&quot;bookmark&quot;&gt; 100% Financing:  Focusing on VA.&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;   Since then, I have been asked numerous times whether or not a veteran can have &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;two &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;VA loans.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The answer is &lt;em&gt;yes &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;yes&lt;/em&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Now I know that the question above refers to two VA &lt;em&gt;loans&lt;/em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;and not two &lt;em&gt;questions&lt;/em&gt;, so let me explain the two &lt;em&gt;yes &lt;/em&gt;answers.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; As most lenders and veterans already know, a veteran can have two VA loans &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;in succession&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Once a VA loan has been paid off and the property sold, VA &lt;em&gt;eligibility &lt;/em&gt;is reinstated and reusable.&amp;nbsp; On a &lt;em&gt;one time basis&lt;/em&gt;, a veteran can even pay off the VA loan while retaining the property.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the second part of that question is much more interesting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Can a Veteran Have Two Concurrent VA Loans?&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In this &lt;em&gt;down &lt;/em&gt;market, it is not unusual for a homeowner to want to buy a new home while waiting until the market improves before selling the current home.&amp;nbsp; So can the veteran purchase a second using her VA entitlement while retaining the first?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/11/21/100-financing-with-va-can-you-have-2-va-loans/&quot; title=&quot;VA 100% financing&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest of this post)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:08:00 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/802128/100-financing-with-va-can-you-have-2-va-loans-at-once-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/413010/new-jumbo-conforming-loan-limits-rules-and-pricing-highlights</guid>
      <title>New Jumbo Conforming Loan Limits:  Rules and Pricing  Highlights</title>
      <description>    	 		&lt;p&gt;In my last post &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/03/06/new-fha-conforming-loan-limits-announced/&quot;&gt;New FHA &amp;amp; Conforming Loan Limits Announced&lt;/a&gt;, frequent &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/&quot;&gt;Lending Clarity&lt;/a&gt; commenter and knowledgeable industry professional Catherine Coy provides a link to &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.efanniemae.com/sf/mortgageproducts/index.jsp&quot;&gt;Fannie Mae&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/a&gt; guidelines and pricing policies.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A quick read of Fannie&amp;rsquo;s guidelines revealed some key points about the new conforming loans, or what Fannie calls Jumbo Conforming loans. This list is by no means comprehensive, so you&amp;rsquo;ll have to read it yourself to get all the details. These are just the ones that seemed particularly noteworthy to me:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;Fannie Mae Jumbo Conforming Highlights&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;Fannie will start accepting delivery of 15 &amp;amp; 30 yr fixed-rate mortgage on April 1 and 5/1 ARMs on May 1. (Lenders will probably begin originating these immediately)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;All new jumbo conforming loans must be &lt;strong&gt;manually underwritten&lt;/strong&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No &amp;ldquo;Cash Out&amp;rdquo; refinances&lt;/strong&gt; allowed&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/03/08/new-jumbo-conforming-loan-limits-rules-and-pricing-highlights/&quot; title=&quot;conforming loan limits&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:33:45 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/413010/new-jumbo-conforming-loan-limits-rules-and-pricing-highlights</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/372624/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-no-change</guid>
      <title>Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update: No Change</title>
      <description>    	 		&lt;p&gt;Despite the bumpy ride, rates didn&amp;rsquo;t change much this week.   According to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freddiemac.com/dlink/html/PMMS/display/PMMSOutputWk.jsp?week=06&amp;amp;ending=20080207&quot;&gt;Freddie Mac&amp;rsquo;s weekly survey&lt;/a&gt;, the 30 year conforming fixed rate ended the week at 5.65% with half a point. This of course is the owner occupied rate with the highest credit scores. Investors, or those with lower scores pay more.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The big news of course was the Senate passing the economic stimulus package containing the increased &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/02/08/higher-conforming-loan-limits-what-the-stimulus-package-means-to-jumbo-borrowers/&quot; title=&quot;conforming loan limits&quot;&gt;conforming loan limits&lt;/a&gt;, which now moves on to the President&amp;rsquo;s desk for signature next week. I contacted a number of banks to ask how quickly they would act on the new law, but of course they&amp;rsquo;re still figuring that out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;Further Thoughts on the Conforming Loan Increase&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;One of my associates pointed out that language in the conforming loan limits provision suggests that the increase would apply only to &amp;ldquo;high cost&amp;rdquo; areas. Although FHA loan limits vary by county, conforming loans limits have been pretty consistent across the country. I couldn&amp;rsquo;t find any further detail, so I emailed Barbara Boxer yesterday in hopes of clarification. Seems to me that the benefit would be minimal unless the new limit is broadly applied.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I was also curious about whether we would see a rate &amp;ldquo;adjustment&amp;rdquo; for what the larger conforming loans. Again, no clear response from the banks. But interestingly, Freddie Mac intends to keep that part of the portfolio separate from the sub $417k part.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This from &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0665684620080206&quot; title=&quot;Conforming loan limits&quot;&gt;Reuters&lt;/a&gt;&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/02/08/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-no-change/&quot; title=&quot;lending clarity&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;read the rest&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 09 Feb 2008 11:03:24 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/372624/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-no-change</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/367799/fha-nehemiah-a-path-to-103-financing</guid>
      <title>FHA + Nehemiah: A Path to 103% Financing</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;With the rapid demise of 100% financing, first-time home buyers are finding it increasingly difficult to purchase homes, even as prices become more tempting. Yet there is one solution often overlooked by borrowers and lenders alike. It is the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.getdownpayment.com/buyers/index.asp&quot;&gt;Nehemiah program&lt;/a&gt;, and when used in conjunction with a normal FHA loan, magical things happen.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;What is Nehemiah?&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.getdownpayment.com/content/about.asp?tab=0&quot;&gt;Nehemiah Corporation&lt;/a&gt; is &lt;em&gt;&amp;ldquo;a community development corporation specializing in homeownership, affordable housing and community development.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt; The Nehemiah Program, founded in 1997, is the largest privately funded down payment assistance program (DPA) in the country and has helped a quarter of a million families buy homes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;How Does the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.getdownpayment.com/buyers/index.asp&quot;&gt;Nehemiah Program&lt;/a&gt; Work?&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;Nehemiah provides &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;gift funds&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; for the down payment and closing costs to qualified home buyers who use an eligible loan program. Here&amp;rsquo;s the key: the seller must contribute an amount equal to the gift (up to 6% of the sales price) plus a small processing fee to Nehemiah. Nehemiah in turn provides a gift to the buyer. The funds are not a loan, there are no payments due, there is no &amp;ldquo;recapture&amp;rdquo;, and they &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;never have to be repaid.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/02/05/fha-nehemiah-a-path-to-103-financing/#more-316&quot; title=&quot;FHA and nehemiah&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read the rest of this post&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &amp;lt;!-- Social Bookmarks BEGIN --&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:58:00 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/367799/fha-nehemiah-a-path-to-103-financing</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/362982/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-mr-toad-s-wild-ride</guid>
      <title>Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update: Mr. Toad&#8217;s Wild Ride</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/wp-content/uploads/10day.asp.gif&quot; height=&quot;390&quot; alt=&quot;&quot; width=&quot;638&quot; /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; After what can only be described as a two-week roller coaster ride, we are back at the platform we left two Mondays ago.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freddiemac.com/dlink/html/PMMS/display/PMMSOutputWk.jsp?week=05&amp;amp;ending=20080131&quot;&gt;Freddie Mac reports&lt;/a&gt; a weekly average 30 year fixed rate of 5.65% at .5 pts and a 15-year rate of 5.16% at .5 pt.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The chart above shows the &lt;em&gt;price &lt;/em&gt;movement of the Fannie Mae MBS 5.5% coupon over the past 10 days.   Remember that bond &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;prices move inversely to rates&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;.   Thus the spike  on the 22nd shows the steep &lt;em&gt;price &lt;/em&gt;increase (drop in &lt;em&gt;rates), &lt;/em&gt;followed by the immediate and violent drop in price (rise in rates).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2008/02/01/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-mr-toads-wild-ride/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:00:47 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/362982/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-mr-toad-s-wild-ride</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/322598/what-you-need-to-know-about-risk-based-pricing-mortgage-rates</guid>
      <title>What You Need to Know About Risk Based Pricing &amp; Mortgage Rates</title>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;There have been many consequences of the subprime mortgage meltdown. But one which has received very little attention so far is the &lt;em&gt;repricing of risk &lt;/em&gt;by investors who buy mortgages. That is about to change. What&amp;rsquo;s important to understand about this fuzzy term is that mortgage rates will now rise even for consumers with decent credit scores. Meet risk-based pricing.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the 2007 mortgage meltdown, investors realized that the low interest rates previously offered didn&amp;rsquo;t adequately cover the risk of default. Past projections floated on a rising tide of appreciation that kept every one off the reef. Now that the tide has rolled out and shipwrecked many lenders, those left afloat are raising rates to compensate for the soaring level of defaults.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;Are You an &amp;ldquo;A Paper&amp;rdquo; Borrower?&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;Long before subprime came along, there were two general categories of mortgages; &amp;ldquo;A Paper&amp;rdquo;, and everything else. Those of us involved in &amp;ldquo;A Paper&amp;rdquo; lending rarely visited the dark underworld of B, C, &amp;amp; D paper. But the advent of subprime brought light to that world and introduced us to risk-based pricing as the industry opened wider the gates of home ownership. So think of the current &lt;em&gt;repricing of risk&lt;/em&gt; as a further striation of the A paper segment.  This will mean that higher risk borrowers will now pay higher rates.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;Pricing Adjustments&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;The long and short of this is that A Paper borrowers will no longer be treated equally. For instance, if Fannie Mae&amp;rsquo;s Desktop Underwriter (DU) approves your loan and your Fico score is below 620, expect to pay a rate 1/2 point higher than your friend whose score is 720, unless you&amp;rsquo;re putting 30% down. If you want an interest-only loan, a hybrid ARM, an owner occupied duplex, or a manufactured home, expect further &lt;em&gt;adjustments &lt;/em&gt;to your rate, depending upon your loan-to-value (LTV) ratio.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/12/31/what-you-need-to-know-about-risk-based-pricing-mortgage-rates/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest) &lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:17:36 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/322598/what-you-need-to-know-about-risk-based-pricing-mortgage-rates</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/308436/fha-reform-makes-it-through-the-senate</guid>
      <title>FHA Reform Makes it Through the Senate</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;The Senate&amp;rsquo;s FHA Modernization Bill, S 2338 flew through with a 93 to 1 vote yesterday. The House previously passed its own slightly different FHA reform bill in September. The measure will now go to a committee to work out compromises between the two competing version before the final draft is forwarded to the Oval Office for signature.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Two of the key issues are:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Raises the maximum FHA loan amount to $417,000, putting it in parity with conventional loan limits. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Lowers the required down payment to 1.5% from 3% (the House version eliminates the down payment requirement altogether)&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/12/15/fha-reform-makes-it-through-the-senate/&quot; title=&quot;FHA reform, lending clarity&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 15 Dec 2007 13:44:01 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/308436/fha-reform-makes-it-through-the-senate</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/288013/will-a-short-sale-damage-your-credit-less-than-a-foreclosure-</guid>
      <title>Will a Short Sale Damage Your Credit Less Than a Foreclosure?</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;As real estate values continue to sag, pushing many home owners toward foreclosure, one question surfaces more than any other. &lt;strong&gt;Will a short-sale damage your credit less than a foreclosure?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;REWIND&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;I wrote a couple of articles awhile back entitled, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2006/12/22/short-sales-vs-foreclosuresyour-credit-will-suck-either-way/&quot; title=&quot;short sales&quot;&gt;Short Sales vs. Foreclosures&amp;hellip;Your Credit Will Suck Either Way&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/01/24/sacramento-short-sales-a-response-from-freddie-mac/&quot; title=&quot;short sales&quot;&gt;Short Sales and Loan Prospector: A Response From Freddie Mac&lt;/a&gt;. At the time&amp;ndash;nearly a year ago&amp;ndash;my preliminary investigation suggested that short sales and foreclosures would have exactly the same effect on credit. But back then, this issue was just reclaiming the spotlight, and no one had really given it much thought. You see, it has been 10 years since we&amp;rsquo;ve really seen this problem.&lt;br /&gt; Those articles are still garnering comments, and I&amp;rsquo;ve been getting daily phone calls and emails from all over the country from people facing foreclosure. So recently I reopened the investigation. And although the issue is far from clear, my conviction is the same. A short sale&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt; won&amp;rsquo;t&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; leave your credit in better shape than a foreclosure.  And it could hurt you from a tax standpoint.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;NOT EVERYONE AGREES&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Now I need to acknowledge the disagreement out there. Speculation is rampant, but a lot of it is groundless. There are people predicting the number of points each type of foreclosure will move your scores, a claim my credit reporting agency called &amp;ldquo;asinine.&amp;rdquo; Real estate agents seem more prone to recommending short sales, though most of the agents I know are very cautious about this. One Realtor/lender wrote,&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/11/27/will-a-short-sale-damage-credit-less-than-a-foreclosure/#more-285&quot; title=&quot;short sales&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read the rest of this entry &amp;raquo;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:21:24 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/288013/will-a-short-sale-damage-your-credit-less-than-a-foreclosure-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/282789/an-update-on-credit-score-piggybacking-your-scores-may-tumble</guid>
      <title>An Update on Credit Score Piggybacking: Your Scores May Tumble</title>
      <description>Last June I wrote an article entitled &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/06/18/is-this-the-end-of-credit-score-piggybacking/&quot; title=&quot;Credit score piggybacking&quot;&gt;Is This The End of Credit Score Piggybacking?&lt;/a&gt; That article discussed the renting or selling of credit scores by good borrowers to fake good credit scores for bad ones. The practice of piggybacking credit has been used by parents to help their kids develop good credit scores. When accompanied by some education in the matter of building and maintaining good credit habits, this promotes the responsible use of credit. &lt;p&gt;However, the bad guys have been using &lt;em&gt;credit renting&lt;/em&gt; to cheat the system and the credit bureaus are about to slam the door shut. Here is a brief summary from of how it works and the changes in scores you can expect to see shortly. This came from someone at the credit reporting agency I use.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Authorized users are individuals that are added to an account without having any responsibility for the account. The most popular use is when an individual with a credit card, makes other members of the family &amp;ldquo;authorized users&amp;rdquo; on the card. The authorized users get their own cards (with their names on them) and the accounts show up on their credit reports as authorized user accounts. However, the authorized user has no actual liability for the account; if the account goes into default the creditor can only pursue the main account holder for the funds, not the authorized users. (This is how authorized user accounts differ from joint to co-signer accounts where the additional users also are liable for the account). &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/11/22/an-update-on-credit-score-piggybacking-your-scores-may-tumble/&quot; title=&quot;credit renting&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:35:03 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/282789/an-update-on-credit-score-piggybacking-your-scores-may-tumble</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/281922/happy-thanksgiving-may-be-happier-for-stressed-california-homeowners</guid>
      <title>Happy Thanksgiving May be Happier for Stressed California Homeowners</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/wp-content/uploads/Turkey.jpg&quot; vspace=&quot;15&quot; border=&quot;1&quot; hspace=&quot;15&quot; align=&quot;right&quot; alt=&quot;Turkey&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As if on cue for Thanksgiving, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sacbee.com/142/index.html&quot; title=&quot;California Home Owners get relief&quot;&gt;Sacramento Bee&lt;/a&gt; today announced that governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had obtained agreement from four lenders to freeze rates on California subprime loans that are about to reset.&amp;nbsp; Hey, one more reason to celebrate!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The&amp;nbsp;initial list of&amp;nbsp;lenders include Countrywide, GMAC, Litton, and HomeEq&amp;mdash;hopefully more will follow their lead&amp;mdash;and the agreement applies to borrowers who&amp;nbsp; a) have not yet defaulted on their payments,&amp;nbsp; b)&amp;nbsp;live in the home, and&amp;nbsp; c)&amp;nbsp;can prove that they will be unable to make their new payments.&amp;nbsp; Rates could be frozen for 5 years or more, depending on the borrower&amp;rsquo;s situation.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/11/21/happy-thanksgiving-may-be-happier-for-stressed-california-homeowners/&quot; title=&quot;Stressed California Home Owners&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;  </description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:38:03 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/281922/happy-thanksgiving-may-be-happier-for-stressed-california-homeowners</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/264758/mortgage-reform-u-s-house-bill-3915-ysp</guid>
      <title>Mortgage Reform, U.S. House Bill 3915, &amp; YSP</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;This morning, the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee voted on H.R.3915, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While legislators attempt to erect a defense shield against mortgage lending abuse, this current law strikes wide of the target and is sure to inflict collateral damage upon the very group it seeks to protect.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;YSP&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;One of the primary thrusts of the Act is to outlaw &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Yield Spread Premium&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; (YSP).&amp;nbsp; This&amp;nbsp;is the mechanism by which consumers are able to obtain &lt;em&gt;zero point &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;no cost loans&lt;/em&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Borrowers elect a slightly higher interest rate in exchange for eliminating points and other closing costs.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;YSP is a rebate&amp;mdash;a P&lt;em&gt;remium &lt;/em&gt;if you will&lt;em&gt;&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;paid by the lender to the broker for the higher interest&amp;nbsp;rate (the&amp;nbsp;Y&lt;em&gt;ield) &lt;/em&gt;on the loan.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The amount of that premium is determined by the &lt;em&gt;S&lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;pread&lt;/em&gt; between current interest rates and the rate elected by the consumer.&amp;nbsp; &lt;em&gt;Mortgage brokers must disclose the amount of YSP&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It&amp;rsquo;s a simple trade-off and a valuable tool for consumers.&amp;nbsp; Without YSP, buyers with limited cash may have to postpone purchasing a home.&amp;nbsp; Existing homeowners might be unable to refinance to a better loan if they had to pay all their fees and points out of pocket.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/11/06/mortgage-reform-us-house-bill-3915-ysp/&quot; title=&quot;HR 3915&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Nov 2007 23:28:04 -0600</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/264758/mortgage-reform-u-s-house-bill-3915-ysp</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/248313/is-mortgage-insurance-the-next-domino-</guid>
      <title>Is Mortgage Insurance The Next Domino?</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;Although everybody hates mortgage insurance (MI or PMI as it is known) we&amp;rsquo;ve once again become dependent upon it. Those who have recently purchased homes know that the 2nds used in &amp;ldquo;80-10s&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;80-20s&amp;rdquo; to avoid mortgage insurance are gone.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But have the MI companies ignored the risks in their excitement about being invited to the dance?&amp;nbsp; Let&amp;rsquo;s hope not.&lt;br /&gt; Here&amp;rsquo;s an interesting article&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;to check out: &lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Strains Evident on Mortgage Industry&amp;rsquo;s Line of Defense Claims skyrocket at MGIC; losses expected for &amp;lsquo;08&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; American Banker / By Harry Terris&lt;br /&gt; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; October 18, 2007 &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; In a sign of just how severe residential credit losses are getting, MGIC Investment Corp., the largest mortgage &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; insurer, posted a third-quarter loss of $372 million Wednesday, projected a staggering increase in claim payments, &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; and said it expects to continue to lose money through next year. Citing an unexpectedly rapid deterioration of &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; conditions in California and Florida and continued weakness in the Midwest, the Milwaukee company said it expects &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; home prices across the country to drop 10% over the next 18 months.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/10/23/is-mortgage-insurance-the-next-domino/#more-271&quot; title=&quot;MORTGAGE INSURANCE&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read the rest of this entry &amp;raquo;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:31:00 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/248313/is-mortgage-insurance-the-next-domino-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/239812/-timely-rewards-payment-option-fannie-mae-s-best-kept-secret</guid>
      <title>&#8220;Timely Rewards Payment Option&#8221;&#8211;Fannie Mae&#8217;s Best Kept Secret</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;Sub-prime mortgages have largely evaporated. What remains are a few offerings in the 10&amp;ndash;11% range with nasty prepayment penalties and the potential for future rate resets.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;So what do you do if you or your client have sub-prime credit?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Try Fannie Mae&amp;rsquo;s DU engine. Although most lenders think of Fannie/Freddie as prime credit only, both offer approvals for lower credit grades. Even with a credit score in the high 500&amp;rsquo;s, you may be able to secure a &lt;em&gt;Expanded Level I, II, or III &lt;/em&gt;approval. While these do carry higher rates&amp;mdash;7.5% to 8.5%&amp;mdash; you can at least secure a safe, standard 30 year fixed rate loan that doesn&amp;rsquo;t have a prepayment penalty or nasty &lt;em&gt;reset&lt;/em&gt; two years down the road.  And, 100% financing is available!&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And here&amp;rsquo;s an added bonus.  Fannie Mae offers a &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Timely Rewards Payment Option&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;. If a borrower demonstrates a &amp;ldquo;Good Payment History&amp;rdquo;, the lender will lower the rate with fees or refinancing. The following is taken directly from the Timely Payment Rewards Disclosure and Note Addendum:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/10/16/timely-rewards-payment-option-fannie-maes-best-kept-secret/#more-269&quot; title=&quot;Timely Rewards Payment Option&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read the rest of this entry &amp;raquo;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt; </description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 16 Oct 2007 21:09:47 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/239812/-timely-rewards-payment-option-fannie-mae-s-best-kept-secret</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/232306/cal-strs-exclusive-home-loans-for-california-s-teachers</guid>
      <title>CAL STRS&#8211;Exclusive Home Loans for California&#8217;s Teachers</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;The California State Teacher&amp;rsquo;s Retirement System (CalSTRS) created a home loan program for teachers back in 1984. I used to do a lot of them until the market went crazy and prices drove everyone into stated income loans. However prices are retreating to more affordable levels again, and CalSTRS restructured its program to be significantly more helpful&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;CalSTRS now offers a trio of programs. The Standard Conventional and the Zero Down % programs are solid performers, but the stand-out in the group is the &amp;ldquo;80/17&amp;rdquo; loan. Here&amp;rsquo;s why:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;The 80/17&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;The 80/17 provides a combo 1st and 2nd that totals 97% of the purchase price. The 1st is 80%, eliminating PMI entirely. The 17% 2nd loan carries the same rate as the first. Both are set by PERS and are 6.625% today. But here&amp;rsquo;s the cool part&amp;mdash;payments are deferred for 5 years on the 2nd! Simple interest accrues&amp;mdash;no compounding&amp;mdash;and the borrower begins making amortized payments in the sixth year&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/10/09/cal-strs-exclusive-home-loans-for-californias-teachers/&quot; title=&quot;CalSTRS&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;read the rest&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:49:26 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/232306/cal-strs-exclusive-home-loans-for-california-s-teachers</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/226957/why-it-pays-to-check-out-lender-paid-mortgage-insurance</guid>
      <title>Why It Pays to Check Out Lender-Paid Mortgage Insurance</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/wp-content/uploads/mi2.jpg&quot; vspace=&quot;15&quot; border=&quot;1&quot; hspace=&quot;15&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; alt=&quot;Mi2&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Mortgage insurance, or PMI, has had an unfair rap ever since the media grabbed the topic 10 years ago and beat the life out of it.&amp;nbsp; Every client thereafter spit out the same warning when we met.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t want PMI!&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ok, I get it.&amp;nbsp; So, most of us started doing the 1st/2nd combo loans that eventually became so popular.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Structure an 80% 1st ,&amp;nbsp;put a 2nd behind it for the rest&amp;hellip;.and presto, no MI!&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;And we&amp;rsquo;d still be doing them now except that&amp;nbsp;those high CLTV 2nds are mostly gone.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;are&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; times however when PMI, or MI as we now call it these days,&amp;nbsp;makes more sense.&amp;nbsp; And years ago, Congress required lenders to remove MI after 20% equity could be proven with an appraisal.&amp;nbsp; Values were rising so quickly then that MI could typically be shed after a couple of years. &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Last year &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2006/12/21/congress-makes-mortgage-insurance-tax-deductible-putting-the-hype-aside/&quot; title=&quot;tax deductible mortgage insurance&quot;&gt;tax deductible mortgage insurance&lt;/a&gt; was legislated by Congress for those with Adjusted Gross Incomes under $100k per year, removing even more of the disincentives.&amp;nbsp; Still, the&amp;nbsp;stigma lingered&amp;hellip;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/10/04/why-it-pays-to-check-out-lender-paid-mortgage-insurance/&quot; title=&quot;lender paid mortgage insurance&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;read the rest....&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:30:37 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/226957/why-it-pays-to-check-out-lender-paid-mortgage-insurance</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/218780/stressed-home-owners-is-there-a-bailout-in-the-works-</guid>
      <title>Stressed Home Owners: Is There a Bailout in the Works?</title>
      <description>I ran across &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kiplinger.com/businessresource/forecast/archive/no_bailout_for_stressed_mortgage_holders_070926.html&quot; title=&quot;Stressed out home owners&quot;&gt;this article&lt;/a&gt; from Kiplinger Forecasts this morning.&amp;nbsp; It does a fair job of addressing the question on every troubled home owner&amp;rsquo;s mind:&amp;nbsp; Is there a &lt;em&gt;bail out &lt;/em&gt;coming?&amp;nbsp;  &lt;p&gt;So far, the answer appears to be &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;no&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Despite high level legislative chatter, the recent Bush proposal for FHA&lt;em&gt;Secure&amp;mdash;&lt;/em&gt;the details of which remain vague&lt;em&gt;, &lt;/em&gt;and the inevitable debate about the &amp;ldquo;moral hazard&amp;rdquo; of keeping the dirty bath water to save the baby, no broad plan has emerged.&amp;nbsp; That may be understandable in light of the fact that 70% of the foreclosure problem exists in 7 states.&amp;nbsp; If your state didn&amp;rsquo;t contribute to the problem, do you want to pay for its solution?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And yet there is something bigger at stake.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The foreclosures in those 7 states will have a broad negative impact&amp;nbsp;on consumer spending.&amp;nbsp; That hurts retail sales and profits, and ultimately jobs.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;The negative wealth effect and spending pull-back on the part of foreclosure victims is actually the &lt;em&gt;smaller&lt;/em&gt; part of the problem.&amp;nbsp; Think about the much larger group who won&amp;rsquo;t lose their homes.&amp;nbsp; They&amp;rsquo;re feeling the pinch too.&amp;nbsp; And they&amp;rsquo;ll spend less as a result.&amp;nbsp; It&amp;rsquo;s like the scare-movies they show you&amp;nbsp;in driver&amp;rsquo;s training.&amp;nbsp; Even though that wasn&amp;rsquo;t &lt;em&gt;your&lt;/em&gt; blood on asphalt, you&amp;rsquo;ll drive a little more carefully after seeing what happened to the other guy.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/09/27/stressed-home-owners-is-there-a-bailout-in-the-works/&quot; title=&quot;home owner bail out&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest) &lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 27 Sep 2007 20:57:15 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/218780/stressed-home-owners-is-there-a-bailout-in-the-works-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/216517/100-financing-with-freddie-mac-s-home-possible</guid>
      <title>100% Financing With Freddie Mac&#8217;s Home Possible</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;As sub prime, Alt-A and 2nd mortgages continue their disappearing act, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_sponsored_enterprise&quot; title=&quot;100% financing&quot;&gt;GSE&amp;rsquo;s&lt;/a&gt; have been busy trying to help make housing more accessible and affordable.  Both &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_National_Mortgage_Association&quot; title=&quot;100% financing&quot;&gt;Fannie Mae&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Home_Loan_Mortgage_Corporation&quot; title=&quot;100% financing&quot;&gt;Freddie Mac&lt;/a&gt; have brought forth fantastic programs that can help consumers buy homes with no down payment or refinance homes with little remaining equity.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Fannie Mae&amp;rsquo;s initiative is called  &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fanniemae.com/homebuyers/findamortgage/mortgages/mycommunity.jhtml?p=Find+a+Mortgage&amp;amp;s=Mortgage+Solutions&amp;amp;t=By+Alphabetical+Listing&quot; title=&quot;MyCommunityMortgage&quot;&gt;MyCommunity Mortgage&lt;/a&gt; and I wrote a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/04/14/safe-100-financing-with-my-community/&quot; title=&quot;MyCommunityMortgage&quot;&gt;previous article&lt;/a&gt; about that.  Freddie Mac has something similar called &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freddiemac.com/homepossible/&quot; title=&quot;Home Possible&quot;&gt;Home Possible&lt;/a&gt;.  Here are a few highlights:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;100% purchase or rate and term refinance, with no minimum borrower contribution.  (105% CLTV allowed on SFRs)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;30 &amp;amp; 40 yr fixed, along with 5/1, 7/1, and 10/1 ARMs for 1&amp;ndash;2 unit properties&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;3% seller contribution allowed&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Temporary buydowns allowed with .5% annual increases&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;140% of median income in high cost states like CA&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Reduce MI coverage&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;No reserves required (SFR)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/09/25/100-financing-freddie-macs-homepossible/&quot; title=&quot;Home Possible&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/09/25/100-financing-freddie-macs-homepossible/#more-264&quot;&gt;Read the rest of this entry &lt;/a&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:49:45 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/216517/100-financing-with-freddie-mac-s-home-possible</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/208877/fed-cuts-rates-by-one-half-point</guid>
      <title>Fed Cuts Rates by One Half Point</title>
      <description>Acknowledging the growing concern over a recession which was cemented by the August jobs report, the Fed cut both the Fed Funds and the Discount Rate today by one half point.&amp;nbsp;  &lt;p&gt;Here is the text of the statement:&lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 4-3/4 percent. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Economic growth was moderate during the first half of the year, but the tightening of credit conditions has the potential to intensify the housing correction and to restrain economic growth more generally. Today&amp;rsquo;s action is intended to help forestall some of the adverse effects on the broader economy that might otherwise arise from the disruptions in financial markets and to promote moderate growth over time. &lt;/p&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Readings on core inflation have improved modestly this year. However, the Committee judges that some inflation risks remain, and it will continue to monitor inflation developments carefully. &lt;/p&gt;   &lt;p&gt;Developments in financial markets since the Committee&amp;rsquo;s last regular meeting have increased the uncertainty surrounding the economic outlook. The Committee will continue to assess the effects of these and other developments on economic prospects and will act as needed to foster price stability and sustainable economic growth.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/09/18/fed-cuts-rates-by-one-half-point/&quot; title=&quot;mortgage rates, fed cuts rates&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2007 13:54:06 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/208877/fed-cuts-rates-by-one-half-point</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/208654/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-today-s-fed-meeting-and-ppi</guid>
      <title>Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update: Today&#8217;s Fed Meeting and PPI</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;While we wait for the Fed&amp;rsquo;s final decision on rates this morning (announcement at 11:15 Pacific time), we can chew on the Producer Price Index (PPI) report that preceded it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This is a good example for anyone confused by these numbers.&amp;nbsp; The &amp;ldquo;headline&amp;rdquo; PPI figure showed a drop of 1.2% vs. the expected drop of 0.3%.&amp;nbsp; That seems like a good thing. right?.&amp;nbsp; Lower inflation&amp;nbsp;means the Fed can&amp;nbsp;relax about the&amp;nbsp;whole inflation thing.&amp;nbsp; Not exactly.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The &amp;ldquo;core&amp;rdquo; PPI rate&amp;nbsp;actually shows&amp;nbsp;an increase of 0.2% which exceeded the 0.1% forecast increase,&amp;nbsp;suggesting the opposite.&amp;nbsp; The inflation issue is still on the table and so bonds are down in price, rates rising this morning.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/09/18/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-todays-fed-meeting-and-ppi/&quot; title=&quot;Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:56:07 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/208654/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-today-s-fed-meeting-and-ppi</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/205698/the-new-fha-what-you-may-not-know-about-down-payments</guid>
      <title>The New FHA: What You May Not Know About Down Payments</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;With the tide shifting back toward old-school underwriting, &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;source &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;of down payment is once again becoming an issue.  Conventional&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;loans often require&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt; &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;that the borrower have 5% of their own funds, and that money must be &amp;ldquo;seasoned&amp;rdquo;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;FHA is different and far more flexible.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Did you know that FHA loans do not require that the borrower have any of their own money? And there are no &amp;ldquo;reserves&amp;rdquo; required. Here are a few acceptable and interesting sources for an FHA down payment:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;strong&gt;Gift funds&lt;/strong&gt;, from a blood relative or charitable organization. The donor must sign a standard industry Gift Letter stating that no repayment is required, and you must prove the donor&amp;rsquo;s ability to gift funds. In other words, plan on getting a bank&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/09/14/the-new-fha-what-you-may-not-know-about-down-payments/&quot; title=&quot;FHA&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read the rest)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 2007 10:59:47 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/205698/the-new-fha-what-you-may-not-know-about-down-payments</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/202166/the-new-fha-what-you-may-not-know-about-appraisals</guid>
      <title>The New FHA: What You May Not Know About Appraisals</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;During the sellers&amp;rsquo; market of the early 2000&amp;rsquo;s, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/03/12/qualifying-for-a-home-loan-lets-talk-about-fha-loans/&quot; title=&quot;FHa qualifying&quot;&gt;FHA loans &lt;/a&gt;were the forgotten stepchild of the mortgage business.&amp;nbsp; No seller would even talk to a buyer approved through&amp;nbsp;FHA or VA.&amp;nbsp; One big reason for that avoidance was the FHA appraisal and related property issues.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;All that has changed.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While an FHA approved appraiser must still be used, the rest of FHA&amp;rsquo;s appraisal requirements have been brought into parity with those of conventional loans.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Here are some&amp;nbsp;key improvements:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;u&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Pest reports:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;No longer required.&amp;nbsp; Pest reports used to be an FHA fact of life, and every structure on the property&amp;mdash;the broken down shed in the back forty included&amp;mdash;had to be inspected.&amp;nbsp; The seller was&amp;nbsp;required to fix or tear down that shed and repair &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;all &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;Section I &amp;amp; Section II inspection items.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Today, even if a pest report is written into the Contract as a condition of purchase, the lender will likely only ask for a letter signed by the buyer confirming that all conditions of the Contract have been met.&amp;nbsp; The only time a pest report will be required is when the appraisal calls for it.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/09/11/the-new-fha-what-you-may-not-know-about-appraisals/&quot; title=&quot;FHA Loans&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;(read on)&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2007 12:20:32 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/202166/the-new-fha-what-you-may-not-know-about-appraisals</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/190724/fhasecure-the-solution-to-foreclosure-</guid>
      <title>FHASecure: The Solution to Foreclosure?</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;President Bush&amp;nbsp;today announced &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fha.gov/press/2007-08-31release.cfm&quot; title=&quot;FHASecure&quot;&gt;FHASecure&lt;/a&gt;, a new FHA refinance program designed to help trouble homeowners keep their homes.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; The new program should provide an option for at least &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;u&gt;some&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt; of those people headed into foreclosure due to interest rate resets and skyrocketing mortgage payments.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;h4&gt;Who will benefit? &lt;/h4&gt;  &lt;p&gt;Hard to say just yet, but here are five criteria listed on the HUD cite:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;blockquote&gt; &lt;p&gt;To qualify for &lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;FHASecure&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;, eligible homeowners must meet the following five criteria:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;A history of on-time mortgage payments before the borrower&amp;rsquo;s teaser rates expired and loans reset&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Interest rates must have or will reset between June 2005 and December 2009;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Three percent cash or equity in the home&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;A sustained history of employment&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Sufficient income to make the mortgage payment&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;p&gt;Number 3 in particular interested me.&amp;nbsp; After all, if a homeowner needs to have 3% equity (or cash) in the home, this lifeboat won&amp;rsquo;t hold the folks who owe more than their homes are worth.&amp;nbsp; That will be a key question for many here in Sacramento CA.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; I was hoping this might be similar to the old FHA Streamline Refi&amp;rsquo;s we did years ago.&amp;nbsp; Value and appraisals were not an issue then and the borrower could refi to a lower rate as long as they had been current on their existing FHA payments.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/08/31/fhasecure-the-solution-to-foreclosure/#more-246&quot; title=&quot;FHASecure&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read the rest&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:33:45 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/190724/fhasecure-the-solution-to-foreclosure-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/188954/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update</guid>
      <title>Sacramento Mortgage Rate Update</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;So what are mortgage rates doing?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That&amp;rsquo;s an interesting question.&amp;nbsp; The conforming 30 year fixed rate has actually been falling.&amp;nbsp; That is the bright star in a dark sky.&amp;nbsp; But, it helps pull FHA, VA, CalHFA and any agency 100% programs down with it.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Freddie Mac last week reported the average 30 year fixed rates in the West at around 6.5% at half a point.&amp;nbsp; And although things are bouncing around a bit, conforming rates continue their gradual decline.&amp;nbsp; That makes it a great time for borrowers who can cobble together a down payment and document income.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Jumbo rates&amp;ndash;and pretty much everything else&amp;ndash;are a different story.&amp;nbsp; The customary 25 basis point spread between the conforming (under $417k) and jumbo rates has widened in recent weeks to at least 100 basis points, putting the best jumbo 30 yr rates in the low 7% range.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; A good alternative is...&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/08/29/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update-12/&quot; title=&quot;sacramento mortgage rates&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;read the rest&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:27:43 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/188954/sacramento-mortgage-rate-update</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/184108/-check-your-appraisal-</guid>
      <title>&#8220;Check Your Appraisal&#8221;</title>
      <description>&lt;em&gt;&amp;hellip;.was the heading on yesterday&amp;rsquo;s email from Wells Fargo Wholesale.&amp;nbsp; This is a heads-up to Realtors and home buyers&amp;hellip;&lt;/em&gt; &lt;h4&gt;Fast Rewind&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;In mid July, FannieMae issued Announcement 07&amp;ndash;11, entitled &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Collateral Valuation Practices and Declining Markets.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;   Here are several key points from the memo:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt;&lt;li&gt;FannieMae&amp;rsquo;s Desktop Underwriter (DU) Version 5.7 released July 22, will now generate a message when it thinks that a property is located in a &lt;em&gt;&lt;u&gt;declining market&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The appraiser &lt;em&gt;&lt;u&gt;must&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/em&gt; also indicate when the property is in a declining market.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;The &lt;em&gt;lender&lt;/em&gt; is responsible for &lt;u&gt;&lt;em&gt;ensuring the accuracy of the appraiser&amp;rsquo;s work&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/u&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;li&gt;Any pressure by the lender on an appraiser will cause the mortgage loan to be &lt;em&gt;subject to &lt;u&gt;&lt;strong&gt;immediate repurchase&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/u&gt;&lt;/em&gt; by the lender.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt; &lt;h4&gt;What&amp;rsquo;s The Big Deal?&lt;/h4&gt; &lt;p&gt;The appearance of that term&amp;mdash;&lt;em&gt;declining market&amp;mdash; &lt;/em&gt;in an appraisal has thrown a monkey wrench into many a loan approval. Appraisers avoid saying it, and lenders discourage the use of the term. However, FannieMae is tightening its jaws on past practice with this announcement. The teeth in those jaws are threat of immediate loan repurchase by the lender.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/08/23/check-your-appraisal-a-heads-up-to-agents-and-buyers/&quot; title=&quot;check your appraisal&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;read on&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 24 Aug 2007 22:19:03 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/184108/-check-your-appraisal-</link>
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      <guid>http://activerain.com/blogsview/181751/more-lenders-falter</guid>
      <title>More Lenders Falter</title>
      <description> 						 					 					 						 							&lt;p&gt;&lt;u&gt;Lehman Brothers&amp;nbsp;announced&lt;/u&gt; today the closure of its sub-prime subsidiary &lt;u&gt;&lt;strong&gt;BNC Mortgage&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/u&gt;.&amp;nbsp; Lehman Brothers will continue to originate prime mortgages through its Aurora Loan Services platform but is discontinuing all sub-prime originations.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;More sad news from my rep at&amp;nbsp;&lt;u&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Accredited Mortgage&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/u&gt; yesterday afternoon:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;blockquote dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt; &lt;p&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m sure you&amp;rsquo;ve all heard the news that we&amp;rsquo;ve ceased accepting new loan applications.&amp;nbsp; As you can surely guess, this means I am no longer employed.&amp;nbsp; I wanted to thank all of you for your business and wish you the best of luck in the future.&amp;nbsp; My email account will be shut off shortly.&amp;nbsp; If you&amp;rsquo;d like to stay in touch, here&amp;rsquo;s an alternate email.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/blockquote&gt; &lt;p dir=&quot;ltr&quot;&gt;&lt;u&gt;&lt;strong&gt;HSBC&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/u&gt;, Europe&amp;rsquo;s largest bank, restructured its U.S. mortgage operations and announced plans to close an Indiana office.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Finally,&amp;nbsp;this mysterious communication from &lt;u&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Homecomings Financial&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/u&gt;.&amp;nbsp; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lendingclarity.com/2007/08/22/more-lenders-falter/#more-232&quot; title=&quot;subprime meltdown&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Read the rest of this entry &amp;raquo;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/p&gt;</description>
      <author>Marc Brinitzer (Big Valley Mortgage)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 22 Aug 2007 17:33:58 -0500</pubDate>
      <link>http://activerain.com/blogsview/181751/more-lenders-falter</link>
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