Senate Dems on Board with Credit Extension
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) says Senate Democrats have agreed to extend the first-time home buyer tax credit. The latest version extends the program to home sales signed — not closed — by April 30. Purchasers would have another 60 days to close the sale. The credit will also be expanded to include so-called step-up buyers who have lived in their current home for at least five years.
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Consumers Use Meltdown to Reduce Debt
Americans are erasing debt quickly.
Officially, the Federal Reserve puts total U.S. household debt, including mortgage debt, at $13.7 trillion, or 125 percent of annual after-tax income. But that assumes that the debt will be paid – and that may not be the case.
Mortgage loan expert First American CoreLogic estimates that about 9.3 percent of the country’s 52.4 million mortgage holders were 60 or more days behind on their payments as of July.
Joseph Carson, director of global economic research at AllianceBernstein, expects the share of households’ after-tax income that goes to pay mortgages and other related financial obligations to fall to 16.3 percent by the middle of 2010. That’s considerably below the 20-year average, leading up to the housing boom, which stood at 18.1 percent as of June.
“It’s part of the cleansing process of a downturn,” Carson says. “And it’s happening a lot faster than people realize.”
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Mark Whitehouse (10/26/2009)
© Copyright National Association of REALTORS®, Reprinted from REALTOR.org with permission.”
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A U.S. House committee announced Friday it is investigating whether lenders deliberately used deceptive practices to persuade people to buy property during the boom.
A key part of the probe will be subpoenaing Countrywide Financial Corp., said New York Democrat Rep. Edolphus Towns, chair of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Countrywide was the largest U.S. mortgage lender before the company was bought by Bank of America in July.
Towns said the probe is exploring “whether mortgage companies employed deceptive and predatory lending practices or improper tactics to thwart regulation, and the impact of those activities on the current crisis.”
Source: Associated Press, Marcy Gordon (10/23/2009)
© Copyright National Association of REALTORS®, Reprinted from REALTOR.org with permission.”
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Ever so slowly we move towards an extension of the first time home buyer tax credit.
Tax Credit Extension Seems Likely
It seems likely that the U.S. Senate will approve a deal to extend the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit, but the devil is in the details.
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, is supporting a four-month extension of the home buyer tax credit.
Two other proposals in the Senate would, respectively, extend the credit through June and, most generously, increase the deduction to $15,000 and open it up to all home buyers and those with higher incomes.
One or more of these proposals is likely to come up for a vote in the next week attached to a measure that would extend unemployment benefits for 20 weeks.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Corey Boles (10/23/2009)
© Copyright National Association of REALTORS®, Reprinted from REALTOR.org with permission.”
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Simply calling this behavior asinine is too kind. Will the stupidity ever end? It is this level of thinking that got us into this mess.
Credit Disputes Could Bar Home Loans
Mortgage loan applicants with a credit dispute on their records may find it impossible to get a loan even if they have a score above 800 and a large down payment, warn consumer watchdogs.
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Consumer Watchdog Agency Advances
The House Financial Services Committee voted Thursday to create a federal agency to police consumer financial products, including mortgages.
While all financial institutions would be subject to the rules the agency adopts, banks and other lenders with less than $10 billion in assets would escape the most onerous regulation. The bill would reduce the power of the Federal Reserve.
The bill would also give states the right to override federal regulations with stiffer state ones, although the federal government could override those if they interview with the ability of national banks to do business.
Critics said such an agency would have too much power. Only one Republican committee member, Rep. Michael Castle of Delaware, voted for the measure.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, Damian Paletta (10/23/2009)
© Copyright National Association of REALTORS®, Reprinted from REALTOR.org with permission.”
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