Mortgage Bailout Plan Gains Traction

MoneyNews
Friday, March 14, 2008 WASHINGTON -- A mortgage bailout plan hatched between Wall Street and Congress is gaining political traction even though it could be on a crash-course with the Bush administration.

The plan would amount to a steroid boost for the Federal Housing Administration, a program conceived to help poor people buy homes that is now being used as a subprime mortgage lifeline.

Both Credit Suisse and Bank of America have mapped out how the FHA could gather up more shaky home loans and Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives' Financial Services Committee, on Thursday offered legislation to do just that.

Under those plans, the government would take failing mortgages off the hands of investors and write new terms that would prevent foreclosure.

The Frank bill is specifically aimed at borrowers who are distressed because the value of their home has dropped.

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http://moneynews.newsmax.com/money/archives/articles/2008/3/13/162839.cfm?s=mnh

S&P: Mortgage Writedowns Could Hit $285B

MoneyNews
Thursday, March 13, 2008 NEW YORK -- Standard & Poor's on Thursday said subprime write-downs for large financial institutions are likely past the halfway mark, but they could still hit $285 billion.

S&P's estimate of subprime write-downs was up from a $265 billion figure it published in January, but the credit ratings agency said the end to write-downs was in sight.

"The positive news is that, in our opinion, the global financial sector appears to have already disclosed the majority of valuation write-downs of subprime asset-backed securities," S&P credit analyst Scott Bugie said in a report.

S&P's statement gave a boost to financial stocks and helped Wall Street indexes pare losses.

The Dow Jones industrial average was last down 0.45 percent after earlier falling about 2 percent. The S&P 500 Index was down 0.32 percent, also paring earlier losses of over 2 percent.

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http://moneynews.newsmax.com/money/archives/articles/2008/3/13/140754.cfm

One in Three Foreclosures in Florida, California

Florida, California push foreclosure starts

South Florida Business Journal

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Florida and California make up a disproportionate part of foreclosure starts in the U.S. and helped push the national number to new highs, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

California and Florida together represent 21 percent of all loans outstanding, but accounted for 30 percent of foreclosure starts in the country, the report said. They also accounted for 39 percent of all prime adjustable-rate mortgages outstanding and 47 percent of prime ARM foreclosure starts.

Together, the make up 29 percent of all subprime ARMs and 36 percent of subprime ARM foreclosure starts.

In Florida, the percentage of loans on which a foreclosure was started during the quarter rose to 1.46 percent from 1.09 percent in the third quarter. The percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the quarter climbed to 3.22 percent from 2.19 percent.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one- to four-unit residential properties, which does not include loans in the process of foreclosures, for the state was up to 7.47 percent, up from 6.47 percent in the third quarter.

The delinquency rate for prime loans increased to 4.57 percent from 3.9 percent. Subprime loans had a much higher delinquency rate, up to 19.76 percent from 17.2 percent.

Nationally, the delinquency rate was 5.82 percent, up from 5.79 percent in the third quarter.

The percentage of loans on which a foreclosure was started increased to .83 of a percent from .78 of a percent, and the percentage of loans in the foreclosure process at the end of the quarter was 2.04 percent, up from 1.69 percent.

Home Foreclosures Hit Record High

Home Foreclosures Hit Record High

Thursday, March 6, 2008 11:16 AM Article Font Size

WASHINGTON -- Home foreclosures soared to an all-time high in the final quarter of last year, underscoring the suffering of distressed homeowners and the growing danger the housing meltdown poses for the economy. The Mortgage Bankers Association, in a quarterly snapshot of the mortgage market released Thursday, said the proportion of all mortgages nationwide that fell into foreclosure shot up to a record high of 0.83 percent in the October-to-December quarter. That surpassed the previous high of 0.78 percent set in the prior quarter. "Clearly it's the worst it's been," chief association economist Doug Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press. More homeowners - at the same time - fell behind on their monthly payments. The delinquency rate for all mortgages climbed to 5.82 percent in the fourth quarter. That was up from the 5.59 percent in the third quarter and was the highest since 1985. Payments are considered delinquent if they are 30 or more days past due. more..... http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/Home_Foreclosures_Hit_Rec/2008/03/06/78353.html