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发表于 2014-7-4 23:26:34
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Part II: Speed
Mortgage rates drop to near 4%
By Les Christie @CNNMoney July 3, 2014: 3:18 PM ET
[Time 2]
Rock-bottom mortgage rates moved even lower this week, hitting 4.12% for a 30-year fixed rate loan, according to Freddie Mac.
The last time the 30-year rate was lower was in October, 2013 when it stood at 4.10%. The rate on 15-year loans remained at 3.22%.
The fact that borrowing remains so affordable has surprised experts, who expected rates to start rising once the Federal Reserve began to cut back on its purchases of Treasury bonds and mortgage backed securities.
The Fed began to pull back its bond buying last December, but mortgage rates fell for much of the first half of the year anyway.
"This is more remarkable with the economy coming back up to speed and a bit more inflation pressure than we've seen for a while," said Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a mortgage information company.
Low rates mean lower monthly payments for homebuyers. Payments on a $200,000 loan at 4% come to just $955 a month, while the same loan at 5% would cost $1,073 a month and $1,200 at a rate of 6%.
And indeed, recent housing market data has improved. In May, existing home sales climbed nearly 5% in May and new home sales jumped 19%.
Nobody knows when rates will start to climb, said Gumbinger, so homebuyers are seizing their chance to lock in near-record low rates as fast as they can.
[229 words]
Source:CNN Money
http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/03/real_estate/mortgage-rates/index.html
SunTrust Mortgage settles federal probe for $320M
Fri, Jul 4, 2014, 9:51AM EDT - US Markets are closed
[Time 3]
SunTrust Mortgage to pay up to $320 million to settle fed probe of loan modification program.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) -- SunTrust Mortgage Inc. has agreed to pay up to $320 million to resolve allegations that it misled customers seeking loan modifications under a government program established to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, the company and federal authorities said Thursday.
According to a statement of facts filed with the settlement, the Richmond, Virginia, mortgage arm of Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks Inc., misrepresented or omitted information to borrowers participating in the federal Home Affordable Modification Program and failed to process applications in a timely manner. The company is making up to $274 million available to thousands of customers who suffered financial harm.
Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will receive $10 million, and $16 million will go to law enforcement agencies working on mortgage fraud and related matters. SunTrust also agreed to fund $20 million in grants to housing counseling agencies and to improve its administration of the loan modification program.
"SunTrust has done the right thing by agreeing to this novel package of restitution, remediation, and prevention, which represents a significant victory not only for SunTrust customers, but also for Americans who will receive counseling and other assistance when faced with financial challenges," U.S. Attorney Timothy Heaphy said in a written statement.
Settlement documents say delays in processing HAMP applications prevented some borrowers from pursuing other options to save their homes. Customers also were charged excessive interest and were improperly reported to credit bureaus as delinquent.
"SunTrust's administration of the HAMP program caused serious harm to the very Americans it was supposed to help," the statement of facts says. It also credits SunTrust with cooperating in the investigation and says the executives and managers responsible for the conduct in 2009 and 2010 are no longer with the company.
"We recognize that there were deficiencies in our administration of HAMP during the recession, and through the improvements we have made to our internal processes and this restitution plan we are demonstrating our commitment to meet the high standards that we set for ourselves and that our customers expect," SunTrust Mortgage CEO Jerome Lienhard said in a news release.
Last month, SunTrust and the Justice Department also agreed to a $1 billion settlement to resolve allegations that the company underwrote and endorsed faulty mortgage loans between 2006 and 2012.
[379 words]
Source:Yahoo Finance
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/suntrust-mortgage-settles-federal-probe-195322238.html;_ylt=AwrBJR9trbZT1XAA3naTmYlQ
How to tame your property bubble
By Mark Thompson @MarkThompsonCNN June 26, 2014: 10:29 AM ET
[Time 4]
Training a dragon might be easier than managing Britain's red hot housing market.
But that's the challenge officials took on Thursday in the face of mounting evidence of aproperty bubble in London and concerns that reckless lending could leave U.K. borrowers struggling when interest rates inevitably rise.
Mortgages make up more than 80% of household debt in the U.K. Larger loans (measured as a multiple of income) now account for a record share of new mortgage lending.
The trick is knowing just how hard to step on the brake to prevent the economy running off the rails in the future without jeopardizing the recovery now.
In a coordinated move, the Bank of England and U.K. government unveiled three measures aimed at curbing some of the excesses.
1. Loans worth more than 4.5 times income must make up no more than 15% of new mortgages.
2. Mortgages worth more than that will no longer qualify for government guarantees under its Help-to-Buy program.
3. Banks will have to assess whether borrowers could make their repayments if interest rates rise by three percentage points in five years.
[184 words]
[Time 5]
Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the 15% cap on the largest mortgages would start to bite within a year, mostly in London and the southeast of England, but acknowledged the market would continue to gather momentum in the meantime.
"If yesterday you were approved for a mortgage in a bank or building society, today you would still be approved for that mortgage," he told reporters.
The pound rose against the dollar, and shares in construction companies gained more than 5% in London, on relief that officials hadn't taken a tougher stance.
"However, while the measures announced are at the lighter end of expectations, the Bank of England is stressing that it can, and will, take further measures if need be," said Howard Archer, chief European and U.K. economist at IHS Global Insight.
Interest rates were cut to a record low of 0.5% in March 2009 during the financial crisis and haven't moved since. And it's nearly seven years since British borrowers had to cope with a rise in the benchmark rate.
Some economists expect the wider recovery and sharp fall in unemployment will force the central bank to increase rates as early as November, but say further targeted measures may yet be needed to avoid another property bust.
"We expect the [bank] to significantly curtail, and perhaps even cancel, the mortgage guarantee part of the government's Help-to-Buy scheme in September," noted Christian Schulz at Berenberg.
The program was introduced in 2013 to help Brits buy homes through generous equity loans and mortgage guarantees.
[255 words]
Source: Money CNN
http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/26/news/economy/property-uk-curbs/index.html
Buy vs. rent: What you'll pay in the 10 biggest cities
BY LES CHRISTIE @CNNMONEY - LAST UPDATED MARCH 03 2014 12:09 PM ET
[Time 6]
Despite rising home prices and climbing mortgage rates, it's still cheaper to buy a home than rent one in major cities across the country, according to real estate web site Trulia, which analyzed data in 100 metro areas.
But home prices are just one factor to consider. Deciding whether to buy or rent also depends on the location and how long you plan to stay there. In most of the Rust-Belt cities, like Toledo and Detroit, the math overwhelmingly favors buying. In more expensive coastal markets, like Los Angeles and New York, it's a closer call.
Nationwide, homebuyers who remain in their homes for seven years will save an average of 38% over renting, Trulia found. A year ago, buying was 44% cheaper.
That means all of the initial transaction costs of buying a home -- the broker's commission, title insurance, legal fees and other closing costs -- will be offset by benefits, like tax write-offs and price appreciation. And those costs will become cheaper than the total costs of renting, which include insurance and agent commissions.
[177 words]
Source: Money CNN
http://money.cnn.com/gallery/real_estate/2014/03/03/buy-vs-rent/index.html?iid=EL
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