From the category archives:
The latest Beige Book report on the state of the economy was just released by the Fed. The summary suggests we’re seeing more stability and/or gradual improvement in the economy:
“Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts indicate that economic conditions have generally improved modestly since the last report. Eight Districts indicated some pickup in activity [...]
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The Mortgage Bankers Association’s figures on home loan performance just keep getting worse and worse. Here is what things looked like in Q3 2009:
* The overall mortgage delinquency rate surged to 9.64% in Q3 2009 from 9.24% in Q2 2009 and 6.99% a year earlier. Once again, this is a fresh record high for the [...]
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There’s an interesting debate going on in D.C. right now over the FHA loan program. FHA was a non-player during the housing boom because private lenders were falling all over themselves to offer crappy loans to crappy borrowers. Now they’re out of the business … and all those crappy borrowers are going to FHA instead. [...]
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We just got a trifecta of economic reports and they all suggest the economy is recovering (and that the inflation picture is somewhat less benign). To wit:
* Retail sales surged 2.7% in August. That was much stronger than the 1.9% gain that was expected and the biggest rise in three years. But even if you [...]
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The July personal income and spending figures just hit the tape and they were roughly in line with expectations. Specifically, personal income was unchanged against a forecast of +0.1%. But the June decline was revised from -1.3% to -1.1%. Personal spending rose 0.2%, right in line with forecasts, and the June number was revised higher [...]
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The Mortgage Bankers Association released data on second quarter mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures this morning. Here’s what we learned:
* The overall mortgage delinquency rate inched up to 9.24% in Q2 2009 from 9.12% in Q1 2009 and 6.41% a year earlier. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this is yet another record [...]
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I feel like it’s Thanksgiving afternoon, with a feast of stories to chew on today. In no particular order …
* The government is finally going to allow one of these ne’er-do-well financial firms fail, apparently. I’m talking about CIT Group, the commercial lender that’s been struggling for months. Apparently, the Treasury, Federal Reserve and especially [...]
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I said back when the Obama administration’s mortgage modification programs were being rolled out that they would likely NOT meet the ambitious expectations spelled out by policymakers. There are several reasons why mortgage servicers and investors are not as willing (or able) to modify loans as aggressively as the politicians want them to. A great [...]
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The American Bankers Association just released its latest look at quarterly delinquencies for a wide variety of consumer credit products. Here’s a peek at what the group’s numbers showed:
* The composite index that tracks delinquencies on all products rose to 3.23% in Q1 2009. That was up ever so slightly from 3.22% a quarter earlier, [...]
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Mortgage applications dropped sharply in the week of June 26. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s application index (chart above) plunged 18.9% to 444.8, the lowest level since late November. The refinance index tanked 30%, while the purchase index slipped 4.5%. This occurred despite the fact mortgage rates dropped for the third week (to 5.34% from a [...]
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