| RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT: Rhodes floats land plan Homebuilder sets ...
KINGMAN, Ariz. -- It's apparently going to take more than a sluggish economy, a mortgage loan crisis and a housing market that's been put to sleep to keep Southern Nevada homebuilder Jim Rhodes off the radar in northwest Arizona. Some 300 people crowded into a Kingman middle school cafeteria on Thursday for the unveiling of the master-planned community Rhodes wants to develop on 5,000 acres in nearby Golden Valley, about 110 miles south of Las Vegas. Eight hundred people hold reservations for lots in Pravada, which could total as many as 25,000 homes at full build-out, roughly four times as many as Rhodes has built over the years in Las Vegas. Rhodes Homes Arizona Vice President Chris Stephens expressed confidence that about 2,000 homes will be built there within five years.
New Free Online Tools Make Accurate Mortgage Calculations a Few Clicks ...
New free on-line mortgage calculators give homebuyers detailed calculations at their finger tips. Calculations include taxes, insurance, PMI, closing cost and pre-paids for all 50 states. The perfect tool for homebuyers that are not financially savy, or lack mortgage knowledge. (PRWEB) August 8, 2006 --Most new homebuyers have no finance background and little experience with mortgage loans, yet bank and mortgage brokers treat their online customers as expert Loan Officers. Today's online mortgage tools are completely inadequate and assume the user knows the intricacies of the mortgage business. New tools developed by The Mortgage Toolbox eliminates the 'guessing game' that occurs with those other so-called 'free sites', and allows consumers to find real answers about their home financing options.
Servicer creates homeowner woes
Morgan Stanley said Tuesday it is cutting about 600 jobs and slimming its mortgage business, after a credit crisis upended the home loan industry this summer and forced other investment banks into similar moves. Two weeks after the Wall Street investment bank missed analysts' expectations for the fiscal third quarter and took a writedown of $940 million for corporate loans stuck on its books, Morgan Stanley said it will eliminate about 1 percent of its work force. "It is the direction everybody is going," said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Brad Hintz. "This is Wall Street voting with their feet about how rapidly the mortgage market is coming back. They are saying it is not coming back quickly." As part of a plan to fuse its three mortgage businesses into one subsidiary based in Irving, Texas, Morgan Stanley will close certain offices and cut 500 jobs in the U.S.
10 Tips: Beat 'Gotcha Capitalism'
For nearly two and a half years, msnbc.com writer Bob Sullivan has been exposing scams and sneakiness through his blog, The Red Tape Chronicles. Based on his investigative reporting, Bob has written a book, “Gotcha Capitalism: How Hidden Fees Rip You Off Every Day – and What You Can Do About It." Bob's book highlights the machinations of a system that is rigged to make most consumers throw up their hands and simply give up. After all, who has the time to wade through an avalanche of fine print and decipher all the incomprehensible fees on their cell-phone bills, credit-card bills, cable bills, hotel bills, retirement plans, gym memberships, bank statements, mortgages and student loans? .
Creditor wants Turtle Bay under court control
As the governor has proposed buying the Turtle Bay resort, the property owner is fighting legal efforts to place the sprawling North Shore resort under control of a court-appointed receiver. Mortgage holder Credit Suisse has asked the courts to take control of the facility from owner Kuilima Resort Co. and place it in the hands of a California businessman while a $283 million foreclosure case is pending. Kuilima Resort opposes that. Credit Suisse asked the court to appoint California businessman Douglas Wilson as receiver. Since August 2007, Kuilima Resort "has not provided a scintilla of evidence that (it) has any ability to repay" an outstanding loan of $270,875,000 or accrued interest and late payment fees of $12,824,818, Credit Suisse lawyers argued.
Mortgage-rate reset needn't be crisis
And for those facing higher resets on adjustable-rate mortgage payments, it's time to negotiate. If your mortgage is ratcheting up to a monthly payment you can't afford, you may have some leverage in lowering the rate. Your lender may even welcome the move and allow you to do a low- cost loan modification. To date, some $150 billion in adjustable loans have reset with $300 billion more in the pipeline, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The greatest number of mortgage-rate increases is likely to hit borrowers this year. In many cases, your lender may call you first to see if you want to modify your loan's terms. That's what happened to Dick Lepre, a loan officer for Residential Pacific Mortgage Corp. in San Francisco. "I had a 5/1 adjustable at 4.25 percent and Chase Mortgage called me up to reset it at 5.625 percent for seven years," Lepre told me.
Mortgage meltdown: Losing home through a lender short sale isn't easy ...
The East Bay has been hit particularly hard, especially Contra Costa County, primarily because it's the place so many first-time homebuyers get their feet wet in the Bay Area housing market. The East Bay Business Times reports that Contra Costa County ranked 10th statewide in July with one foreclosure sale for every 2,411 residents. Of course, many homeowners facing foreclosure are looking for a way to ease the pain of this situation, as well as avoid the black mark it will leave on their credit rating. Many can't or simply don't want to go through the hassle of refinancing, or trying to get the lender to modify the terms of their loan. So, another "solution" has been growing in popularity in the Bay Area: the short sale. A short sale, essentially, is what happens when a homeowner - with the mortgage lender's approval - sells his or her property for less than what is owed on the mortgage.
Lenders to begin tacking on new fees for mortgages
Still others apply to anyone buying an investment property or getting a 40-year mortgage. The riskier the loan, the pricier the fees. "We've been talking about risk-based pricing for years. It's here," says Bob Walters, chief economist for Quicken Loans. The charges will be assessed on loans that are securitized after the end of February. Because securitization takes time, some lenders started levying the fees in November. Soon, all lenders will pass along the new fees, either as closing costs or by charging higher interest rates. For consumers, the new charges come at an awkward time. Credit scores often take a dive during and after the holiday shopping season because people run up their credit card balances. Maxing out a store charge card could cause someone's credit score to dip below 680, subjecting the oblivious shopper to mortgage fees in the new year.
How the failure of subprime mortgages hurts the overall economy
Given the huge piles of consumer and business debt out there, many U.S. residents seem to think easy credit is their birthright. That cozy feeling that a loan is always within reach is getting rudely shaken. An international credit crunch is upon us. The subprime mortgage crisis spawned it, but everything from home-equity loans to business lines of credit may be touched before it's over. Sectors as disparate as auto-parts suppliers and developers of riverfront condos in Detroit are feeling the pinch of tighter credit, battering an already weak Michigan economy. "The unwinding of debt is all encompassing. It's from the little homeowner out there to the big corporation," said Larry Moss, senior vice president for the Raymond James investment firm in Birmingham. .
Fannie and Freddie to the Rescue?
Hoping to speed delivery of its $150 billion pick-me-up for the U.S. economy, the Bush Administration reluctantly agreed to temporarily increase the size of the mortgages Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) can purchase, from $417,000 to nearly double that. Proponents of the shift hope that Fannie and Freddie—which together own or guarantee about half of the $10 trillion in total home loans in the U.S.—can unfreeze the market for those "jumbo" loans and kick-start the housing market. But for a variety of reasons, Fannie and Freddie may not be in position to cure the subprime mortgage mess. Economists and analysts agree that boosting the mortgage limit will help inject the jumbo loan market, which is under significant strain, with much-needed financing. The additional business Fannie and Freddie will generate with that financing should eventually help bring down prices and increase the availability of such loans.
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