News

St. Paul, Minnesota’s Securian Financial Group recently unveiled a new debt protection program, Payment Assurance, which cancels or suspends a borrower’s loan payment for up to six months if they lose their income due to involuntary unemployment.

As federal lawmakers continue to pour over proposals that would tighten anti-predatory lending statutes throughout the nation, California may become one of the first states to enact its own mortgage reform legislation.

Bank of America Home Loans recently announced a new streamlined program for municipalities to purchase properties from its REO portfolio. The new guidelines are exclusively for local and state government departments receiving HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) grants.

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage is hiring 200 new staff members in the San Antonio, Texas, area to keep up with an increase in loan modification and refinance volumes. The _San Antonio Express-News:http://www.

The FDIC announced on Wednesday that it is postponing the legacy loan portion of the government’s Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP). The plan was unveiled in March as a means of cleansing banks’ balance sheets of under-performing mortgages and other toxic assetst hat have led to substantial write-downs since the beginning of the financial crisis.

Mortgage interest rates across the board spiked this week, following long-term bond yields higher as the focus among investors shifted to the budget deficit and the possibility of inflation. According to Freddie Mac, the commitment rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is now at its highest level since December 11, 2008, 25 weeks ago.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has formally accused former Countrywide Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo and two other top executives of defrauding investors. Mozilo also faces charges of insider trading.

Record low mortgage interest rates boosted pending home sales for the third consecutive month, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The association’s national Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.

The National Association of BPO Professionals (NABPOP) and its BPO Standards Board (BSB) have issued new broker price opinion (BPO) guidelines for real estate agents and brokers to use when determining the probable selling price of residential properties.

For the first quarter of 2009, only six states saw an increase in home sales, and Florida was among the lucky few. According to Central Florida real estate agent Amy Ruff thanks to the lower price entry for quality homes and the $8,000 tax rebate for new homebuyers, it looks like buyers are making their way back into the market to snap up extraordinary deals on Central Florida homes.