News

The lack of mandatory earthquake insurance in California would result in high levels of mortgage defaults that would further cripple the United States housing market if a major earthquake occurred, according to an analysis released by the Chicago-based Impact Forecasting LLC, a division of international reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor Aon Benfield.

Broad-based declines in the prices of existing single family homes continued across the United States through the month of October, according to data released today by Standard & Poor’s. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices show that 14 of the 20 metro areas studied experienced record rates of annual decline, with 14 now reporting declines in excess of 10 percent compared to October 2007.

J.C. Flowers & Co., Dune Capital Management, and the hedge fund Paulson & Co. are set to buy the assets of the failed mortgage lender IndyMac, according to unnamed sources in multiple news reports.

Broad-based declines in the prices of existing single family homes continued across the United States through the month of October, according to data released today by Standard & Poor’s. The S&P/Case-Shiller home price indices show that 14 of the 20 metro areas studied experienced record rates of annual decline, with 14 now reporting declines in excess of 10 percent compared to October 2007.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a notice late last week, advising lenders of the termination of the Federal Housing Administration’s FHASecure program, under which FHA was able to insure refinance transactions for borrowers delinquent on their mortgages.

Sales of existing-homes in November weakened against a backdrop of an eroding economy, according to a report released last week by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums, and co-ops – fell 8.

The Distressed Property Institute is training Realtors to help struggling homeowners in danger of foreclosure. The institute, based in Florida and launched last January, is now offering the Certified Distressed Property Expert (CDPE) designation after in-depth on-site or online training on how to handle short sales.

According to a report released last week by the New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com, an independent investigator of the U.S. Treasury Department has uncovered evidence that officials from the nation’s banking supervisory body, the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), helped the failing IndyMac Bancorp paper over its financial difficulties.

Families on the verge of foreclosure and facing eviction in several cities across the country hosted early Christmas dinners with Congressional lawmakers this week to intimately discuss the impact of the economic and housing downturn on Main Street Americans.

This year has proved to be one of the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) best yet in terms of loan originations – during FY 2008, which officially ended for the agency on September 30, lenders originated a record $171.