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Tag Archives: Federal Reserve

Experts See Risk of a Housing Bubble Resulting from Fed Policies

A majority of real estate experts responding to a recent Zillow survey expressed some concern that the Federal Reserve's current policies could lead to another housing bubble. Only 4 percent of respondents are not at all worried about a bubble resulting from the Fed's monetary policy that is keeping mortgage rates down. However, 48 percent see the Fed's policies as ""a little risky,"" and the remaining 48 percent categorized the risk as ""moderate to high risk."" Experts also expect prices to end this year 5.4 percent higher than their level at the start of the year.

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Mortgage Credit Eases as Demand Increases in Q2

The percentage of banks reporting stronger demand for mortgage loans rose in the second quarter, the Federal Reserve reported Monday, with more banks easing lending standards. Those results, revealed in the Fed's Senior Loan Officers Opinion Survey, are consistent with reports that mortgage loans are becoming easier to obtain. While the results suggest a trend in lending standards, they could be misleading: A bank which has tightened standards as much as possible may not necessarily ease them.

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Fourth Round of Foreclosure Review Checks Sent, Bringing Total to 3.9M

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced the fourth round of checks from the foreclosure review settlement was sent Friday, May 3. The most recent batch includes 233,404 checks totaling more than $224 million, which brings the overall total to 3.9 million checks valued at $3.4 billion. As of May 2, more than 1.8 million recipients have cashed or deposited nearly $1.7 billion in checks from the foreclosure agreement reached in January between federal regulators and 13 servicers.

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First-Time Jobless Claims Drop to 5-Year Low

First-time claims for unemployment insurance for the week ending April 27 dropped 18,000 to 324,000, the lowest level in more than five years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected claims to increase to 354,000 initial claims. Initial jobless claims for the week ending April 20 were revised up to 344,000 from the originally reported 342,000.

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FOMC Raps Obama, Congress as It Continues MBS Purchase Program

With a swipe at both the President and Congress and concerns about ""downside risks"" to the economy, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) voted 11-1 Wednesday to leave interest rates unchanged and to continue its program of purchasing agency mortgage backed securities and longer term Treasury securities. The FOMC explained the actions should ""maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative."" Kansas City Fed President Esther George, cast the lone negative vote.

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More than 220K Foreclosure Review Checks Scheduled for May 3

The checks for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley borrowers covered under the foreclosure review settlement should be mailed out Friday, May 3, the Federal Reserve announced Monday. The next batch of payments will go out to more than 220,000 borrowers who had a mortgage in any stage of the foreclosure process in 2009 and 2010 that was serviced by one of the former subsidiaries, Litton Loan Servicing LP or Saxon Mortgage Services, Inc. The checks for the borrowers are valued at $247 million.

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Q1 GDP Shows Sharp Gain Over Previous Quarter

The nation's economy rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.5 percent in the first quarter, slightly slower than economists had expected but more than six times the growth rate in the fourth quarter, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at a 3.1 percent pace. Residential fixed investment added $11.8 billion to GDP, down from the $15.3 billion contribution in the fourth quarter, and spending on non-residential structures actually subtracted from GDP, albeit a scant $200 million.

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OCC Announces Send Off for 2nd Batch of Foreclosure Review Checks

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced the second wave of payments resulting from the foreclosure settlement with federal regulators and 13 servicers was sent Friday. The most recent batch of relief payments includes 1.4 million checks totaling $1.2 billion. So far, 2.8 million checks totaling $2.4 billion have been sent.

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Beige Book Sees Moderate Growth Despite Sequester Threat

Despite threats from the federal budget sequester, the nation's economy expanded ""at a moderate pace"" from late February to early April, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday in its periodic ""Beige Book. Activity in five Federal Reserve Districts--Cleveland, Richmond, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Kansas City--was described as growing at a moderate pace, while in five other districts-- Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, and San Francisco--growth was notched slightly slower as ""modest.""

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Hearing Raises Foreclosure Settlement Concerns

As more details of the foreclosure settlement emerge, additional concerns and questions continue to be raised. During a hearing before a Senate committee, Debby Goldberg of the National Fair Housing Alliance addressed a handful of those concerns. One issue dealt with how the 13 servicers part of the settlement would receive credit for the $5.7 billion in mortgage assistance they agreed to provide. Goldberg says that unlike the national mortgage settlement (NMS), the Independent Foreclosure Review settlement ""bases the amount of credit the servicer receives on the unpaid balance of the loan, rather than the amount of assistance provided to the borrower.""

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