Touch that rail and your campaign was dead if you were running for office.

Now, housing seems to have replaced Social Security as the 3^rd rail of politics.

Why aren’t any of the presidential candidates talking about solutions for our struggling national housing industry?

Do the candidates think the issue is unimportant?

Or, is it because they can’t come up with any solutions?

It should be apparent to everyone by now that low interest rates alone will not propel our housing market back to health.

How about some ideas, guys?

Information about a home listed for sale in MLS was scraped from a real estate agent’s website and posted on Craigslist as a home for rent.

The ad said the owner was out of the country, wanted to rent the home, and that the keys would be sent upon receipt of the security deposit.

The renter sent their deposit and, unfortunately, the keys were not sent.

Be careful when responding to Craigslist ads about real estate.

While short on details, the plan would supposedly allow homeowners to refinance their mortgages at today’s low rates.

This is interesting because the vaunted new HARP 2.0 refinancing program essentially offers the same concept.

Critics have been quick to weigh in on the program, pointing out that it would only apply to borrowers whose loans are NOT guaranteed by FHA, Fannie Mae, or Freddie Mac.

I am left wondering how this would work, given that FHA, Fannie, and Freddie hold the majority of all existing mortgage loans.

The program would be funded by additional “small upfront fees”, charged by the lenders.

Given that there’s no free lunch, those small upfront fees (just how small would they be?) would be passed on to borrowers, which would increase their cost of borrowing, thereby making it more difficult to qualify for refinancing.

But wait,  we could add those small upfront fees to the loan and end up with the borrower even deeper underwater!

Source: DSNews.com article

2012 will likely be the year that federal government requires standardization of mortgage loan servicing policies.

Look for more loan modifications and perhaps even some principal reductions as these policies are implemented.

But, don’t expect simple, easy-to-understand, logical, sensible solutions.

After all, these changes will be mandated by the federal government.

Source: DSNews.com article

New regulations will include stricter requirements for lenders as a condition of being allowed to continue issuing FHA loans.

Also expected are new lending guidelines that will reduce the amount allowed for seller-paid buyer closing costs.

Source: DSNews.com article

Bank of America has been forced to restructure and reduce its workforce as it deals with a mountain of delinquent mortgage loans.

The company slashed 7,000 jobs during the fourth quarter of 2011 and expects to cut more jobs this year.

As part of those cuts, B of A paid out $239 million in severance payments during the last three months of 2011.

To deal with its “legacy mortgage problems” (aka bad loans), the bank has created a separate division called the Legacy Asset Servicing Division with 48,500 employees who do nothing but deal with troubled mortgage loans.

B of A currently has about $4 BILLION worth of delinquent mortgage loans on its books.

This is one very troubled company.

Source: HousingWire.com article

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan is pressing the lenders to provide up to $25 billion in relief to distressed homeowners in return for releasing them from potential government litigation over alleged improper foreclosures and abusive lending/servicing practices.

The proposed settlement could result in as much as $20,000 principal reduction for each of one million borrowers.

A possible settlement may be in the works, coming as soon as a few weeks from now.

I can only imagine how this will unfold and how many strings will be attached.

Who will define the eligibility criteria?

Who will receive the principal reductions?

One potential problem?  The IRS views debt forgiveness as a taxable event.

Stay tuned, folks.

Source: Reuters.com article

It seems that foreign homebuyers see homeownership in the U.S. as a good investment as they deal with financial crises abroad.

In other words, they’re happy to see U.S. real estate “on sale”

Nearly 80% of foreign-born U.S. residents own their own home vs. the 66.3% overall national homeownership rate.

The hottest states for foreign home buyers are California, Florida, and Arizona.

Foreign buyers represented $82 BILLION of the U.S. real estate market in 2010 vs. $66 BILLION in 2009.

Source: MSNBC.com article

It’s no secret that B of A is troubled, largely due to its mortgage lending division.

The bank bought Countrywide Home Loans in 2008, and has since been burdened with Countrywide’s bad loans, foreclosures, and litigation tied to soured mortgage-backed securities.

The Federal Reserve Board (Fed) has put the bank on notice that it needs to raise additional capital (money!).

Now, in a proposal to the Fed, B of A has said that it could sell branches around the country in an emergency.

B of A has about 5,700 branches and already has announced plans to shutter about 750 locations as part of a cost-cutting initiative.

B of A got a bailout from the federal government in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, but remains weakened.

B of A’s stock closed at $6.61 Friday and is down 87% over the past five years (click on the 5-year chart in the CNNMoney.com stock quote link).

Am I the only one who thinks B of A is likely to get another bailout?

Source: Reuters.com article

Citing frustration over new lending regulations, parent company MetLife had been trying to sell the mortgage division since last October, but was unable to find a buyer.

MetLife Home Loans was the 13^th largest mortgage originator in the country in 2010, writing more than $22 billion in home loans.

The company will continue to write reverse mortgages.

The company’s closure will result in job losses for most of its 4,300 employees, including about 1,500 sales associates.

Source: HousingWire.com article