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Reuters - Bank of America Corp reported
quarterly profit on Monday that fell less than expected on
record revenue, boosting shares of the largest U.S. retail bank
and mortgage lender despite a surge in bad loans.
Speaking in Boston at the Managed Funds Association Seminar on Sound Practices for Hedge Fund Managers, Acting Undersecretary for Domestic Finance Anthony Ryan said on Monday he expects GSE legislation to be passed soon by Congress.
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Reuters - Demand for debt sold by mortgage
finance company Freddie Mac weakened on Monday while a
prominent analyst estimated Freddie and Fannie Mae, the largest
U.S. home funding sources, each need to raise up to $15 billion
in fresh capital.
Current Rate: 2.00%
Next Rate Decision: Aug. 5
Market
Expectations: The OIS implied rate suggests markets are 16% priced in for
a 25bp hike at the next meeting and are pricing in a 41%
chance of a quarter-point hike at the September meeting.
Last week was a fairly busy week for Federal Reserve news, with two days of testimony from Chairman Ben Bernanke before the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday and the House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services on Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee released the minutes from its June 24-25 monetary policy meeting.
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AFP - British lender HBOS failed on Monday to raise almost eight billion dollars from shareholders to boost finances hit by the global credit crisis, forcing the underwriting banks to step in.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday morning that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC,) rather than being part of the solution to the subprime mortgage crisis, was actually among those institutions that caused it.
Superior Bank was, in the early 2000s, a leading subprime lender and that operation continued, under FDIC supervision, for months. During this time, according to the Journal, Superior funded more than...
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According to economists and strategists, the U.S. housing market is going to be the top news in the U.S. Along with new and existing home sales, the Fed beige book and the durable goods report will provide important glimpses into the economy. In Canada, markets will pay attention to retail sales and inflation data.
Click below for a complete lineup of news and events for this week.
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According to Scotiabank's Global Outlook released Monday, sharp monetary policy easing, a generous fiscal stimulus package and massive liquidity injections are not sufficient to ward off a deterioration in U.S. economic conditions as the subprime crisis continues to take its toll on the economy and government spending soars to unprecedented levels.
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Speaking in multiple interviews over the weekend, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson continued to push for his plan to provide an unlimited line of credit to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prevent the institutions from going under.
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AFP - Europe's main stock markets fell on Monday when the financial services sector was dampened by news of a disappointing rights issue from British home loan provider HBOS, dealers said.
AP - Odd alliances are at work as President Bush and congressional Democrats band together to save Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Reuters - The U.S. economy will need months to
recover from a growth slowdown caused by a home mortgage
crisis, turmoil in financial markets and high energy prices,
Treasure Secretary Henry Paulson said on Sunday.
Last week a gentleman contacted me about helping him buy a house in the Norwood Park neighborhood of Chicago. Back in 2006 I sold a fixer-upper on Hortense Street in Norwood Park (shown left) and the response was the strongest I’ve ever seen! By the end of the first week on market the house had 5 offers, with 2 of them above list price!
More than one buyer included a letter with their offer about how much they wanted move back to Norwood Park. There were so many people interested in the home that one neighbor complained about all the inquires, so I had the for sale sign removed before the sale closed.
For the first 6 months of 2006, the median house price in Norwood Park was $371K. Today, houses for sale in Norwood Park are more affordable. For the first 6 months of this year, the median house price was $330K.
So I’ve decided to take a stab at real estate investing. I found a duplex for sale in Los Angeles. The property is a short sale. The owner bought it in November 2005 for $417,000. He put no money down and promptly took out what looks like another $60,000 in a home equity loan, most likely to remodel it. How he got a home equity loan on a property he had no equity in is beyond me. All the loans were supplied by Countrywide.
When I saw it, the property was listed at $385,000. It’s cute, nicely remodeled. The neighborhood also looked nice and it’s blocks from a pretty college campus. The part of town as a whole is largely blue collar and nearby there are issues with gangs, but more and more artsy types are moving to the area.
I offered $350,000 plus all closing costs, an amount my Realtor and the listing agents suggested was too low. Days later I saw the price knocked down to my $350,000 offer on a real estate Web site. I called the listing agent furious that he was trying to smoke out other offers by advertising my low bid to the world. The agent told me he had reduced the price to $350,000 in the MLS but that turned out not to be true. I grew concerned that other things he had told me might not be true. What if the apartments weren’t really renting for what he said? I withdrew my offer.
Did I do the right thing?
AP - Mortgage financier Freddie Mac took a step toward issuing common and preferred stock to help bolster its balance sheet Friday when the Securities and Exchange Commission accepted its registration statement filed earlier in the day.
Some of you may remember Tim Mullaney, who worked for BW for a number of years and wrote some nice guest blogs for Hot Property. Tim has since moved on to bigger and better things--or different things, anyhow--and now has his own blog called It's Only Temporary. The blog name, he says, comes from
Anyway, here's one blog and here's another that he wrote upon discovering that the house he grew up in is being sold as a foreclosed property. He had a crazy idea about buying it himself but I think he's gotten over that.
