Just Home Mortgages

Why are the mansions of one of America’s richest women sitting vacant? Click to follow this photo narrative of the reclusive Huguette Clark and her father, William Andrews Clark, the “Paris millionaire senator.” Where is Huguette Clark? And what will become of her fortune?

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RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. households facing foreclosure in February grew 6 percent from the year-ago level, the smallest annual increase in four years.

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Reuters - U.S. mortgage foreclosure filings dropped for a second straight month in February, and notched the smallest annual increase in four years as housing-rescue efforts contained activity, a report released on Thursday showed.

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AP - The foreclosure crisis isn’t over, but the pace of growth may finally be slowing down.

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AP - FORECLOSURES UP: Foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac says the number of households facing foreclosure last month grew 6 percent from a year ago.

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AP - The head of the Federal Housing Administration is warning that boosting the minimum down payment borrowers must provide to qualify for home loans backed by the agency could threaten the housing market.

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AP - Fannie Mae on Thursday said it will offer $6 billion of new 3-year notes due May 7, 2013.

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The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell 2 basis points from the prior week in Freddie Mac’s latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey.

Freddie said the average one-year adjustable-rate mortgage improved 5 BPS from a week earlier.

New loan activity was down 3% from last week, with the latest Mortech-MortgageDaily.com Mortgage Market Index declining to 34.00 inquiries-per-user from 35.21 a week earlier.

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The 60-day delinquency rate on securitized prime jumbo mortgages increased 30 basis points between January and February, Fitch Ratings reported.

Fitch said delinquency on jumbo loans securitized during 2006 and 2007 was three times as bad as the rate on pre-2005 issuances.

Moody’s Investors Service said last month that it downgraded 32 tranches from 2005, 2006 and 2007 residential mortgage-backed securities because of "rapidly deteriorating performance of jumbo pools in conjunction with macroeconomic conditions."

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In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s president and chief executive officer outlined his group’s position on the Obama Administration’s package of Federal Housing Administration reforms.

He told lawmakers that the administration seeks to give FHA the authority to nationally suspend a lender based of the performance of one of its regional branches.

But he said FHA needs to think twice before making such a move.

He also warned about an across-the-board decrease in FHA loan-to-values.

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