Borrower's Outlook
LenderStreet's columnists (that's us over there) join forces with lenders in your area to keep tabs on the mortgage market. Together we offer timely insights toward a positive loan experience.
May
26
2011
Moving day had finally arrived. I was ill; so my body and brain were not functioning at the highest level during this move.
May
11
2011
Although we had signed the papers, picked up the keys, and walked into our own home for the first time, we still could not move in right away. Walls needed repainting, carpets needed cleaning, and lights needed to be added. Likewise, everything needed to be sanitized and the locks changed.
When it comes to housing and mortgages, logic has not been part of the equation for the last 20 or so years.
Why do we have so many homes that are underwater and so many foreclosures? Well, Americans wanted the biggest house they could afford (or thought they could afford); lenders were willing to give out loans like Happy Meal toys; and the combination has produced a system that needs to be fixed.
Apr
29
2011
Nothing compares to the confusion that occurs during the mortgage process, especially if you have never purchased a home. I am a very prepared person when it comes to finances, but even I learned some extremely valuable information.
Apr
25
2011
I already explained how we found our condo. After that, we had to figure out how to pay for it. Yikes!
Apr
18
2011
I understand that finding an agent is usually a word-of-mouth process, but I don’t know anybody who has bought a home in the area recently, so I went to the search engines. I Googled and Binged agents around the Kansas City area until my fingers bled (not really) and either called or emailed every one of them.
Apr
15
2011
When we graduated college and moved to the city, my boyfriend and I believed that renting was the only option. Buying did not even cross our minds.
Read more about our decision to buy a home
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Nov
03
2010
If someone falls, the humane reaction is to lend a hand and help him up. If a family cannot pay their mortgage, in a perfect world, the bank would work with the borrowers and help them figure out a mortgage they can pay.
That’s the theory behind loan modifications – lending a helping hand to the borrower. But instead, banks have lent one hand and then pushed down with the other. Loan modifications rarely work. Lenders lose documents and delay the process, or they modify the loan to terms that really are not much better than they were before.
Find out why a loan mod could become more realistic
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The push for postponement of impending foreclosures across the country because of carelessness by banks is picking up steam.
President Barack Obama plans to pocket veto a bill that would have allowed notarizations of mortgages and financial documents from one state be recognized in other states.
Read what this means for current and future foreclosures
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Oct
05
2010
The New York Times ran a story on Thursday about foreclosure scrutiny increasing across the country because some lenders and lawyers tried to cut corners to speed the foreclosure process along.
Read what this means for existing foreclosures
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Sep
20
2010
We seem to be at the point in the housing bust where no one really knows what will happen. You have a lot of wacky ideas out there about what to do and a plethora of government programs that are meant to start a recovery or at least reduce the damage.
See what a Fannie Mae survey says about the future
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Sep
13
2010
The Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was meant to help homeowners who were trying to do the right thing.
Now many of those homeowners, who have loans with big banks (Bank of America, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase) are at risk of losing their homes, which is the reason for several lawsuits against the banks, as USA Today chronicled in this story over the weekend.
Read what's happened to the HAMP participants
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Sep
10
2010
There’s a lot of debate in government and in the blogosphere about what’s happened to the housing market since the homebuyer tax credit expired.
The carnage is clear in the numbers. Since the tax credit ended, home purchases have dropped significantly, despite a recent bump (see graph). As the New York Times reported last weekend in a story about what to do about the housing crisis, sales of new homes are lower than the worst point of the recession of the early 1980s, and mortgage rates at that time were double what they are now.
Read why the housing market has suffered since the tax credit ended
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Sep
02
2010
Tiger Woods is moving into a new Florida neighborhood (mailboxes beware) and has a new Manhattan apartment, two signs that he’s about to regain his form on the golf course.
According to TMZ, Woods took out a $54.5 million loan for his new Florida mansion that will be paid off by 2016. If only everyone could pay off a mortgage in six years… goodbye housing crisis.
Read how Tiger's real estate purchases could fix his game
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Aug
27
2010
The government is trying to protect consumers from bad loans, but needs to reevaluate its approach.
Read about how mortgage laws are hurting consumers
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Jul
19
2010
It’s been four days since the Senate approved the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which will begin to go into effect on Wednesday when President Obama signs the bill. The reaction from the mortgage industry has been mostly against the bill, which was represented by my interview with Bill Kidwell on Friday.
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