Mortgage Rates Remain Steady While Homeowners Rush to Refinance

Potential homebuyers and homeowners looking to refinance are still seeing a window of opportunity as mortgage rates mostly held steady in the past week.

30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 3.93% with an average 0.6 point for the week ending Aug. 20, 2015, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly market survey. A year ago, the rate averaged 4.10%.
15-year fixed rates slipped to 3.15% with an average 0.6 point. The same term priced at 3.23% a year ago.
5-year adjustable-rate mortgages were 2.94% with an average 0.5 point. Last year at this time the same ARM averaged 2.95%.
“There was little movement in financial markets this week as the 30-year fixed mortgage rate remained steady, dropping only 1 basis point to 3.93%,” Sean Becketti, chief economist for Freddie Mac, said in a release. “Housing markets have responded positively to low mortgage rates — the 30-year fixed mortgage rate has been below 4% for five consecutive weeks. Overall housing markets remain on track for the best year since 2007.”

Homeowners refinance amid favorable rates
As mortgage rates remain in the neighborhood of 4%, borrowers are taking the opportunity to refinance higher-rate home loans. The Mortgage Bankers Association reports refinance applications were up 7% from the previous week, through Aug. 14. Demand was particularly driven by jumbo loan refinancing.

Overall mortgage application volume gained 3.6%.

New housing starts highest since 2007
The housing inventory shortage may be soon be seeing some relief. New construction is gaining momentum, as single-family housing starts rose 12.8% in July, according to the National Association of Home Builders. That’s the fastest pace of new home starts since Oct. 2007.

“Our builders are reporting more confidence in the market, and are stepping up production of single-family homes as a result,” said Tom Woods, NAHB Chairman, in a release. “However, builders are still reporting problems accessing land and labor.”

The recovery varies widely by region, however. Combined single-family and multifamily new construction starts rose in the Midwest (+20.1%) and South (+7.7%) but fell in the Northeast (-27.5%) and West (-3.1%).

read more: http://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/mortgages/mortgage-rates/mortgage-roundup-820/

Tech takes paperwork out of home mortgages

Doug Johnson serves as the chief financial officer of two hospitals in the Wisconsin-Minnesota border area but doesn’t consider himself to be especially tech-savvy.

Nevertheless, he was able to complete the entire mortgage-application process for an Arizona vacation home that he and his wife wanted to buy, entirely online. That included shopping for interest rates and terms, inputting personal information and uploading the required supporting documents, including copies of income-tax returns, pay stubs, bank statements and more.

“It went without a hitch,” said Johnson, 47, who admits he was initially concerned about online security. “If you have access to the Internet and a cheap scanner, that’s all you need.”

Johnson did the mortgage-application process through Guaranteed Rate, a national residential mortgage lender based in Chicago. The company’s software guides applicants through the loan-shopping exercise and lets them input personal data, see their credit scores, upload key documents through a private and secure system and receive online approval. Applicants going through the company’s all-digital route currently can qualify for a $250 credit on closing costs.

Guaranteed Rate claims it has the first all-digital mortgage, but many competitors also are going in the same direction, letting customers apply for mortgages, process much of the paperwork and do related tasks day or night, using a desktop computer, tablet or smartphone.

No longer such a slog

Applying for a mortgage and supplying supporting documents — traditionally one of the most time-consuming, paperwork-intensive and frustrating financial exercises around — increasingly is being automated. That means applicants will find the process easier, faster and, possibly, less expensive than before.

Americans already have embraced online interactions for other financial products and services. They pay bills online, check credit card transactions, buy and sell stocks, adjust 401(k) balances and pull up their credit reports. The vast majority of taxpayers file their tax returns online.

Five years from now, digital applications and document submission for home loans might be just as prevalent, though it isn’t quite there yet.

“It’s not as widespread as you might think,” said Rick Hill, vice president of industry technology for the Mortgage Bankers Association. Many people still prefer to meet face to face with a loan officer, especially first-time home buyers.

read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2015/08/14/digital-breakthroughs-improve-home-mortgage-process/31182619/

IJReview, The News Startup Next Door To A Political Consulting Agency, Wants To ‘Win 2016’

The right-leaning news startup Independent Journal Review has one declared goal: to be the media’s “breakout star” of this election cycle. “The key thing for us is to win 2016,” Executive Editor Michelle Jaconi told International Business Times Monday.

The site, founded by a former media director for the GOP and once hailed as “the right-wing Upworthy” -- a shorthand the company dislikes -- is riding high after scoring airtime on each of the cable networks last week for its slick videos featuring Republican presidential candidates during the buildup to the GOP’s first debate in Cleveland.

Like BuzzFeed’s recent foray into collaborations with candidates, the videos get chummy with the politicians, in order to “tell their amazing stories,” according to Jaconi. Last week’s standout, a black-and-white video hyping the GOP candidates’ debate rituals, looks like an ad for Grey Goose vodka or Guess jeans, blaring game-time music as the contenders moodily stare into the camera and share their inner thoughts. (Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker embarks on an Olympic jog filmed in slow motion.)

It’s a good example of the site’s grasp on how to make hip, polished and viral videos designed to go wild on Facebook. Combined with its curiosity gap-exploiting headlines and sleek, mobile friendly site design, it’s easy to see how IJReview cornered the market of Internet-savvy conservatives. All the exposure during the manic debate coverage seems to have broken the once-obscure site into the mainstream.

Humble Beginnings

From a small band of 10 employees in 2013, IJReview -- which will soon be rebranded simply “IJ” -- now boasts more than 60 editorial staffers, having poached the likes of reporter Hunter Schwarz from the Washington Post and Jaconi herself from CNN. It just brought on a new chief operating officer, former Google and DoubleClick executive Brandon Paine. The heads of IJReview told IBTimes that the site currently enjoys upwards of 35 million unique visits a month. (Quantcast gives it 22 million.)

Other “wins” abound: IJReview will be partnering with ABC in February to produce one of the Republican debates, and unlike the bombastic Breitbart News or Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller, the site has earned enough love from liberal journalists to merit an admiring profile at MSNBC. Jaconi asserted that IJReview is now the “third-biggest news company in the U.S.,” according to Quantcast data.


read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/ijreview-news-startup-next-door-political-consulting-agency-wants-win-2016-2048720

Moss Adams Merges in Curtis Consulting Group

Top 100 accounting and business consulting firm Moss Adams announced it has agreed to combine with boutique IT consulting firm Curtis Consulting Group (CCG) to expand the firm’s IT consulting and software development capabilities. Issaquah, Wash.-based CCG offers services in business process improvement and business process automation and develops custom solutions that integrate these processes and technology. The solutions include operational business applications with connections to large enterprise-wide systems like SAP and People Soft. The merger will bring CCG’s professionals into Moss Adams’ IT consulting practice, creating a team of 45 to be led by CCG founder Mark Curtis in the role of partner. The team’s expertise as programmers and project managers was especially attractive to Moss Adams, which ranked No. 15 in Accounting Today’s Top 100 Firms with $429 million in annual revenue. Tom Krippaehne, managing partner of Moss Adams Advisory Services and director of the IT consulting group, helped initiate the eight-month process of combining the firms based on his relationship with Curtis. “It’s a big opportunity we see to build out our cybersecurity capabilities,” said Moss Adams chairman and CEO Chris Schmidt, explaining that CCG’s expertise will augment the firm’s current services in IT security assessments and penetration testing. “And with clients, to make their systems talk together better—most middle-market clients are fighting that fight. Then downstream we can build up our cybersecurity practice.” The CCG team will work symbiotically with Moss Adams’ various practice leaders, Schmidt explained, especially the firm’s healthcare and financial services practices requiring greater security and privacy compliance. Across all industries, Schmidt expects the team’s capabilities in systems integration and business processes to meet current client demands. “I don’t think there’s a client dealing with consumers that doesn’t have a concern about cybersecurity,” Schmidt said. “What we need to do, is make sure we listen to clients and scale the services we provide to them, based on the size of their business, but it runs the full gamut of clients.” “Moss Adams and CCG people operate similarly in terms of behavior, collaboration and service delivery,” Curtis said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to combining forces and having more resources available to meet our client needs, as well as engaging with a new set of interesting and dynamic organizations.” source http://www.accountingtoday.com/accounting-technology/news/moss-adams-merges-in-curtis-consulting-group-75445-1.html

Fed: Business Credit Cheaper; Jumbo Mortgages Easier to Get

Credit standards continued to ease in most commercial and consumer loan categories, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest survey of senior loan officers released today. Banks reported significant easing of terms and costs of credit for commercial and industrial loans, as well as easing standards across a broad range of mortgage products. A net 21.4 percent said the cost of credit for larger businesses had eased, and 18.8 percent said cost of credit had fallen for small business borrowers. Loan rate spreads for C&I loans narrowed across the board; a net 42.8 percent said spreads narrowed on loans to larger firms, while 36.2 percent said spreads narrowed on loans to smaller borrowers. Most respondents attributed the easing standards to robust competition and moderately stronger demand. Fewer loan officers reported easing on commercial real estate loans, with around 20 percent saying demand was up in different CRE loan categories. Among consumer loans, lenders left standards little read more: http://bankingjournal.aba.com/2015/08/fed-business-credit-cheaper-jumbo-mortgages-easier-to-get/

Underwater mortgages hold housing market back

Despite several years of an improving housing market, a large share of Georgia homeowners are still “seriously underwater” – owing 25 percent more on their mortgages than their homes can bring in a sale. About 17.3 percent of all the homes in the state that have a mortgage are underwater, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac, a California-based real estate research firm. That compares to the national rate of 13.3 percent, which represents more than 7.4 million homes, said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. That share had been falling steadily, but the slide has leveled off, he said. “Slowing home price appreciation in 2015 has resulted in the share of seriously underwater properties plateauing.” A year ago, 18.7 percent of Georgia mortgages were underwater. The state has the seventh-highest share of seriously underwater homes, according to the RealtyTrac calculation. Worst on the list is Nevada with 25 percent of mortgages in that category. Underwater mortgages can be an obstacle to a housing resurgence. That is because few homeowners are willing and able to take a loss on the sale of a home. The result is that many homeowners sit tight when they might prefer to sell. Those who are “seriously underwater” are the least likely to move. Homeowners who are underwater can also be hamstrung financially. They are unable to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of low interest rates and they cannot access the value of their homes with homes to pay bills. The American economy thrives on motion. In most markets and most situations, the more transactions, the better. But underwater mortgages chills the market in two ways: homeowners are prevented from buying other homes, while their own homes are kept off the market. The real estate markets in Atlanta and Georgia were among the leaders in the years of the housing bubble. And the burst of the bubble did greater-than-average damage here. Average prices have now been rising for several years, and the market in many areas has bounced back. But in many places, prices are still far below their peak levels leading to the burst of bubble. And while the RealtyTrac data indicates a residual problem, it doesn’t include all the people who are prevented from moving because they are just moderately underwater or only slightly above it. Of homes owned for nine years, more than one in five is seriously underwater, RealtyTrac said. And nearly 40 percent of underwater homes were purchased seven to 11 years ago, according to RealtyTrac. That would include properties bought between 2004 and 2008, years that straddle the burst of the bubble. read more http://www.ajc.com/news/business/underwater-mortgages-hold-housing-market-back/nm87q/

Hispanics face hurdles in access to credit, mortgages

WASHINGTON

They make up the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population yet Hispanics are increasingly locked out of home ownership because of tighter lending standards that rely on outdated measures of creditworthiness.

Comprising more than 17 percent of the population right now and projected to double, Hispanics are a political and economic force to be reckoned with. And they potentially represent an answer to turning around a sagging national home ownership rate that’s approaching levels not seen since before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The national rate of home ownership fell to 63.8 percent over the first three months of 2015. The last time it was lower was the final quarter of 1989 when it stood at 63.7 percent.

The problem for Hispanics, who in 2014 had an ownership rate of 45.4 percent, a 14-year low, is that conventional tools for gauging creditworthiness are locking them out in large numbers.

“Communities of color under the current scoring model aren’t being accurately captured,” said Joe Nery, president-elect of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. “You don’t have the opportunity to establish your credit.”

Hispanics are more likely to pay in cash, and have extended families under a single roof with a higher tendency to pool resources. Yet that counts for little in the traditional scores used by credit-reporting agencies and banks to determine whether an applicant qualifies for a mortgage or car loan.

“The current (credit) models established in the 1980s and early ’90s really don’t account for those methods of payment,” said Nery, a Realtor in Chicago. “Unfortunately that limits the access to loan products, especially for those of minority descent.”

In fact, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a report in early May noting that 26 million Americans are “credit invisible,” meaning they have no credit history on file with any of the major credit-reporting companies such as Experian, Equifax and Transunion. About 15 percent of African-American and Hispanic consumers are among those 26 million, the report said.

Currently, credit reporting is dominated by FICO scores. They date back to 1956, when software developers Bill Fair and Earl Isaac created a program to gauge the risk of a consumer credit default. Lenders now purchase more than 10 billion FICO credit scores annually for use in making loan decisions. Consumers are granted free access to their FICO score.

FICO’s current methodology dates back to around 2004, and relies on a borrower’s income, payment history, debt load and to a lesser degree how often lenders take a look at a borrower’s credit history.

Here’s the rub for Hispanic borrowers: When looking at payment history, the FICO scoring relies on whether payments have been timely on credit card bills, mortgages, car loans and the like. There’s greater weight given to lengthy repayment of credit.

“For most first-time homebuyers … their largest monthly expense is their rent payment,” said Joe Castillo, the managing broker at ERA Mi Casa Real Estate in Chicago. “And at the current time the credit agencies do not provide landlords larger or even small avenues to report that payment. So that is a huge misstep, or missed opportunity.”

That’s the problem Maria Flores faces in the Hispanic suburbs of Chicago. She sold her home at a loss several years ago amid the Great Recession, and is trying to buy again but her on-time rental payments aren’t factored into her ability to pay. It’s ironic because her monthly mortgage payment had been $2,000 a month. Her rising rental payments now are $1,800, which she routinely pays on time.

“For a bank, we are too low-income,” said Flores, whose truck-driving husband is an owner-operator who earns more than $100,000 before expenses. “Before, it was fine. It was the same as we earn now!”

Post-crisis lending standards are decidedly tougher, and that hits all borrowers. But for Hispanics there’s also the real issue of what is being measured. Cell phone payments are also not counted in conventional payment history. That would have helped Flores, who said she had no credit problems until the Great Recession.

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article28765174.html