Justin 's Network

EC&I 831: social media & open education

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John Rivera on 2008-05-02

via courosa on Twitter

MMG Weekly

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It takes about four months for home loan originations to become securities - and summer originations were light, allowing the decreased Fed purchases during the fall to still help handle the flow of Mortgage Backed Securities coming to market at that time. But loan origination volume increased in late summer and early fall, due to lower home loan rates as well as the perceived expiration of the Home Buyer Tax Credit, which has since been extended. This increased volume of home loans are now securitized and hitting the markets, at a time when the Fed is buying less.

As with any item, when there is lots of supply - in this case, the increased volume of Mortgage Backed Securities - and diminishing demand - i.e. the Fed buying less and less - Economics 101 tells us that the price of that item will subsequently go down. And as Mortgage Backed Security or Mortgage Bond prices go down, home loan rates go up, which is what we saw happen throughout December. While rates were able to end last week at about the same place as they began the week, they did worsen about .50% from the beginning of December to the end.

My bookmarks are my digital memory.
Unclutter your mind.

I’m all for not having to remember tech tutorials or the tour company we used in NYC, bookmarks allow me to archive that knowledge. They are my digital library.
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- Your browser enables you to save a link, place it in a folder, and possibly add a few tags (which you probably don’t use).
  
  Can you annotate a link?
  How about highlighting a portion of the page?
  Does it take a snapshot of the page?
  Will it create lists? Generate reports?
  How effectively can you search your bookmarks?
  
  How much more useful and complete would your links become with these tools?
- Hyperlinks are pieces of information, we need context. What was important about the link? What we need is a library that has information about the data we collecting.
- Welcome to Diigo
  
  Social bookmarking and a whole lot more.
- As you can see Diigo is an amazing tool that can revolutionize how you research and archive the web.
- How Diigo can make you more productive?
  
  Diigo’s research tools make archiving a breeze so you will build a much more complete and useful reference system. An online database that you can search and share with ease.
- TakeAways
  
  Bookmarking prevents us from having to remember.
  Our bookmarks become a personal reference library
  Diigo’s superior tools will help you create an amazing library.

10-things-to-know-about-real-estate-in-2010: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

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That said, here are 10 things to know about real estate in 2010:
1. Prices to bottom: After more than three years of falling, real estate values have shown signs of stabilization in recent months. At the national level, home prices slid nearly 9 percent between the third quarter of 2008 and the same period this year, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller home price report. That's a notable improvement from the second quarter's nearly 15 percent annual drop and the first quarter's 19 percent decline. This improvement will give way to a bottom in home prices--finally!--in 2010, but not before additional declines, Zandi says. Zandi projects home prices will hit bottom in the third quarter of 2010 after logging a peak-to-trough decline of roughly 37 percent, based on the S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index. "That means we've got another roughly 10 percent [decline] to go,
Mortgage delinquencies up: Amid falling home prices and a nasty labor market, roughly 1 in every 7 mortgages was either past due or in foreclosure by the end of the third quarter
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- Two factors are expected to drive delinquencies even higher next year. First, nearly 1 in 4 homeowners currently owes more on their mortgage than the property is worth, which increases their odds of default. And secondly, the national unemployment rate--which already stands at 10 percent--will peak at about 10.5 percent in the first quarter of 2010
- "The [delinquency] rate is going to stay up there for quite a while because the job market is going to be really weak for a while
- Foreclosures move upstream: The number of foreclosure sales will increase to about 1.9 million in 2010, according to Moody's Economy.com. And while we've already seen a growing number of more expensive homes heading into foreclosure
- We are poised in 2010 to see a surge of foreclosures from prime borrowers. Hundreds of billions of dollars in option [adjustable rate] mortgages are set to be recast" next year
- These are [properties] at higher price points [and] potentially in more desirable neighborhoods
- Rates on 30-year, fixed mortgages fell to an average of 4.88 percent in November, down sharply from 6.09 a year earlier. A key factor behind the plunge was a Federal Reserve program, first announced in November of 2008, that purchased debt and mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But the program is slated to expire at the end of the first quarter, and if private investors don't step up, fixed mortgage rates could jump.
- The unwinding of this Fed program, the improving economy, and mounting concern over government deficits could push rates on 30-year, fixed mortgages to roughly 5.5 percent by mid-2010 and close to 6 percent by the end of the year
- With prices still falling, mortgage rates remaining historically attractive, and additional homes hitting the market in the form of foreclosures, the dynamics of the real estate market will continue to favor buyers over sellers in 2010. That means those looking to buy a home next year should not feel pressured to act impulsively. "You don't need to have a sense of urgency, but understand that as time progresses the balance of power as we get into 2010 is going to slowly but surely shift away from [buyers]," Larson says. "It is not going to be a strong seller's market, but it will be more evenly distributed as the year goes on." Data from the real estate firm Zillow show that home buyers are already losing the leverage they once enjoyed. While home buyers landed a median discount of 4.6 percent off listing prices in January, the size of the gap fell to 2.7 percent by October. Expect this gap to close further as 2010 marches on.
- the FHA's reserves have dipped below congressionally mandated levels. The development has put pressure on the Obama administration to beef up its requirements for agency-backed home loans. In early December, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it would make several changes to FHA mortgage requirements: raising up-front cash requirements, boosting minimum credit scores, and perhaps charging more for insurance premiums. Additional new restrictions may be in store. Taken together, the developments could work to choke off the supply of mortgage credit to borrowers who can't get financing elsewhere.
- sales and pricing trends will vary a great deal from one area to the next in 2010