Here are a couple of interesting articles by the Associated Press published within the last couple of days.
I found this one in the San Francisco Chronicle in last Sunday's Real Estate section.
Mortgage Rates Hit 8-Month High
30-yr loans climb a quarter point over the previous week
Essentially the article discusses the mortgage rate crisis, which, as the title suggests, are at an 8-month high. According to mortgage company Freddie Mac, 30-yr fixed rate mortgages jumped from 6.09% two weeks ago to 6.32% last week. Rates haven't been this bad since last October, when interest rates briefly rose to 6.33%.
30-yr mortgages aren't the only types affected--15-yr mortgages showed a similar leap, as did 5-yr and 1-yr adjustable-rate mortgages.
This one was published in Mercury News--
Lenders Pledge Speedy Response on Loan Help
Mortgage companies have been under attack lately because most of the country feels they aren't doing their part to halt the housing crisis. So now, as part of the Hope Now alliance (a Bush-backed industry group that includes Wells Fargo, Bank of America, WaMu, and Citicgroup) participating mortgage companies have vowed to notify borrowers "whether they're approved for help" within a short grace period of receiving a homeowner's appliaction.
The article touches on the new set of guidelines and some of the arguments about the effort's effectiveness.
This quote caught my eye--
"Housing counselors have complained that the process of loan modifications is bureaucratic and difficult to understand, and say it is tough for consumers to get someone on the phone with the authority to help."
The program is also completely voluntary, so changes aren't going to come about at a serious level for some time. In the article, John Taylor (president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition) calls the news "baby steps". Seems like a pretty fair assessment.
