Michael L Carley

10/13/2017

C.A.R. - Home Sales and Median Price to Increase in 2018 but at a Slower Pace

C.A.R. forecasts a modest gain in existing single-family home sales of 1.0 percent in 2018 to reach 426,200 units

The average for 30-year, fixed mortgage interest rates will increase slightly to 4.3 percent in 2018, up from 4.0 percent in 2017.

The California median home price is forecast to increase 4.2 percent to $561,000 in 2018, following a projected 7.2 percent increase in 2017 to $538,500.

"This year's housing market can be told as a tale of two markets – the inventory constrained lower end and the upper end that's non-inventory constrained," said C.A.R. Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. "This trend is likely to continue into 2018 as active listings have declined across all price ranges for the past two years, but is most obvious at the lower end."

09/09/2017

Equifax Data Breach: 143 Million People Could be Affected

From Equifax:
I. What Happened
On July 29, 2017, Equifax discovered that criminals exploited a U.S. website application vulnerability to gain access to certain files. Upon discovery, we acted immediately to stop the intrusion. The company promptly engaged a leading, independent cybersecurity firm which has been conducting a comprehensive forensic review to determine the scope of the intrusion, including the specific data impacted. Equifax also reported the criminal access to law enforcement and continues to work with authorities. Based on the company’s investigation, the unauthorized access occurred from mid-May through July 2017.

II. What Information Was Involved
Most of the consumer information accessed includes names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and in some instances, driver’s license numbers. In addition, credit card numbers for approximately 209,000 consumers and certain dispute documents, which included personal identifying information, for approximately 182,000 consumers were accessed. In addition to this site, Equifax will send direct mail notices to consumers whose credit card numbers or dispute documents with personal identifying information were impacted. We have found no evidence of unauthorized access to Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases.

My Response:
It took Equifax six weeks to disclose the breach. Why? That’s six weeks consumers could have been victimized without their knowledge and therefore left without the ability to take countermeasures.

Three Equifax executives sold shares after the discovery of the breach and before its public disclosure, according to Bloomberg. Let's call that Criminal.

Equifax wants you to trust them by selling you their “TrustedID Premier” credit monitoring service. That's rich. After a free year they'll start charging you $19.95 a month or maybe even more!

But be warned the TrustedID terms of service state that enrollees give up their right to sue Equifax and prevents them from filing or joining a class action in the case of any dispute — they’ll have to go to arbitration as individuals, which almost always places consumers at a disadvantage. It isn’t clear how those restrictions apply to preexisting data breaches, but judges have held in other cases that arbitration clauses may have retroactive effect.

If you want to check to see if you were one of the unlucky ones go to: https://www.equifaxsecurity2017.com/potential-impact/

08/18/2017

HARP Extended Through 2018

To ensure that high LTV borrowers who are eligible for HARP continue to have a refinance option, FHFA is directing the Fannie and Freddie to extend HARP through December 31, 2018.

The total number of HARP refinances since the inception of the program in 2009 totals 3,470,804.

According to new data released today, 143,051 borrowers could still benefit financially from a HARP refinance as of March 31, 2017. These borrowers meet the basic HARP eligibility requirements, have a remaining balance of $50,000 or more on their mortgage, have a remaining term on their loan of greater than 10 years, and their mortgage interest rate is at least 1.5 percent higher than current market rates. These borrowers could save, on average, $2,400 per year by refinancing their mortgage through HARP.

07/04/2017

U.S. Home Prices Hit Another New Peak, Up 5.8 Percent Year-Over-Year

At $272,000, the national-level HPI continued its upward trend, hitting another new peak in March 2017, marking a 2.3 percent gain in home prices since the start of the year.

San Jose, Calif., led the nation’s metropolitan areas with 2.6 percent monthly appreciation, followed by Seattle at 2.4 percent.

Three metropolitan areas have seen home prices rise by five percent or more since the start of the year: San Francisco (5.0 percent); Seattle (5.9 percent); and San Jose, Calif. (6.4 percent)

The state of California was up 1.6% for the month while the gain in Los Angeles was 1.6%, San Francisco 2.2% and Sacramento 2.0%.

06/24/2017

No More Offshoring: Nationstar Moving All Customer Service Operations Back to the U.S.

I have my issues with Nationstar but I fully applaud their latest initiative to close down their offshore service centers.

Nationstar Mortgage (soon to be Mr. Cooper) announced Wednesday that it is bringing its customer service operations back to the U.S. to help improve their customer experience.

“Our customers shared with us that speaking to U.S. based representatives would make their service experience better, so we prioritized that feedback and have invested in moving all of our call center operations back to the United States,” CEO Jay Bray said in a release. “Our goal is to deliver unmatched care and service to our customers day in and day out, and we believe this investment will have a meaningful impact on our customers and their home loan experience.”

Nationstar opened a new call center in Longview, Texas, in 2016 and also operates customer service call centers in Dallas, Texas, and Chandler, Arizona.

Nationstar said that the move will create 500 new jobs in the U.S.

06/23/2017

Mom-and-Pop Flippers Make Up 69% of the Market

06/17/2017

New Scandal - Wells Fargo Sued Over Unauthorized Changes to Home Loans

Wells Fargo is now being accused of making unauthorized changes to home loans held by customers in bankruptcy.

The lawsuit claims these changes seemed to benefit the borrowers in the short-term as it lowered their monthly payments however the fine print showed it would extend the term of the loan for decades.

Any change to a payment plan for a person in bankruptcy is subject to approval by the court and the other parties involved.

But Wells Fargo put through big changes to the home loans without such approval, according to the lawsuits.

And while it is still unclear just how many unauthorized loan changes Wells Fargo put through, lawsuits have arisen in Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Bankruptcy judges in North Carolina and Pennsylvania have admonished the bank over the practice, according to the class-action lawsuit filed last week. One judge called the practice “beyond the pale of due process.”

06/12/2017

30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rate Continues to Fall

Freddie Mac has released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey, showing the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dropping for the fourth consecutive week and hitting its lowest level in nearly seven months.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 3.89 percent with an average 0.5 point for the week ending June 8, 2017, down from last week when it averaged 3.94 percent. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.60 percent.

The 15-year FRM this week averaged 3.16 percent with an average 0.5 point, down from last week when it averaged 3.19 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 2.87 percent.

05/27/2017

Great video that explains the difference between the various type of roads found in cities and rural areas. Turns out there's a fairly logical naming convention to explain the road layout of a city.
Road (Rd): any route connecting two pointsStreet (St): has buildings on both sides, perpendicular to avenuesAvenue (Ave): perpendicular to streets, may have trees on one sideBoulevard (Blvd): wide city street with median and side vegetationWay (Way): small side streetLane (La): narrow and often ruralDrive (Dr): long, winding road shaped by natural environmentsTerrace (Ter): wraps up and around a slopePlace (Pl): no through traffic or dead endCourt (Ct): ends in a circle or loop (like a plaza or square)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yqmso0c9CBs

There's a method to the madness of classifying roads. Take a ride with Phil Edwards, as he explains the naming conventions behind roads. A street is a roa...