From the WSJ:
Mortgage Lenders Set to Relax Standards
Some of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders are preparing to further ease standards for borrowers after the release of new guidelines this month from mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac .
The new guidelines, to take full effect Dec. 1, resulted from an agreement in October meant to clarify when lenders would be penalized for making mistakes on mortgages they sell to Fannie and Freddie. Lenders have blamed the lack of clarity for tight credit conditions that have made it difficult for many consumers to qualify for a mortgage.
Relaxing the lending standards potentially could make it possible for hundreds of thousands of additional consumers to get mortgages.
Laurie Goodman, director of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute, said the moves are “going to be big,” but she added that “it’s going to take time” to see the full impact of the changes.
The Urban Institute, a Washington think tank, earlier this year estimated that as many as 1.2 million additional home loans would be made annually if mortgage availability were at “normal” levels.
Some lenders, including Wells Fargo & Co. and SunTrust Banks Inc., said borrowers should begin to see initial changes in a few weeks, including faster turnaround times for mortgage applications to be processed.
…
Lenders also are expected to widen the scope of the types of borrowers they will accept by reducing credit-score requirements and giving greater leeway to consumers whose credit history suffered because of one-time events, such as a job loss or big medical bill.
…
In many cases, they required borrowers to have substantially higher credit scores and put in place other measures—so-called credit overlays—that were more stringent than what Fannie and Freddie required.With the new agreement, “I’ve been told with absolute confidence that some lenders are lifting almost all of their overlays,” said David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association.
…
Before the new rules were put in place, Mason-McDuffie Mortgage Corp. in San Ramon, Calif., typically wouldn’t make a loan to a borrower with a credit score below 660, said Bill Godfrey, the company’s executive vice president of capital markets. Now, he said he believes the company will lend down to 620, the limit for loans backed by Fannie and Freddie.“We will be able to be looser and open up the net wider,” said Mr. Godfrey.
Comment on gas and oil prices. At the distillery, we’re running a relatively large boiler, 16hp, the kind of thing you would see in the basement of an apartment building or a church. For reference, about 5 or 6 times bigger than anything you might find in a typical NJ house, weighs in at about a ton empty. Needless to say, it costs real money to turn something this big on. It can pretty much run on any fuel, but was configured for oil. Initially, we were going to strip the oil trim and run it on natural gas. But given the low cost of heating oil, I think we’re just going to go ahead and run it on oil for the time being. The big drop in the price of oil has really put a dent in the ROI of converting to natural gas. If oil stays at this level, it might just be more cost effective to run this boiler on oil until it dies. A year or two ago, this kind of decision would have been a no-brainer, go gas.
Either way, energy is damn cheap. What inflation?
“What inflation?”.
Went grocery shopping with my wife the other day….havn’t in a few years. WOW!
Oil/Gas may be cheap but quality food sure aint! Guess transportation savings has not yet been passed on down the food chain, yet (I bet it won’t be).
woops, moderated; don’t know why
All you need is a dollar and a job nobody gets turned down.
Phony & Fraudy, sausage grinders ’til the end.
Chicken and beef have experienced dramatic prices rises, but other food not as much. At the end of the day, if you are searching for non-processed stuff, I am more than willing to volunteer to pay more……it means less cutting corners on production, transportation and food handling……it is a good thing for all of us when there is pressure on producers to not fcuk with our food.
NJT says:
November 29, 2014 at 8:58 am
“What inflation?”.
Went grocery shopping with my wife the other day….havn’t in a few years. WOW!
Oil/Gas may be cheap but quality food sure aint! Guess transportation savings has not yet been passed on down the food chain, yet (I bet it won’t be).
Look at it from the standpoint of Saudi Arabia being a crack dealer…….just don’t get hooked……
grim says:
November 29, 2014 at 8:40 am
Either way, energy is damn cheap. What inflation?
fixed?
Mortgage lenders relax standards? WTF? Something wicked this way comes…..
Dude, do you understand that this impact is a mirage? ….it is going to make people feel richer, but they are spending money that they do not have. At the end of the day, Saudi Arabia banked tons of money “killing it” in your words. Now, they get to laugh as the one muscular growth driver in our country gets trashed. The Obamunist stonewalled, and now a large group of people are fuct…..in the long run, it is strategically bad for the U.S……but you don’t care….when is the next handout from grandmama?
The Great Pumpkin says:
November 29, 2014 at 7:28 am
Yes, I stand by this. Energy sector has been killing it for years. They are giving back some of that profit to help jump start this economy. I was calling for an injection into the economy through a min wage hike, but this drop in oil is much better. Every sector besides energy gets a raise when energy goes down. This will def start creating some extra muscle in the demand part of the equation.
I call the beginning of the end of this current economic cycle…..we are about the enter the sugar rush boom stage……we have 12-30 months until the sh!tstorm……just in time for next Presidential election……O-man will ignore everything and the summer of 2016 will expose this guy just as W was exposed in 2008……
I love this story….exposed the double-talking….
A 2011 review by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the H-1B visa program, which is what industry groups are lobbying to expand, had “fragmented and restricted” oversight that weakened its ostensible labor standards. “Many in the tech industry are using it for cheaper, indentured labor,” says Rochester Institute of Technology public policy associate professor Ron Hira, an EPI research associate and co-author of the book Outsourcing America.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-24/the-tech-worker-shortage-doesnt-really-exist#r=rss
clot’s idea of Black Friday….
http://abc7chicago.com/news/police-2-shot-inside-chicago-nordstrom-store-/415195/
Theoretically we should be doing everything we can to become energy independent taking into account the environment. Remember 18 out of 19 hijackers were Saudis. Saudis, along with the oil emirates support behind the scenes the ISIS and Qaedas.
The Repubs fought him step by step from the beginning. Biggest supporter was Big Oil & Coal. Even Cheney would come out of the grave once in a while to say “Boo”. As a group, going back to Enron’s market rigging. The big energy/Repub alliance has done everything it can to screw the US (fracking secrecy and immune to regulation among others signed by W). So payback is a bitch, big oil and coal lives by the sword and dies by the sword.
You may not like it but, realistically and tactically, Obama is right. Obama can even make a deal now to allow the Keystone Pipeline because he knows it will never be built.
Obama can sit there and do nothing and win.
Oil prices help economy – check
Oil prices put pressure on Russia, Venenzuela, Iran -check
Oil prices gut the “Repubs loving” fracking, oil, gas, coal. – check
Making deals with the Saudis to kill the price of oil will end in our reaping the whirlwind.
I don’t like chi’s crack dealer analogy. With crack dealers, you know what you’re getting.
Luge, my point is it does not matter if you do or do not make a deal, because the at home Big Oil & Coal is not that better anyway. And if you are Obama, they “are” the people that funded and did the best to fight you step to step for the last 6 yrs. Plus this are the same people that every other word is “free market this – free market that”. Well, let them eat their “free market bankruptcy”.
The Repubs always seem to forget that if “we are all in this together, it means sacrifice is needed to keep it going”. At this point is actually makes more sense to make a deal with the Saudis, as at least you know what you are getting aka crackdealer with a sprinkling of religious nuttery. Then to work with US Big Oil & Gas that has done everything possible to screw everyone (think the jack booted tactics of keeping the press of the gulf oil spilled ridden beaches ” that does not have a “right believes/ideology”.
Not chi (16)-
When Saudi crosses the Syrian border, laying pipeline to Turkey, please remember your comments above.
OTOH, there’s a decent chance we’ll discover the efficacy of suitcase nukes when the pipeline crosses the Syrian border.
Of course, the Saudis would never engineer a wrenching jump in the price of oil…
H1B labor is one step up from slavery. No, wait, that’s wrong, at least slaves have a free place to live (though they do get free medical – I’ve seen it)
Being in IT for over two decades I’ve seen ’em come and go with few gaining anything (the few that did/do are those that can somehow get cheap lodging and then return to their native land with most of the money and executives that can jump ship before it sinks) and the goal behind them being brought here never achieved, long term. But that’s it. Onbording H1Bs isn’t about long term gain.
If you’re an American IT professional looking to stick with your career a while longer here’s some advice:
Get a security clearance (the higher the better) and work for the Gov. or a Gov. contractor. Unless you’re a real genius it’s the only way to retain a secure position, at least for now.
OK, there is another. Find a gig with a smaller, privately owned firm were work HAS to get done RIGHT, over the long term. Few of those, though, and you better be good and willing to work long hours.
Best bet is to chuck all the computer crap, learn home repair and become a landlord, if you can. Property prices have never been better!
I would hate being a 50 year old white guy with nothing but outdated IT skills these days…
Funny H1B story:
I was on the interview team for H1B applicants at a Fortune 100 a few years back.
After reviewing a resume I said (jokingly) “This girl is only 25 and she has more degrees and experience than me (according to the paper). What a bargain!”. Only one other person found it funny.
Luge, of course price manipulation would never happen in the US, because of course Corporate America, loves America too much by harming like that.
How could Enron?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis
How could BP?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
How could ADM, Big Corn Agriculture?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_the_United_States
Just back from the Christmas Spectacular, 3rd time in 5 years, same silly show but the kids seem to like it.. I noticed many of my neighbors out hanging lights this afternoon on my drive home. Screw that I am taking what remains of the weekend off.
#9 Chifi
“Mortgage lenders relax standards? WTF? Something wicked this way comes…..”
Wells Fargo!? I’ll believe it when I hear a good friend tell me it’s so. They hold a mortgage on one of my rental properties. It was only for $100,000 but they made the process so difficult, time consuming and aggravating I’ll NEVER deal with them again (Long story but I had to for that transaction). My HR rep. at the former salary job became so annoyed with their continuous employment verification demands that she refused to talk to them anymore! Most difficult closing for me, EVER!
Funniest part of the deal (gotta find humor wherever you can):
Wells rep: (going over my ATM transactions for two months) “What’s this $20 a day for?”.
Me: “Oh, that’s my crack habit.”
That little quip almost killed the deal and I had a 720 CS, 20% down, a good paying job I’d been at for more than five years and not so much as a parking ticket!
BTW – this was back in early 2012.
F Wells.
Whoever you are, “not” idiot (20)-
You are too stupid to be allowed to post here, as you are unable to follow a simple line of thought. Please take your multi-link idiocy elsewhere, as no one in this discussion seems to want to talk about BP, ADM or Enron.
The writing is on the wall…..start investing in solar. You are investing in the infancy of a soon to be powerful industry. This is a situation where you can put all your marbles in and screw the diversify approach and come out a big winner. It’s pretty much guaranteed to take over. Why would it not? It’s inevitable that we engineer and harness the power of the sun. The sun is the source of almost all energy on this planet. Almost all energy started with the sun, one way or another.
“Solar will be the world’s biggest single source of electricity by 2050, according to a recent estimate by the International Energy Agency. Currently, it’s responsible for just a fraction of one percent.
Because of solar’s small market share today, no matter how quickly capacity expands, it won’t have much immediate impact on the price of other forms of energy. But soon, for the first time, the reverse may also be true: Gas and coal prices will lose their sway over the solar industry.”
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-29/while-you-were-getting-worked-up-over-oil-prices-this-just-happened-to-solar.html
24- Think of it like this, oil is nothing more than trapped energy from the sun. So why not get the energy straight from the source?
I understand that, but you can’t deny this is a quick way of injecting demand into the economy. One industry is getting hurt for the time being, but every other will be getting stronger. Financing might end for speculative oil, but that ending will be a new beginning else where, which is what we really want, right? We want these financiers to go finance other industries to “jump start” or “ignite” demand. Dakotas, Texas, and pa have killed it off energy, that’s where all the job growth has formed, it’s time to spread that and have a safe contraction in the oil industry.
chicagofinance says:
November 29, 2014 at 11:09 am
Dude, do you understand that this impact is a mirage? ….it is going to make people feel richer, but they are spending money that they do not have. At the end of the day, Saudi Arabia banked tons of money “killing it” in your words. Now, they get to laugh as the one muscular growth driver in our country gets trashed. The Obamunist stonewalled, and now a large group of people are fuct…..in the long run, it is strategically bad for the U.S……but you don’t care….when is the next handout from grandmama?
Just a festival of the pea-brained here.
[27] luge,
I know, astonishing. At the risk of displaying conceit and hubris, my forays into social media have convinced me of one thing: a bachelor’s degree ain’t worth what it used to be worth.
[28] redux
But our Gen X and millennial grads can still function by following along . . .
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TQFAgUWxnlA
Luge, I accept you baby!! I know your love is not wanted. But you are part of US now!!!..
http://youtu.be/9C4uTEEOJlM
Gotta love Michael Brown family’s lawyer, “he was shot in the back”
Not entitled to your own facts pal.
George Lucas remasters the Episode VII Trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v93Jh6JNBng
a law degree ain’t worth what it used to be worth.
Comrade Nom Deplume, at Peace With The Trolls says:
November 30, 2014 at 9:13 am
[27] luge,
a bachelor’s degree ain’t worth what it used to be worth.
love it when Light defeats the dark forces
@Nouriel:
Swiss Reject SNB Gold Initiative
Blood and no treasure.
“Russia’s Lukoil has opened a giant untapped oil field in Iraq that will play a major part in driving up production to new highs in the Middle Eastern country and potentially force down the price of crude.
Spigots in the West Qurna-2 field, Iraq’s second-biggest, were opened officially over the weekend in a move that will release 120,000 barrels per day of crude oil onto international markets. The field in Southern Iraq near Basra will eventually pump out 1.2m barrels-per-day (bpd) of oil.
Iraq’s oil minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi has said that West Qurna-2 will enable the country to hit its target of pumping 4m bpd by the end of the year. Already the second-largest producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) after Saudi Arabia according to Reuters, Iraq pumped 3.5m bpd last month. ”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10731708/Russias-Lukoil-opens-giant-Iraq-oil-field-adding-to-crude-glut.html
I not trying to single you out.
This comment is so patently stupid, it is stunning……
The Great Pumpkin says:
November 30, 2014 at 7:30 am
The writing is on the wall…..start investing in solar. You are investing in the infancy of a soon to be powerful industry. This is a situation where you can put all your marbles in and screw the diversify approach and come out a big winner. It’s pretty much guaranteed to take over. Why would it not? It’s inevitable that we engineer and harness the power of the sun. The sun is the source of almost all energy on this planet. Almost all energy started with the sun, one way or another.
I am not….
Hey twitter bot – if you had any kind of horse sense I would not need to spell it out for you. Having a law that they can NEVER sell any of its gold means that their gold ceases to function as a hedge against anything, it becomes a hoarded item that cannot be sold or traded and loses all value.
All you amateur economist. Got to watch this build one for yourself.
http://youtu.be/FeFwyWcIHts
The below article, by the New York Times Editorial Board, can be summed up as follows:
“Buying a home is better than renting because renters aren’t disciplined enough to otherwise invest their money.”
Perhaps this logic is compelling from a behavioral point of view, but from a financial point of view it is completely worthless. (And of course they make a plea for an arbitrary increase in wages without any mention of increased productivity or value creation.)
What would motivate someone to even write such a thing?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/opinion/sunday/homeownership-and-wealth-creation.html
And regarding the lead article: looser lending standards—> more transactions—> higher prices.
Tell me again how this is a normal market?
Curious how this story never raised to the level of Brown/Trayvon.
http://countercurrentnews.com/2014/11/aiyana-stanley-jones/
It goes to trial and the judge dismisses before a jury could get near it. Despicable.
“The shooting happened just after midnight, back on May 16, 2010.
A SWAT team had conducted a raid to search for a murder suspect. Weekly ended up being first through the door.
There was even a film crew on hand to film for a reality show about murder investigations. Weekley says that another SWAT member had thrown a flash-bang grenade, which temporarily blinded him. That’s when he fired the shot that killed Aiyana who was asleep on the couch in the front room of the house.
Doubling down on this claim, in court he actually testified that Aiyana’s grandmother had somehow “touched” his gun, which made him fire the shot. But he failed to explain how he could tell she had done this when he claimed he couldn’t see anything at the time.
The prosecution noted that even having his finger on the trigger of his submachine gun was improper. “He could have avoided injury if he had followed his training,” Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran explained.
“He didn’t, and as a result of him not following his training and not following the mandates of ordinary care, someone was killed.”
But ultimately, the arguments and reason didn’t win out.
Roland Lawrence, the chairman of the Justice for Aiyana Committee, issued a statement after the court’s decision was announced.
“Surely, the death of a baby by a well-trained police force must be deemed unacceptable in a civilized society,” Lawrence said.
Steve Fishman, Weekley’s attorney, claimed that even though he did not dispute that his client pulled the trigger and killed the girl, “there is absolutely no evidence, none, that’s in the least bit credible, that Officer Weekley knowingly created a danger or, more importantly, intended to cause injury.”
After the dismissal, the only charge Weekley faced, was a relatively minor misdemeanor charge of “careless discharge of a firearm causing death.”
ask Grim why he bought
clotluva says:
November 30, 2014 at 4:18 pm
The below article, by the New York Times Editorial Board, can be summed up as follows:
“Buying a home is better than renting because renters aren’t disciplined enough to otherwise invest their money.”
What would motivate someone to even write such a thing?
Somebody ask anon’s momma why he was born.
Merry Christmas from Freddie and Fannie | New Jersey Real Estate Report
abdxpthmvw
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24 Pumpkin
Please digest the info at the following and then let us know under what scenario solar becomes viable – particularly as a dispatchable (base load generating) technology.
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/electricity_generation.cfm
“The writing is on the wall…..start investing in solar. You are investing in the infancy of a soon to be powerful industry. This is a situation where you can put all your marbles in and screw the diversify approach and come out a big winner”
clotluva (46)-
Somebody should tell turdblossom to unload his Solyndra shares, too.
47 Luge
I assume he’s keeping shares in Solyndra as a hedge for his day-trading in PLUG.
[33] anon,
That’s why I got two.
[33] anon,
And I rest my case.
“Buying a home is better than renting because renters aren’t disciplined enough to otherwise invest their money.”
There is so much truth in this statement that it is just plain scary. It’s not pc, but the key does fit the lock in many cases.
In other news, I saw where the Ferguson cop was not indicted. Thank god justice was served. The behavior of the Brown supporters in Ferguson in response to this decision speaks loudly of their understanding of law and how one should behave in a civil society.
It’s funny. On the cruise I just returned from, there were three news channels. Fox News, MSNBC and the BBC. I first turned on MSNBC and watched that nincompoop, tax evading, Reverend Al, speaking about the injustice and essentially inciting rioting with a diatribe of lies and nonfactual occurrences completely unrelated to Ferguson. I turned on Fox News and they kept running the heartless comments of the imbecile cop. The BBC was barely reporting on it, which is really the correct response to such a none worthy news item anyhow.
See you all in the morning, my little sheeps.
[51] libturd
“In other news, I saw where the Ferguson cop was not indicted. Thank god justice was served. The behavior of the Brown supporters in Ferguson in response to this decision speaks loudly of their understanding of law and how one should behave in a civil society.”
In my experience, these folks live in an alternate universe with completely different physical laws, not to mention civil ones. I think I told this story but I know a guy who attended Amherst College at the same time I was across town. He’s one of these black thought leader types and while he is more civil and thoughtful than his friends, he holds these views. We debated them and I won’t forget the line he used, that “we couldn’t agree on the time if we were looking at the same clock.” Not unlike a few recent commenters here.
I get that his views are shaped by his experience snd perspective, but for someone that intelligent To be so warped suggests that kumbaya isn’t possible. There’s a reason I support smaller government, or at least less federal and more local: it’s so that the folks who want to want in their little version of utopia can do so, and not bother the rest of us.