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’Further further reading
For the commute home, or while rocking out to Paradise City, or while shielding yourself from the November Rain, or while chasing your Rocket Queen, or while exercising Patience; and because you Don’t Cry,
The end of the home ownership “dream”
Government reports don’t normally make for interesting eulogies, but this one is an exception.
The Treasury-HUD report to Congress on the future of the US housing market is out and generating qualified praise (though little surprise).
‘Banks may be the best holders of mortgage risk,’ says Deutsche
Or, why the private label mortgage securitisation market keeps failing to rise from the dead — especially as the US grapples with Fannie/Freddie reform.
Here’s the thinking, from Deutsche Bank’s Steven Abrahams:
Fitch on Spanish mortgage walkaways
Fitch seems angry.
In a Friday statement, the rating agency dealt with a recent ruling by a judge in the Spanish province of Navarra, which said that giving a mortgaged house back to a bank is sufficient to cancel mortgage debt,
A very messy Ambac lawsuit for JPMorgan
JPMorgan didn’t want this to be made public. You can kind of see why.
Quick background — the bank has been engaged in a legal battle with Ambac since November 2008. The monoline says EMC, Bear Stearns old mortgage-banking arm,
UK mortgages, and the bank lending blame game
Is Bob Diamond — currently under the kosh at the UK Treasury Select Committee at pixel time — getting the wrong end of the stick? At least in terms of Barclays’ lending habits?
Or, more importantly,
Homeowners luckier (this time)
From the latest Nationwide house price index:
More interesting is their illustration – through a comparison with house price falls in the early 1990s – of the pressures on prices which could contribute to future fluctuations.
Another house price decline
Because of the lag, the latest release of the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index won’t shock anyone, but it’s still worth noting:
New York, November 30, 2010 – Data through September 2010, released today by Standard &
Bund-watching
Watch those Bunds — and US Treasuries — for signs of the Europe crisis spreading.
The spread of eurozone peripheral debt to German bunds (think here, here, or here) has become the early warning indicator for sovereign stress/contagion.
Extensive Irish forbearance, what was it good for?
The European Mortgage Federation’s annual compendium of all things mortgage-related is out.
The data is a bit aged, since it refers to what transpired in 2009 — nevertheless, it still provides an exhaustive survey of the entire European mortgage market in one handy document.
Mortgage professionals only, please
It’s been a busy week for mortgage news, but not quite one for cheer at the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
Readers might remember that in its latest trends in lending data the BofE said that the value of mortgage lending for house purchases was £5.3bn in October,
Mortgage lending… falters
More UK double-dip food for thought, this time courtesy of the Bank of England.
The Bank’s lending data for September show net mortgage lending stalling (click to enlarge the chart):
Whilst total net lending to individuals increased by £0.4bn,
That extended España RMBS
Think foreclosure complications are just a US phenomenon? Think again.
From Moody’s Investors Service — a timely report on litigation procedures for Spanish mortgages.
The premise here is interesting.
MERS, an acronym of mass foreclosure destruction
Financial ‘innovation’ coming back to haunt the system is something we are familiar with.
But do welcome a new toxic acronym to the stable — MERS — that’s Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc.
A psy-QE-logical problem
David Rosenberg thoughts on QE v2.0 are complex indeed.
Though he’s detailed at length why quantitative easing will flatten the yield curve — this time — he’s rather dubious of its actual effects on the US economy,
Moving targets, US housing edition
If at first you don’t succeed . . . move the goal-posts.
In the grand tradition of stimulus policy gone wrong, that seems to be just what the US Treasury has done in relation to its Hamp mortgage modification programme.
Software of the subprime crisis
Here’s a novel idea about the CDO component of the subprime and financial crisis.
As late as 2003 CDOs were — believe it or not – still being described with words like “Toxic. Explosive. Opaque.”
Banks’ buyback pain to be $17bn – $42bn, Fitch estimates
While the Firm uses the best information available to it in estimating its repurchase liability, the estimation process is inherently uncertain and requires the application of judgment.
- JP Morgan’s Q2 10-Q filing.
Politics by default
Take pity on Republican Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart.
The man in charge of Florida’s 25th congressional district has just been singled out by Deutsche Bank as the US Congressional representative with the hardest-hit constituency in terms of mortgage arrears.
The $11.1bn buyback pain at BAC
A sharp-eyed spot over at American Banker.
They’ve noticed this little section from Bank of America’s recently filed second-quarter 10-Q:
Although the timing and volume has varied, repurchase and similar requests have increased from buyers and insurers including monolines.
Hamp – it’s worse than we thought
So the US Treasury’s centrepiece mortgage modification programme — Hamp — is something of a failure. That much we knew already.
But Laurie Goodman over at Amherst Securities brings up another point.
The Great Mortgage Refinancing, by the numbers
Deutsche Bank have returned with some numbers to back up their cost claims when it comes to the Great Mortgage ReFi Rumour of August 2010.
Analyst Steven Abrahams noted last week that “hitting that reset button”
Housing lessons unlearned
The Washington Independent has an excellent story today about an ongoing housing programme in the US that is almost breathtaking in its stupidity.
Known as “Affordable Advantage”, it involves a kind of partnership between Fannie Mae,
Hitting the reset button on US mortgages…
Have you heard the Great Mortgage ReFi Rumour of August 2010?
Now that the US Treasury’s Hamp programme is widely recognised as a failure, attention is turning to new efforts to reinvigorate the lagging American housing market.
BarCap: 1 Hamp: 0
Barclays Capital has won its battle against Hamp stats.
BarCap analysts Sandeep Bordia and Jasraj Vaidya last week criticised the latest Hamp loan performance data, published on July 20 by the US Treasury.
BarCap vs HUD on Hamp
We do enjoy a good calling-out here on FT Alphaville, and on Wednesday, a pair of credit strategists at BarCap provided a neat example of the genre.
In a report headlined “Misleading Reporting of Mod Performance in the June HAMP Scorecard”,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- BP installs new spill cap, warns success “cannot be assured” — statement.
- Frank Timis’ African Minerals gets $1.5bn strategic Chinese investment – statement.
The plain vanilla mortgage LIVES! It’s just called ‘qualified’
Did any one catch this bit in the latest (and last?) draft of theUS financial reform bill?
From page 189 of Title IX :
‘‘(B) require a securitizer to retain— 16 ‘‘(i) not less than 5 percent of the 17 credit risk for any asset— 18 ‘‘(I) that is not a qualified resi19 dential mortgage that is transferred,