Federal Reserve: Improving the 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage
FEDS (Finance and Economics Discussion Series) 2017-90 | August 2017 Wayne Passmore and Alexander H. von Hafften Abstract: The 30-year fixed-rate fully amortizing mortgage (or “traditional fixed-rate mortgage”) was a substantial innovation when first developed during the Great Depression. However, it has three major flaws. First, because homeowner equity accumulates slowly during the first decade,…
FHFA: Index Shows Mortgage Rates Decreased in July 2017
Nationally, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages decreased from June to July, according to several indices of new mortgage contracts. The National Average Contract Mortgage Rate for the Purchase of Previously Occupied Homes by Combined Lenders Index was 3.99 percent for loans closed in late July, down 1 basis point from 4.00 percent in June….
HUD: Disaster Assistance for Victims of Hurricane Harvey
Foreclosure protection offered to displaced families U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson today announced HUD will speed federal disaster assistance to the State of Texas and provide support to homeowners and low-income renters forced from their homes due to Hurricane Harvey. To date, President Trump issued a disaster declaration for the following counties…
CFPB: Things to Consider before Borrowing a Reverse Mortgage to Delay Collecting Social Security
For most people, the amount of money you bring in each month decreases after you retire. Yet your expenses, particularly for health care, may not follow suit. So the question on the minds of many approaching this life stage is: how do I replace or supplement my monthly income when I retire? The most obvious…
CFPB: Report Warns that Taking out a Reverse Mortgage Loan can be an Expensive Way to Maximize Social Security Benefits
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued a report warning older consumers about taking out a reverse mortgage loan in order to bridge the gap in income while delaying Social Security benefits until a later age. The CFPB report found, in general, the costs and risks of taking out a reverse mortgage…
HUD and Census Bureau: New Residential Home Sales July 2017
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau today jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for July 2017: NEW HOME SALES Sales of new single-family houses in July 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000, according to estimates released jointly today by…
Federal Reserve: Revised Interagency Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Sampling, Verification and Resubmission Procedures
The Task Force on Consumer Compliance of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) recently developed the attached interagency Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)1 Examiner Transaction Testing Guidelines that include sampling, verification, and resubmission procedures for use in connection with HMDA data collected beginning on January 1, 2018 pursuant to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s…
FHFA: U.S. House Prices Rise 1.6 Percent in Second Quarter 2017
Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices rose 1.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). House prices rose 6.6 percent from the second quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2017. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 0.1 percent…