As you no doubt know, various government agencies have moved the ball pretty far down the field with respect to loosening down-payment requirements for loans from Fannie and Freddie. The return of the 3% down mortgage seems to be pretty much assured. Arnold Kling offered this with respect to a Calculated Risk post on the […]
Posts Tagged ‘mortgages’
Posted in 
Tags: 
Another Cure Offered Up For Housing
Posted by Tom Lindmark on September 19th, 2010
I suspect that even when the economy reaches a point of real recovery that there will be someone, somewhere stumping for another mortgage relief plan. Today’s edition is brought to you by Glenn Hubbard and Chris Mayer. It’s essentially a rehash of a plan Morgan Stanley touted a couple of months ago. In a NYT […]
Moving On From Fixed Rate Mortgages
Posted by Tom Lindmark on May 27th, 2010
Arnold Kling has some interesting thoughts on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages today. 1. The U.S. is the only country with the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Other countries get along fine without it. 2. The core of my argument against the thirty-year fixed-rate mortgage is that without government intervention I believe that more borrowers would prefer mortgages where […]
Interest Rates Torpedo Refinancings
Posted by Tom Lindmark on May 29th, 2009
All of this was supposed to be a thing of the past. You know, no mortgage brokers stringing their customers along while they waited for rates to get better and pad their bottom line, everyone getting exactly what they were promised a new, kinder and gentler mortgage market. Guess what. It didn’t happen. When rates […]
Let’s See If These Guys Can Figure Out Derivatives
Posted by Tom Lindmark on March 9th, 2009
I don’t know about you but this isn’t exactly what I had in mind for a new financial services regulatory regime. MarketWatch reports that there is a push in both the House and Senate to set up a Financial Products Safety Commission. Here’s what it would do. The panel would provide independent advice to consumers […]
First Thoughts On The Foreclosure Relief Initiative
Posted by Tom Lindmark on February 18th, 2009
Well I might as well join the crowd and post this. In true Orwellian fashion it’s called the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan (HASP?). Here is an outline that’s somewhat intelligible. It’s from Washington Wire. 1. Refinancing for Up to 4 to 5 Million Responsible Homeowners to Make Their Mortgages More Affortdable 2. A $75 […]
Solving The Housing Crisis Via The Bankruptcy Courts
Posted by Tom Lindmark on December 30th, 2008
So how are you going to feel when your neighbor who paid about the same as you for your house and borrowed about the same amount as you did gets his mortgage chopped down by a bankruptcy court? That’s likely to be reality within a month or two. The WSJ has an article that argues […]
