Mortgage Bankers Assn

Mortgage lenders are increasing the variety of loans they are offering home buyers, structuring some to be attractive to foreign investors who may be satisfied with lower yields than domestic investors, according to speakers at a Mortgage Bankers Assn. (MBA) conference here. "LIBOR is the newest kid on the block," said E.S. (Sam) Lyons, senior vice president in charge of the mortgage department at Great Western Bank, Chatsworth.

The rate of delinquent home loans is falling as high-risk mortgages from the housing boom are replaced by loans written to the strict standards enforced after the bust. A Mortgage Bankers Assn. report Thursday said that after seasonal adjustments 7.58% of all residential mortgages were delinquent by at least one payment as of the fourth quarter of 2011. That was down from 7.99% in the third quarter of 2011 and 8.25% in the fourth quarter of 2010. The trade group said its quarterly survey covers about 88% of home loans.

The number of homeowners delinquent in making their mortgage payments fell to the lowest level in nearly 20 years during the fourth quarter of 1992, a trade association said Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. said the low level of late payments reflected sharply lower interest rates that have sparked an almost unprecedented refinancing of loans. "This is a very encouraging sign," MBA President Herbert Tasker said.

Fewer home loans are in trouble these days, but despite some improvements, the nation is not even halfway through cleaning up the foreclosure mess, industry experts said. It could take three or four years to return to a typical pattern of delinquencies and foreclosures, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. said in releasing its quarterly delinquency report Thursday. An economist for the trade group declined to estimate how many households had lost their homes since the mortgage meltdown four years ago, or how many more foreclosures were to come.

Mortgage Delinquencies at 20-Year Low: An improving economy and record refinancings drove down delinquencies in the fourth quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Assn., which predicted further declines this year. Every region in the nation registered improvements, although problems persisted in California, where the recession continues to batter much of the state, which contains 13% of the nation's housing loans.

* The percentage of households in California able to afford a median-priced home stood at 16% in July, unchanged from June but a 3 percentage-point decrease compared with the same period a year ago, when the index was at 19%, according to the California Assn. of Realtors. * As many as 360,000 real estate loans valued at up to $48 million could be directly or indirectly affected by the losses from Hurricane Katrina, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. said.

* Expedia Inc., the largest U.S. online-travel agency, said fourth-quarter profit fell 43% on higher expenses and a drop in interest income. The shares plunged 12% after earnings missed analysts' estimates. * The cost of repairing 95,000 New Orleans homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina and the flooding that followed will be $8 billion to $10 billion, Mortgage Bankers Assn. said in a report.

Mortgage Delinquencies Reach a 21-Year Low: Economic expansion and the recent rash of refinancings helped Americans push the rate down in all regions of the nation in the third quarter. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. said the seasonally adjusted delinquency rate was 3.9%, down from 4.21% in the second quarter and at the lowest level since the first quarter of 1973, when it was 3.89%.

U.S. house prices sank 3.1% in the first three months of 2008 from a year earlier, the second quarterly decline since June after 13 years of increases, according to a government report. Prices for previously owned single-family homes fell in 43 states, with values in California and Nevada tumbling more than 8%, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said. The number of mortgage originations is expected to drop 18% this year from 2007, according to the Mortgage Bankers Assn.

In an ominous sign for the housing market, the percentage of homeowners who have missed at least one mortgage payment has risen for the second straight quarter. The latest snapshot of the economy showed that an improvement in nationwide delinquency rates since last fall appears to have ended. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. said in its second-quarter survey that the stubborn U.S. employment picture appears to be creating new problems for the nation's still-struggling housing market.

The percentage of homeowners who are behind on their mortgage payments inched higher in the first quarter while the number of new foreclosures declined. As of the end of March, 8.32% of homeowners with mortgages had missed at least one payment, up from 8.25% three months earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. reported Thursday. Michael Fratantoni, an economist at the lender group, interpreted the increase as more of a "leveling off" than a significant change. The rate, adjusted for seasonal variation, was well below that recorded a year earlier: 10.06% of borrowers were in some stage of delinquency in the first quarter of 2010.

Home-loan application volumes slumped last week, adding to indications that the battered housing market might keep limping along this spring. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. said the seasonally adjusted volume of applications for mortgages fell 6.7% last week from the week before. Home-purchase applications declined 4.7%, and refinance activity was down 7.7% to its lowest level since Feb. 11, according to Wednesday's report. Refinance loans, currently about 60% of the market, have fallen in number because interest rates have jumped after many homeowners took advantage of 30-year rates averaging well below 5%. The average for a 30-year fixed-rate loan has risen from about 4.3% last fall to about 4.9%, and the mortgage trade group is predicting that last year's $1.1 trillion in refinance lending will plunge 61% to $425 billion this year.

Significantly fewer people fell behind on their mortgage payments during the final three months of 2010, a positive piece of news for the nation's housing market, according to an industry group. But the number of homes in foreclosure remained at record levels, meaning that a large number of bank-owned properties still threaten to saturate the market, potentially threatening any recovery. In California, the percentage of loans in delinquency and facing foreclosure also declined.

Home foreclosures are likely to keep climbing through all of next year despite stabilizing housing prices in some areas, a major lender group said Thursday as it reported that the level of delinquencies and repossessed homes had jumped to a record. One in seven U.S. home loans was past due or in foreclosure as of Sept. 30, putting that quarterly delinquency measure at its highest level since 1972, when the Mortgage Bankers Assn. began reporting it. At the beginning of this year, 1 in 10 loans was past due or in foreclosure.

The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate home loan edged back above 5% last week as mortgage applications fell, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. said Wednesday. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan, assuming a 20% down payment, increased to 5.02% from 4.89%. But upfront points paid to lenders, including the origination fee, averaged 1.11% of the loan balance, down from 1.13%, the trade association said. The average 15-year rate rose to 4.44% from a record low of 4.32%, with average points paid unchanged at 1.04% of the loan amount.

Despite sub-5% mortgage rates and signs that home prices have bottomed out in some places, executives and economists are decidedly downbeat about the future of the country's mortgage industry as well as the housing market it depends on. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. said Tuesday that it expected home foreclosures in the U.S. to continue to rise before leveling off late next year. The reason: Job losses have replaced adjustable subprime loans as the main cause of defaults. Jay Brinkmann, the group's chief economist, predicted that unemployment would rise through next summer, causing delinquencies to rise.