Home prices expected to slide another 8% - There's a large number of homes, either already repossessed by lenders or very seriously delinquent, that are poised to be added to the already glutted regular supply of homes on the market. This "shadow inventory" jumped 10% during the past year, to an eight-month supply at the current rate of home sales, according to a report issued Monday. According to CoreLogic, a financial information provider, there were 2.1 million homes in this uncounted inventory as of the end of August, up from 1.9 million units 12 months earlier. Adding the shadow inventory

Small banks crack down on mortgage lending - Even with interest rates at historic lows, you might still have a hard time getting a mortgage: Small banks have tightened standards when it comes to lending to homebuyers, according to a survey issued Monday. After easing their standards in July, commercial banks reversed that trend in October, the Federal Reserve reported Monday after surveying loan officers at 77 banks. Smaller banks -- those with annual sales of less than $50 million -- mostly tightened their standards for traditional mortgages in the last three months, and large banks -- those with assets

Freddie Mac sees no housing recovery soon - Freddie Mac lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter and said it will be a "considerable time" before the housing market recovers. The company said 3.8% of borrowers were 90 days or more late on payments at Sept. 30, down from 3.96% in June. But that good news was tempered by the observation that more late borrowers are defaulting on their loans. During the third quarter, the company continued to see slowdowns in new single-family delinquencies, a reduced volume of newly modified loans subject to individual impairment, and higher expected recoveries from

Freddie Mac sees no housing recovery soon - Freddie Mac lost $2.5 billion in the third quarter and said it will be a "considerable time" before the housing market recovers. The company said 3.8% of borrowers were 90 days or more late on payments at Sept. 30, down from 3.96% in June. But that good news was tempered by the observation that more late borrowers are defaulting on their loans. During the third quarter, the company continued to see slowdowns in new single-family delinquencies, a reduced volume of newly modified loans subject to individual impairment, and higher expected recoveries from

How low mortgage rates can work for you - MONEY Magazine -- Just when it looked as if mortgage rates couldn't fall any further, they did.   Rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (excluding jumbos) hit an average of 4.3% in September, the lowest level since 1953, according to Freddie Mac, and are still hovering below 4.5%. Fifteen-year rates are even more mouthwatering: 3.8%. Mind you, those are averages. The most creditworthy borrowers can do even better, snagging rates perhaps a quarter of a percentage point lower.   So what's in this for you? A lot, potentially. If you have a

Home prices expected to slide another 8% - The robo-signing controversy is just another issue that the already sluggish housing market didn't need -- but most analysts do not think it will have far-reaching impact. Nevertheless, the housing market still faces many problems: a weak economy, sluggish hiring, tight mortgage underwriting, falling home prices, and slowing sales. Then there's the potentially disastrous number of foreclosures that may occur over the coming years. Fiserv, a market analytics company, has scaled back its home price projections considerably. In February, it forecast national price gains of about 4% through the end of 2011.

Wells Fargo to update foreclosure docs - Wells Fargo, which until now said it stood behind its foreclosure processes, said Wednesday it would submit additional paperwork in 55,000 foreclosure cases pending before the courts. The loan servicer, which has been reviewing its procedures since the foreclosure paperwork fiasco broke last month, said it has identified instances where a final step in its foreclosure affidavit process did not adhere to its required policies. The problems do not compromise the quality of the customer and loan data, the servicer said, and did not lead to improper foreclosures. The servicer wants "to do

New home sales in slow recovery - New home sales edged higher in September, according to government figures reported Wednesday, but the recovery from the all-time lows reached earlier this year remained slow.   Sales of newly built single-family homes rose to an annual rate of 307,000 units in September from 288,000 units the month before, the Commerce Department said.   The August sales were the third-lowest level since the Commerce Department started tracking new home sales in 1963, trailing only the 282,000 rate reported in May, and 285,000 in July.  

Summary of October Housing Scorecard released by Administration – The scorecard is a round-up of a number of regular reports compiled by others such as S&P/Case Schiller, CoreLogic, and RealtyTrac.  While it lacks timeliness, it does provide a one-stop summary of what is going on in the housing market.   The take-away from the October edition of the monthly housing scorecard issued by the Obama Administration on Monday is that, nine months after the first Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) modifications become permanent, over 80 percent of the affected homeowners continue to perform under the new terms.   To date

Existing home sales on the rise - CNNMoney.com -- Existing home sales climbed for the second month in a row in September, fueling some hope that a housing recovery is underway.   Sales of previously owned homes rose 10% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.53 million units last month, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday. That was up from a 4.12 million rate in August.   The report came in much stronger than expectations. Economists had forecast sales to edge up to an annual rate of 4.25 million units, according to consensus estimates from Briefing.com.   The