Jay Leno said, “Barack Obama says one of his top
priorities once he becomes president is closing down Guantanamo Bay.
To make sure it closes, he's going to turn it into a bank.”
Years ago I’d heard a rumor that, for Interstate
Highways built in the 1950’s, every five miles had to have one mile of
straight highway? Why? For the emergency landing of military jets. As it turns
out, this is untrue. According to the Federal Highway Administration's Office
of Infrastructure, "No law, regulation,
policy, or sliver of red tape requires that one out of five miles of the Interstate Highway
System must be straight." (Besides, there are more overpasses
and interchanges than there are miles in the system so even if there were
straight miles, planes attempting to land would quickly encounter a overpass on
their runway.)
If I had co-workers, I’d want to know what they made
every month. Or, as an underwriter, back in the Paleozoic era when
“stated loans roamed the earth”, I’d like the ability to
check pay rates. Three seemingly popular sites are www.glassdoor.com, www.payscale.com, and www.salary.com.
According to a study done by the Office of Thrift
Supervision, more than half of all homeowners who had their loans modified
to make the payments more affordable in the first half of the year are already
in default again. Perhaps this is of little surprise to loan agents &
brokers. “The new data raise questions about whether government money may
be better spent on creating jobs, rather than averting foreclosures”,
said John Reich, director of the federal Office of Thrift Supervision office at
a housing industry forum sponsored by his agency. Many experts claim the bulk
of loan modifications don't actually provide much financial relief for
borrowers. http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/08/real_estate/meltdown.ap/index.htm?postversion=2008120814
Thank you Richard L:
Two guys are speeding through Texas when a state trooper pulls them over.
The trooper walks up to the drivers side of the car, gets out his billy-club
and smacks the driver across the face. Stunned, the driver asks, “Why did
you do that??”
The trooper responds, “You're in Texas now son, you have that license out and
ready around here!”
“I apologize sir, I'm not from around here.”
The trooper then walks to the passenger side of the car, and
taps on the window. The passenger rolls down his window and the trooper takes
out his club and smacks the passenger across the face.
“What was that for??” asked the passenger.
“I know your kind,” says the trooper,
“About two miles down the road you would have looked at your buddy and
said 'I wish that trooper would have tried that ---- with me!”
The markets are relatively quiet with little economic news
out, with the 10-yr at 2.72% and mortgage prices about .250 better than
yesterday afternoon. Some expect interest rates creep
up a little, since the treasury market is very overbought and mortgages will
track the retracement. The FOMC meets early next week, and most expect them to
lower overnight rates although the impact on mortgage rates will be minimal. We
do have a $28 billion 3-year auction tomorrow to get through, along with
Pending Home Sales later this morning. So the focus is on the stock markets,
where another nice rally took place yesterday
Students of mortgage originations know that SIFMA has said
“no more than 10% high balance loans can go into TBA-eligible
pools.” (TBA’s, to-be-announced, are basically FNMA/FHLMC mortgage
securities.) So how does an investor such as Fannie Mae, Chase, or Wells put a
cap on originations? Through price, of course. Several investors, such as
Countrywide and Chase, have High Balance price hits, thought to range from 1-2
points for this product. They will probably keep this in place until they see
the mix of products, regular versus high balance, which they are receiving from
their originators. Not exactly scientific, and certainly confusing for smaller
companies that sell loans to them, but understandable.
There’s no joke in this spot – you’ll
actually have to look up in the e-mail for it!
