How can we create a mortgage landscape with safer, better-performing loans? We can start by paying close attention to which mortgage products borrowers are approved for.
Currently, we’re still recovering from a mortgage meltdown that was at least partially cause by a lending environment that placed borrowers—many of whom qualified for more traditional mortgage products—into risky loans. Read the rest of this entry »
Beginning this week, long-time financial expert and author Peter G. Miller will be contributing some original posts to blog.HSH.com. Below is Miller’s first post for HSH:
Probably the smartest person in finance is Warren Buffett. So when Buffett has something to say about real estate and mortgages, it can be worth listening.
Forbes magazine says Buffett is the second-richest person in America with a personal fortune of $45 billion. That money comes almost entirely from Berkshire Hathaway, a diversified financial company that Buffett heads and a company that just happens to make a lot of subprime loans through its Clayton Homes subsidiary.
The mindset of many may be that anyone with a subprime loan has either failed, foreclosed, or is at least doomed to. However, recent data released by Inside B&C Lending just might change those perceptions.
According to the data, “A lack of new originations combined with record-high foreclosures” has served to reduce the number of existing subprime loans in the U.S. by nearly half. As of the end of 2006 — the last year in which subprime loans were generally written –subprime volume stood at $1.24 trillion, according to Inside B&C Lending. That dollar amount has fallen by $155 billion over the last year alone, dropping the total of outstanding subprime loans to an estimated $700 billion (as of June 30, 2009).
HSH.com's daily blog focuses on the latest developments in the mortgage and housing markets. Our mission is to relate how changes in mortgage rates and housing policy, as well as the latest financial news, impacts consumers, homebuyers and industry insiders alike. Our 30-plus years of experience in the mortgage industry gives us an edge as we break down the latest changes in an ever-changing market.
