St Louis Mortgage Blog

St Louis Home Mortgage and Refinancing News -

News:  Credit Card Delinquencies = Mortgage Delinquencies?

According to Transunion, credit card delinquency rates in the July-September quarter were highest in states with the highest rates of foreclosure filings.

The highest credit card delinquency rates occurred in Nevada, where the
delinquency rate was 1.98 percent; in Florida, where the card default rate was 1.47 percent; and Arizona, where the rate was 1.35 percent.

These three states also topped the foreclosure rate chart in the July-September quarter. Nevada was first in the chart, with a foreclosure ratio of one in 23; Florida was fourth, with a ratio of one in 56; and Arizona was second, with a foreclosure rate of one out of every 53 housing units.

This shows that this foreclosure epidemic is getting worse every day and if you are sitting on the sidelines, you are wasting your time. You need to get in now.

Based on an analysis by the Mortgage Bankers Association, these three states, together with California, accounted for 43 percent of all foreclosure filings and bank repo houses throughout the U.S. in the July-September quarter. 

So we've now determined that mortgage delinquencies are directly related to credit card delinquencies and we can assume that it's directly related to personal (non-mortgage) debt.

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Consumers who are facing high-interest debts and want financial relief, a St. Louis refinancing loan may be the answer.  Call the home loan and refinance experts at 314-698-4092. 

Liberty Lending Consultants will be happy to give you personalized lending service and answer any questions you may have.  Ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

St Louis Home Mortgage and Refinancing News -

News:  So much for "job creation"

Labor Department data showed that US employers unexpectedly cut 85,000 jobs in December, even though analysts polled by Reuters had expected nonfarm payrolls to be unchanged last month and the unemployment rate to edge up to 10.1 percent. 

For the whole of 2009, the economy shed 4.2 million jobs, the department said.  Still the job market continued to show broad improvements last month, with a number of sectors showing gains. 

Professional and business services added 50,000 positions, while education and health services increased payrolls by 35,000. Temporary help employment rose by 47,000. 

Manufacturing payrolls fell 27,000 after dropping 35,000 in November. The construction sector lost 53,000 jobs, while the service-providing sector shed only 4,000 workers. 

The average workweek was unchanged at 33.2 hours, while average hourly earnings increased by $18.80 from $18.77 in November. 

Unemployment remains the Achilles heel of the economic recovery that started in the third qu arter of 2009 following the worst recession in 70 years.

Creating jobs is critical to sustaining the economic recovery when government stimulus fades. It's also critical to Democratic ambitions.

Obama's popularity has steadily fallen, knocking his approval ratings down to around 50 percent.  This could dim the election prospects for his Democratic Party in the November congressional elections.

St Louis Home Mortgage and Refinancing News -

News:  FHA loans getting more expensive?

Currently, Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans comprise more than 30% of the entire home-loan market. But as some of those insured loans have defaulted, the FHA loan-guarantee fund has slipped below the Congressionally mandated 2% level.

As a result, some lawmakers are suggesting that FHA loans need to be more expensive to obtain.  A House bill, the FHA Taxpayer Protection Act of 2009, would increase the minimum down payment required to obtain an FHA loan to 5% from 3.5%. That, sponsor Rep. Scott Garrett, R, N.J., believes, would make borrowers more committed to maintaining their mortgages. 

Almost 90% of FHA purchase loans issued between January and August 2009 had loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of 96 or higher, according to written testimony from Robert Story, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association.  That amounts to a very small commitment on the parts of buyers. 

"We have made the decision to exercise our authority to increase the up-front cash that a borrower has to bring to the table in an FHA-backed loan -- to make sure that FHA borrowers have more 'skin in the game' and a stronger equity position in their loans," said Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan.  Still, he added, "FHA is not 'the next subprime' as some have suggested."

St Louis Mortgage and Real Estate News brought to you by Floyd Tapia and Liberty Lending Consultants.  Call the home loan and refinancing experts at 314-698-4092 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.