St Louis Finance News: Will Data Show That New Home Sales Went Up? [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

Professionals nationwide are anticipating current reports on new home sales for the month of June.

According to outlook and commentary services firm Econoday, new home sales should have reached 311,000 units in June, which would be up from May’s record-low of 300,000.

Since the predicted range could be well between 280,000 to 350,000 home sales, any error ratio could possibly turn the new home sale figures into a negative number.

The overall supply of new homes currently on the market surged to 8.5 months in May, from 5.8 months in April.

This was largely  due to the drop in actual sales which Econoday noted in their commentary.

However, experts are saying that the actual number of new homes on the market was down 1,000 in the month of June to an adjusted 213,000 which was its lowest level in nearly 40 years, since 1970, the firm said.

Econoday also predicted that lower interest rates will most likely boost home sales for the month of June.

But less we not forget that employment and income growth also plays a large impact on the homeowner’s decision on whether to buy housing or not.

The St Louis Refinancing Group news team is also anticipating June’s report and how close Econoday was as to their predictions.

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News: Protecting Tenants Act Extended To 2014 [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

The recent passage of the financial reform bill will extend the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) through the end of 2014.

When Congress enacted PTFA in May 2009, it allowed renters whose landlords had lost their properties to foreclosure the right to stay in their home for 90 days after the foreclosure had taken place or through the term of their lease.

The law was to have originally expired at the end of 2012 had it not been renewed with the financial reform bill.

There was new clarification as regards the date of a notice of foreclosure as the date of a completed title transfer accordingly: 

“The date of a notice of foreclosure shall be deemed to be the date on which complete title to a property is transferred to a successor entity or person as a result of an order of a court or pursuant to provisions in a mortgage, deed of trust, or security deed.’’

Since PTFA was enacted last year, it completely changed the way REO evictions were conducted.

In fact, any lease or tenancy created prior to the change of title as a result of foreclosure is now protected by PTFA.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) who is a tenant-advocacy group supports the changes.

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News:  Most Consumers Feel Economy Will Get Worse [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

In a recent survey done by Citigroup on the health of the nation, about 67 percent of Americans strongly feel that the economy has yet to hit rock bottom.

This survey being done nationwide begins to tell experts that the average consumer feels that a double-dip recession is realistically expected. 

This report, conducted by Hart Research Associates, revealed that an amazing 63 percent of people asked were still not counting on a rebound.

What is financially worse is that this particular survey clearly showed that Americans’ overall expectations or hopes for when this sinking economy will stabilize for their households have been pushed further into the future.

Again, close to two thirds think that their households will not see a stable financial situation for at least two or three years perhaps even longer. 

But what was interesting to note was the slight positive take by consumers who felt that their own personal financial situations were improving or at least holding steady for the time being. 

Another bit of good news was that twenty-three percent said that the local economy where they live is in good or excellent condition which is up from only 19 percent in March 2010. 

A Hart research spokesperson said:  “The big question is, could the gloomy news become a self-fulfilling prophesy, prompting consumers to restrain their spending, thus hurting the economic recovery?”

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News: The Failing of HAMP Is Stinging Capitol Hill [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

The biggest fear on homeowners’ minds would be home prices continuing to go down.  That may become a sad reality.

With foreclosures on the rise along with housing sales dropping throughout the nation, this deadly combination could send home prices plummeting once again.

June brought about the cancellation of approximately 91,107 people in trial modifications bringing the total to 520,814 since this federal program began in the spring of 2009.

The disturbing news is that over 59% of those who dropped out of the loan modification program in June had been in trials for at least six months.

There are several reasons homeowners are kicked out of these federal mortgage modification programs ranging from not making the required home loan payments to no longer qualifying to not submitting the necessary paperwork as requested.

However, many will argue that all is not lost since about 44 percent of these consumers who are no longer in the trial modification program go on to receive alternate modifications most often through their loan servicer.

Out of the remaining 56 percent, some 8.9 percent had foreclosure proceedings started against them and 1.4 percent lost their home in foreclosure.

The present number of 364,077 troubled borrowers still remain in the trial phase while nearly 167,000 of these have been in trials for at least six months.

“I feel like a broken record, but HAMP continues to perform very poorly,” said John Taylor, head of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an advocacy group.

He goes on to say: “The permanent modification numbers are simply too low, while foreclosure filings continue above 300,000 for the 16th month in a row.”

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News: Short Sales Being Encouraged By Bank of America [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

During the second quarter of 2010, approximately $35.7 billion in leases, foreclosed properties and non-performing loans were reported by Bank of America (BoA) which was 15 percent above levels measured in the same quarter of 2009.

The increase in these types of loans and properties since the second quarter of 2009 increased more than $5 billion.

However, the total losses did drop by more than $200 million worth of these loans and properties from the $35.9 billion reported in the first quarter of 2010 as reported by various St Louis mortgage lenders.

These numbers equaled about 3.73 percent of all outstanding loans, leases and foreclosed properties at the end of the second quarter.

Bank of America, who acquired Countrywide, has completed nearly 650,000 loan modifications since 2008.

Figures just released from the second quarter of 2010 showed that Bank of America completed just short of 80,000 modifications which included 38,000 trial modifications that were converted into permanent workouts under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

If any of these loan mods fail, the bank has decided to starting selling these distressed homes through short sales instead of going the foreclosure route.

Matt Vernon, the short sale and REO executive at Bank of America said that they have added 1,000 employees to the short sale staff and will “do everything possible to liquidate property prior to foreclosure.”

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News: Possible FHA Policy Changes On The Horizon [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

There has been talk that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would be making key changes to their lending policy in order to boost their capital reserves.

Under the changes, borrowers and mortgage professionals will see three major policy changes and will have to adapt their procedures to the new FHA.

1.  New borrowers who will be seeking FHA-insured loans will now need a minimum FICO score of 580 to qualify for FHA’s 3.5 percent down payment program.

2.  New borrowers with credit scores between 500 and 580 will be required to provide a 10 percent down payment.

3.  And for those borrowers with credit scores below 500, they will no longer qualify for FHA-insured loans.

A notice published by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is seeking public comment on these measures, which are designed to reduce financial risk and preserve affordable mortgage financing.

Therefore, HUD will be accepting public comments for approximately 30 days on those proposed changes.

FHA commissioner David Stevens recently said in a press release that “these are the latest in a series of changes to allow the FHA to manage its risk better while continuing to support the nation’s housing recovery.”

I imagine this negates the once perceived notion that everyone had the right to own a house.

The new FHA will be shifting this ideology to the new thinking regime which clearly promotes lending to those who can prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that they can actually afford the monthly payments thus lowering the possibility of the homeowner entering foreclosure.

Again… we shall see.

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News: Lost Decade Coming For Housing Industry? [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

There are now disturbing reports being raised about the United States economy coming to a complete halt later this year due to disappointing job reports, continued weaknesses in the housing industry and low consumer spending.

But the long-term news could be even more devastating.  Many economists are talking about an even worse fate that of a prolonged period of weak growth now being dubbed the “lost decade.”

Sung Won Sohn, economics professor at Cal State University Channel Islands recently said that “the probability of a lost decade is significantly greater than a double dip.”

He continues:  “We don’t have too many engines of growth functioning right now — housing, consumer spending, exports are all sputtering. I have a hard time seeing where we can get 3% economic growth back.”

The description of lost decade lends itself to the idea of this nation being introduced to a never-ending recession to many consumers.

This possible eventuality is a result of the economy not growing fast enough to recover from lost jobs with housing and stock investments continuing to lose value.

This lost decade terminology is not new to world finances.  The most famous lost decade occurred in Japan during the 1990s.  Specifically from 1992 through 1999, the Japanese economy grew only 1 percent each year.

And to this day, Japan  has not fully recovered from the economic weakness and falling prices it suffered during that rough period.

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Home Mortgage News: Second Month In A Row Retail Sales Down [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

Nationwide retail sales fell almost $360 billion or 0.5 percent in June 2010 according to the Commerce Department which was compared with May’s upwardly revised 1.1 percent decrease.

Many economists who were surveyed by Briefing.com originally thought that sales would slip by only 0.2 percent during June.

The industry that led this worse than expected slump were autos.  Motor vehicle and parts sales dropped a whopping 2.3 percent providing nearly half of the losses during the month.

This is compared to the 0.1 percent drop in the automotive industry in sales which excluded autos and auto parts.

Once again, economists had projected these sales to hold steady in June.

Looking at other industries, sales at gasoline stations fell about 2 percent.  Furniture sales dropped for a third month in a row.

Building material sales fell once again for a second straight month which may be linked to the downward trend in the housing activity naturally following the expiration of the home buyer tax credit.

However, all was not falling as electronic and appliance stores sales rose 1.3 percent during June probably being helped by the release of new products such as Apple’s iPhone 4.

Overall, retail sales were up almost 4.8 percent over this same period back in 2009.

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News: St Louis Small Business Loans Drying Up [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

Small business loans have dropped considerably from $710 billion that was made available in the second quarter of 2008 to just $670 billion in the first three months of 2010.

This data was made available through banking financial reports submitted by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.

There are many reasons for the shortage of business funding for small business owners according to chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke.

He first spoke about lesser demands for funding from small business owners since they are worried about taking on new debt during these time financial times.  Can you blame them?

Another reason he says is a “deterioration in the financial condition of small businesses during the economic downturn.”

However, the St Louis commercial lending community feels it has more to do with the lack of supply of available credit.

What is interesting is that bankers say they are wanting to make more funds available to small business owners but cannot.  The reason?

Apparently, banks are being told to tighten their lending standards by bank regulators but then are asked to increase their business loans.

How nice that federal banking regulators seem to be speaking out of both sides of their mouths making this fiscal economy even worse.

And even if there were funds available, most small business owners probably could not even qualify for the St Louis loan.

Keep in mind that property values have dropped for both the residential properties as well as for commercial properties thus creating a collateral roadblock thanks to the great housing collapse.

This has become a real problem for manufacturers as well since they rely on the value of their equipment as collateral for loans.

And as you guessed, these values have fallen in some cases more than real estate values.

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis home loan and refinancing experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

St Louis Finance News: Foreclosures Are Predicted To Persist [News Hot Line: 314-334-0210 | Floyd Tapia]

There is news coming out of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland saying that they believe this country’s high foreclosure rate will most likely continue for some time.

As part of a national study involving the health of this nation’s financial system as a whole, the Fed looks closely at the overall changes in foreclosure and unemployment rates especially noting the differences in the timing of these movements.

Other data used to predict the continuation of this foreclosure epidemic was  based in part on the fact that several states including California, Texas, Massachusetts and Oklahoma experienced boom-bust housing cycles which in turn had elevated foreclosure starts for years after the peak in foreclosure starts and inventory.

These previous boom-bust cycles “were small in comparison to the current cycle,” according to the Fed’s report.

While the recession has left indelible marks in the housing and labor markets, added with the unemployment rate doubling and the foreclosure start rate tripling, the timing seems to show that the timing of the movements differs over this financial cycle as brought out by Timothy Dunne, a vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, and Kyle Fee, a research assistant.

==================================================

When applying for any type of St Louis home mortgage, call Liberty Lending Consultants, the recognized St Louis mortgage broker and refinance experts, at 877-334-0210 and ask for Steve Swan or Doug Stahlschmidt.

For business owners looking for small business loans and alternative financing that works, call Floyd Tapia, host of the St. Louis “Mortgage Minute” at 314-334-0210. He is a successful hedge fund originator assisting local and national business owners in getting private and public St Louis finance and commercial lending with no upfront fees.

Sponsored by:

Check back daily for more financial news.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…