Wealth of Women

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My computer is back up and operational. It turns out that running two virus security systems simultaneously pretty much shuts down your computer - I incorrectly thought it would make it twice as safe! I went ahead and extracted & rebuilt the hard drives, reconfigured the back-up retrieval system, re-mapped the memory and broadband, and at this point I realize that I have no idea what I'm talking about. I will put out a special Saturday edition to make up for yesterday. On with the show -) Who writes better mortgages, banks or mortgage banks? The Chicago Fed published a paper that focuses on how competition among lenders affects mortgage loan characteristics. According to its study, and please don't complain to me, banks issue safer mortgages than independent mortgage banks. Further, mortgages...()

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Last week Fannie Mae announced the Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards Program or "STAR" which is intended to measure and evaluate the performance of servicer actions in helping homeowners avoid foreclosure. STAR's initial component, the Servicer Performance Scorecard, will provide regular snapshots and trends for key performance indicators to help servicers effectively assess their own progress. This week MND had the opportunity to obtain more details from Leslie Peeler who heads up the program. Peeler said that the scorecard measures how well servicers are fulfilling their obligation to help distressed borrowers but places no further reporting burden on the servicer s. Fannie Mae is currently in the process of using the scorecard and 2010 data to show servicers how well they met performance...()

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It's a busy week in terms of new economic data and events. Fed Chairman Bernanke will share his semi-annual update on the status of the economy and monetary policy. Markets remain responsive to increasing levels of unrest in the Middle East. Here at home, the White House and Congress have until the end of this week to reach agreement on a federal spending-cut bill for the rest of this fiscal year... or face a partial shutdown of the U.S. government.. Finally, the most important economic data of the week hits Friday morning in the form of the Employment Situation Report. The February Employment Situation Report is the big ticket item on the data calendar. After three months of below expectations payroll growth, economists once again expect a healthy gain in the Establishment Survey side of the...()

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Originally published in the March 2011 issuance of Asset Securitization Report (www.sourcemedia.com) The joint Treasury/HUD report to Congress released this month was a major disappointment to market participants looking for a timely resolution to the status of the GSEs and the future of housing finance. While the white paper claims to lay out “the Administration’s plan to reform America’s housing finance market,” it unfortunately amounts to a set of poorly defined policy options that will likely require years to codify and implement. Moreover, its core assumptions are unrealistic and ultimately border on wishful thinking. While the paper repeatedly and correctly focuses on the need to restore the role of private capital in the housing finance market, its key pronouncements...()