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Friday, March 22, 2013

Friday Rate Update

Mortgage Rates Fall

The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 3.54 percent this week from 3.63 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported yesterday. A year ago, rates for 30-year mortgages averaged 4.08 percent.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

ABA’s Chessen Explains Why Cyprus Bank Tax Won’t Happen in U.S.


ABA Chief Economist Jim Chessen explained why a Cyprus-like tax on small-depositor bank accounts wouldn’t happen in the United States during an interview yesterday on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” program

“The U.S. learned its lesson 80 years ago in the middle of the Depression when there were runs on banks back then, and that’s when they created the FDIC,” Chessen told host Charles Payne. Today, “the FDIC is strong, it is backed fully by the entire banking industry … and the full faith and credit of the United States stands even behind that.”

Chessen noted that the fund insuring customer deposits is now at $25 billion, and that banks are paying $12.5 billion to support it. ---ABA Daily Newsbytes

Friday, March 15, 2013

Happy St Paddy's Day!

Friday Rate Update

Mortgage Rates Rise

The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose to 3.63 percent this week from 3.52 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported yesterday. A year ago, rates for 30-year mortgages averaged 3.92 percent.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Fed's Duke Optimistic About Housing Recovery

The housing recovery is likely to strengthen as the economy improves and triggers pent-up demand, Federal Reserve Governor Elizabeth Duke said Friday at a Mortgage Bankers Association conference in Avon, Colo.

"I am optimistic that the housing recovery will continue to take root and expand," Duke said. "While low mortgage rates are helping support the recovery, I believe it will be the pent-up demand of household formation unleashed by improving economic conditions that will provide real momentum."

She warned, however, that tight credit conditions could slow that impetus. "[T]he strength of this momentum will be determined by credit availability to these new households, an availability that may be much slower to return as mortgage market participants assess the regulatory, market, and economic environment," Duke said.

"I think that if such credit is not readily available, the housing recovery will still continue, but the mix of owner-occupied and rental housing and the level of mortgage originations might be quite different," she explained.

--ABA Daily Newsbytes

Friday, March 8, 2013

Mortgage Rates Edge Up Slightly

The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages edged up to 3.52 percent this week from 3.51 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported yesterday. A year ago, rates for 30-year mortgages averaged 3.88 percent.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Bill Would Allow Consumers To Get Free Credit Score When Receiving Free Credit Reports
By Chris Morran March 6, 2013


(Alec Peden)
Right now, U.S. consumers can check each of their three credit reports — from TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian — once a year for free through AnnualCreditReport.com, but getting your actual credit score will probably cost you. Legislation introduced today seeks to remedy this issue.

The Fair Access to Credit Scores Act of 2013 [PDF], introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee, looks to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act to require that when any of the three major credit bureaus provide a customer with his or her free credit report, they also include “a current credit score generated using the scoring algorithm, formula, model, program or mechanism that is most frequently used to generate scores sold to creditors, subject to regulations of the Bureau, along with any information in the consumer’s file at the time of the request concerning credit scores or any other risk scores or predictors relating to the consumer.”


Read more at consumerist.com

Monday, March 4, 2013

Freddie Mac Reports First Annual Profit Since 2006

Freddie Mac earned $4.5 billion in the fourth quarter to finish 2012 with total net income of $11 billion, its first annual profit since 2006, the company reported last week. Officials added that Freddie requested no assistance from the Treasury Department during the fourth quarter, and paid back the agency $7 billion last year.

Overall, Freddie has paid back $23.8 billion -- about one-third of the total taxpayer funds it has received since entering government conservatorship in 2008.

--ABA Daily Newsbytes

Friday, March 1, 2013

Friday Rate Update

Mortgage Rates Fall

The average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 3.51 percent this week from 3.56 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported yesterday. A year ago, rates for 30-year mortgages averaged 3.90 percent.

--ABA Daily Newsbytes