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Author Archives: Ryan Schuette

Ryan Schuette is a journalist, cartoonist, and social entrepreneur with several years of experience in real-estate news, international reporting, and business management. He currently lives in the Washington, D.C., area, where he freelances for DS News and MReport.

Borrowers Want More Transparency in Lending: Survey

Just how important is disclosure to American borrowers? Very important, if the figures from a recent Harris Interactive survey mean anything. MortgageMarvel.com commissioned a survey of 2,214 American adults 18 years or older to learn that one full-quarter of Americans take disclosure into account when considering their next home loan. Sixteen percent wanted an easy comparisons process, 10 percent affirmed their interest in privacy, and 7 percent cited a want of real-time quotes.

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Hard-Hit California Sees Boost With July Sales, Prices

Home sales and prices climbed in California in July, with median prices nearing a four-year high, according to the California Association of Realtors. The trade group found closed escrow sales approaching a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,230 in July for single-family homes, up 2 percent from June. Sales ticked up to 15.3 percent in July year-over-year. That month marked the fifth straight time that California's median home price went up month-over-month and year-over-year.

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CFPB Proposes Doing Away With Points, Fees for Consumers

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on a roll lately. On Friday, the agency offered up rules to reduce interest rates, do away with points and fees, and screen mortgage loan officers. In the first of a slew of new rulemaking proposals, the CFPB would require lenders to strip loans of their origination points and discount fees for certain consumers. The proposals would also require background checks for loan officers and bar arbitration clauses for credit insurance practices.

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Delinquency Tide May Tip the FHA Toward Insolvency: Fitch

Times haven├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ót been too swell for the Federal Housing Administration. That was apparent, by some accounts, when the agency raised insurance premiums for lenders of single-family mortgages in February, a choice it made to shore up its crisis-weary Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund. Now, according to Fitch Ratings, a new tide of mortgage delinquencies and price declines may tip the fund back toward troubled waters ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô and possibly insolvency. A down-payment requirement on its may well worsen matters for the FHA.

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Trulia Goes Live With Public Offering

Trulia announced Friday that it filed an initial public offering, with major banks and financial institutions lining up behind the move. The real estate website opened up shares of common stock by filing registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Is New Treasury Plan Beginning of the End for the GSEs?

On Friday, after years of bills from lawmakers to reform Fannie and Freddie, the Treasury Department unveiled a plan to finally ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£wind down├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø the mortgage giants. According to a release, the Treasury Department will end a past ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├àÔÇ£circular├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├é┬Ø arrangement with Fannie and Freddie that allowed the companies to repay the agency with the very funds it received in the first place. The new agreement requires that Fannie and Freddie divert any new quarterly profits back to Treasury in order to repay taxpayers for their losses.

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Report: Small, Midsize Servicers to Lose Most Under New Rules

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau strikes once more ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô against the little guy, according to recent reports. One of those came from analysts with Moody's Investors Service on Thursday. Their report suggests that a tide of new rules from the credit bureau will likely impose "costly" and "challenging" new costs on small to midsize servicers. As for the bigger guys? Analysts say they may just walk away from the rules without a scratch. And theirs isn't the first report to say as much. Read more to learn why.

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Why Do Real Estate Companies Bomb Customer Satisfaction Surveys?

According to a recent report by J.D. Power and Associates, home buyer satisfaction with national real estate companies fell to its lowest level in the history of the five-year-old survey, a record low on par with mortgage rates. The firm said that overall satisfaction slipped to 789 on a 1,000-point scale, down from 797 in 2011. Seller satisfaction followed the trend by averaging 768, down from 779 from the same time frame. The study tied real estate companies viewed more favorably by buyers and sellers to the frequency with which these companies capture a sizeable proportion of the listing price.

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