Jul. 2, 2007: Mortgages: foreclosure sites, and a decent ‘gator joke

Jul. 2, 2007: Mortgages: foreclosure sites, and a decent ‘gator joke Rob Chrisman

Psssst… wanna buy a foreclosed property? After a default and after the house does not sell at the Trustee Sale, the bank/lender owns it. As most know, this is called “REO”, for Real Estate Owned. Currently mortgage companies continue selling their REO’s through real estate agents, who list them on the MLS. You would probably need to make an offer through an agent, but here are some sites which list the properties: http://www.countrywide.com/purchase/f_reo.asp http://www.downeysavings.com/ffs/properties http://www.pasreo.com/reo/ (Wells Fargo) http://www.homesteps.com/hm01_1featuresearch.htm (Freddie Mac) http://www.mortgagecontent.net/reoSearchApplication/fanniemae/reoSearch.jsp (Fannie Mae)

We had a large amount of news on Friday, and the market improved slightly. Personal Income (+0.4%) and Personal Spending (+0.5%) were both slightly under expectations. The price index for personal consumption expenditures, excluding food and energy, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, increased 1.9% in May from a year earlier after a 2% gain for twelve months. The Chicago Purchasing Managers Index (60.2 in June) was healthy, the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey hit its lowest level since August, and lastly Construction Spending increased 0.9% in May. The market seemed to focus on the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation, which slowed somewhat. Analysts believe that there is a 27% chance that the Fed will lower its target rate for overnight lending between banks a quarter percentage point by December, compared with 21% last week. But most agree that the yield on the 10-yr will range from 5.0% to 5.25% for quite some time. On the origination front, lenders reported that lock volumes were relatively flat – perhaps due to summer vacations kicking in?

This morning, mortgage prices are roughly unchanged in spite of the terrorist activities in the U.K. over the weekend. But we could see some market movement as the week progresses due to a busy economic calendar – see below.

A young blonde woman was driving through the Florida Everglades while on vacation. She wanted to take home a pair of genuine alligator shoes in the worst way, but was very reluctant to pay the high prices the local vendors were asking. After becoming very frustrated with the attitude of one of the shopkeepers, the young Blonde declared, “Well then, maybe

I’ll just go out and catch my own alligator and get a pair of shoes for free!”

The shopkeeper said with a sly smile, “Well little lady, why don’t you go on and give it a try?”

The blonde headed off to the swamp, determined to catch an alligator.

Later in the day, as the shopkeeper is driving home, he spots the same young woman standing waist deep in the murky water, shotgun in hand. As he brings his car to a stop, he sees a huge 9-foot gator swimming rapidly toward her. With lightning reflexes, the Blonde takes aim, shoots the creature and hauls it up onto the slippery bank. Nearby were 7 more dead gators, all lying belly up.

The shopkeeper stood on the bank, watching in silent amazement. The blonde struggles mightily and manages to flip the gator onto its back. Rolling her eyes heavenward, she screams in frustration, “DARN! THIS ONE’S BAREFOOT, TOO!”

Week of July 02 – July 06