NAHB - "NAHB Applauds New Program to Help Distressed Borrowers" (10-10-07)

"The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today applauded a new program called 'HOPE NOW' announced by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson that will help American families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes. The initiative brings together foreclosure prevention counselors, mortgage servicers and other mortgage market participants in an alliance to help home owners who are facing default. It will provide at-risk borrowers the information and resources available in the marketplace that will allow them to keep their home by restructuring the terms of their mortgage or pursuing other options available to them."

NAR - "Improvement in Mortgage Market Bodes Well for Housing in 2008" (10-10-07)

"Conditions in the mortgage market are improving for consumers, which should help to release some pent-up demand in early 2008, according to the latest forecast by the National Association of Realtors®. Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist, notes that widening credit availability will help turn around home sales. 'Conforming loans are abundantly available at historically favorable mortgage rates. Pricing has steadily improved on jumbo mortgages since the August credit crunch, and FHA loans are replacing subprime mortgages,' he said."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "FHA Changes SSN Validation Process" (10-10-07)

"Borrower social security information will no longer be validated in real time when a new case number assignment is requested in FHA Connection (FHAC). Edits in FHAC will continue to validate the prefix combination of the SSN as well as check against the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) Death Master File. The FHAC will also continue to validate SSNs using the borrower’s name, SSN and birth date."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "MBA Study Shows Mortgage Industry Production Profits Fell in 2006" (10-10-07)

"Mortgage banking production profits fell to negative $50 per loan in 2006 from positive $258 per loan in 2005, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) annual cost study. While production revenues increased on a per-loan basis, this increase did not keep pace with the increase in production operating expenses which grew by 17 percent to $3,416 per loan in 2006."

Mortgage Bankers Association - "Mortgage Applications Increase In Latest MBA Weekly Survey" (10-10-07)

"The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 5, 2007. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 652.0, an increase of 2.4 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 636.7 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 2.4 percent compared with the previous week and was up 8.6 percent compared with the same week one year earlier."

BaltimoreSun.com - "Credit card debt is ready to blow" (10-10-07)

"After every financial crisis over the past 10 years, the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates and pumped money into the economy. Each rescue solved the problem - and created a new one. The next bomb from this chain reaction of bailouts and blowups will be credit-card debt. Hardly anybody is talking about it yet, but banks and consumers are laying the ground for a wave of credit-card defaults, bankruptcies and asset write-offs for 2009 or so."

Fox News - "Coalition to Help Avoid Foreclosures" (10-10-07)

"Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the initiative would boost financial companies' efforts to help an estimated 2 million homeowners whose introductory mortgages with low rates are resetting at much higher rates, just as the housing industry suffers through its steepest downturn in 16 years."

Bloomberg - "Fed Signals No Rush to Lower Interest Rates Again" (10-10-07)

"Federal Reserve policy makers signaled they are in no hurry to reduce interest rates again because they aren't convinced the U.S. economic expansion is coming to an end. The Federal Open Market Committee avoided foreshadowing its next move after lowering the benchmark rate on Sept. 18, minutes of the meeting, published yesterday, showed. Officials didn't want investors to conclude extra cuts were guaranteed, the records said."

Bloomberg - "U.S. Existing Home Sales May Drop to Five-Year Low" (10-10-07)

"Existing home sales this year probably will fall to a five-year low, worse than forecast, signaling the U.S. housing market is far from hitting bottom. New-home sales may decline 24 percent to a 10-year low of 804,000 and existing home sales will fall 11 percent, the National Association of Realtors said in a news release today. It was the 10th time this year the Chicago-based group lowered some part of its monthly housing and economic forecast."

Bloomberg - "Goldman CDO, CLO Holdings Fall 53 Percent in Quarter" (10-10-07)

"Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the world's biggest securities firm, said its holdings backed by pools of bonds and loans dropped 53 percent in the third quarter, the second consecutive decline amid a global credit contraction. The 'fair value' of retained interests in collateralized debt obligations and loan obligations was $1.77 billion at the end of August, down from $3.79 billion three months earlier, the New York-based firm said in a regulatory filing. Investments in mortgage-backed securities fell 16 percent."

Voice of San Diego - "County's Home Repos Skyrocket" (10-10-07)

"RealtyTrac has released new data on September's foreclosure filings -- the records filed when a house enters or reaches a new stage of foreclosure. Total foreclosure filings in San Diego County dipped by 2 percent between August and September (unlike the 80 percent jump between July and August). But year-over-year, total filings rose by 206 percent."