PACE financing is a fast way to finance improvements to your home if the improvements increase energy efficiency and lower operating costs, and/or improve resistance to hurricane damage. PACE, which stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy, is administered by the Ygrene Energy Fund and is...
Last week, the House of Representatives passed, and the President signed, The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act (S.2155). The Act rolls back several provisions of The Dodd-Frank Act, the law that was enacted to regulate banks following the financial crisis to help...
Investors in residential house flipping have made a big come back the last few years. Much of the popularity of this can be attributed to the many TV shows dedicated to renovation, repair, investment and flipping. I’ve written on this topic before (see post HERE)....
The Federal Home Finance Administration (FHFA) recently announced that it is extending HARP, the Home Affordable Refinancing Program until September 30, 2017. The program, which was set to expire at the end of 2016, has been effect for over 7 years and was created to...
HUD Secretary Julian Castro recently announced that the FHA will, for the second consecutive year, reduce its multi-family insurance rates. The rate reductions will directly affect low and moderate income families and will also be available to projects installing energy-efficient systems. The reductions are intended...
When the Federal Reserve finally raised interest rates in early December, borrowers across the country promptly began receiving notices from mortgage and credit card lenders of increases in their mortgages, equity lines and credit cards. While the Fed increase and corresponding consumer increases were only...
I have previously written about Congress’ efforts to speed up the short sale approval process (see Congress Sits on Legislation Designed to Help Borrowers, July 30, 2015). As I discussed, The Vacant Homes Act (the "Act") would require lenders and servicers to act upon a...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently won a big victory against two banks in the fall out of mortgage crisis. Nomura Holdings of Japan and Royal Bank of Scotland were found to have misled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in selling mortgage bonds that contained...