Could this be progress in our midst. Is this a green shoot?
U.S. commercial-property loan originations rose to the highest since 2007 in the third quarter 2011 as banks, insurers and government-backed finance companies increased lending, the Mortgage Bankers Association said last week.
 

New loans for commercial and multifamily mortgages climbed 98 percent from a year […]

So, is this déjà vu, all over again?
Not weighing in on the plans viability, with respect to solving the overall housing crisis issue, but today the federal government announced that it would overhaul a program that lets homeowners refinance mortgage loans at lower interest rates to […]

According to CoreLogic, as reported by the Baltimore Sun today, “[n]early one in four Marylanders with a mortgage owed more on those loans than their homes were worth this spring, worse than all but six other states — and a large number of homeowners who can’t easily sell or refinance.”
Although the Baltimore region is running at a lower […]

The news lately has been mostly negative and and, in terms of substance, is much of the same.
Today’s post is sort of the tipping point for what’s to come in U.S. Banking, and more specifically Bank of America; the U.S.’s largest bank. 
The lawsuit spigots are now turned on full blast …As of minutes ago, […]

Bank of America just got sued– see full 186 page suit below — for a whopping $10 Billion, regard hundreds of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS). AIG believes the bank misled them into buying risky securities during the housing boom.
Putting all of this into perspective, at least 90 suits have been filed related to mortage bonds, demanding $197 […]

Bank of America Corp. is apparently very close to an agreement to pay $8.5 billion to settle claims by a group of high-profile investors who lost money on mortgage-backed securities purchased before the U.S. housing collapse, said people familiar with the matter.
The payment would be the largest such settlement by a financial-services firm […]

According to Moody’s, all may not be rosy with several of the largest of the Too-Big-To-Fail (TBTF) banks. More specifically, Moody’s Investors Service has just placed the deposit, senior debt, and senior subordinated debt ratings of Bank of America Corporation (A2 senior), Citigroup Inc. (A3 senior), Wells Fargo & Company (A1 senior), and their subsidiaries […]

As you read this press release, regarding proposed rules by The Fed regarding who qualifies for a mortgage (i.e., who can be legally lent to), it appears as if what’s old is new again.
Not only is it obvious, but it’s clearly and attempt to codify something that is already in play. Clearly this is nothing […]

As reported in the January 28, 2011 edition of the Baltimore Business Journal, Maryland’s Cautious Banks Tighten Lending Requirement, the article reflects the current state of lending in Maryland.More specifically, examples are cited of secure, quality developers – with great track-records like Cignal Corp. — who are ready to build, but due to strick lending environments, […]

Times they are a changing in the mortgage industry. As reported in a recent New York Times article, New Federal Rule for Mortgage Brokers, starting April 1, under a new compensation rule from the Federal Reserve, borrowers who get their mortgages through brokers will most likely pay less for their services and must be offered the lowest […]