Monday Morning Cup of Coffee takes a look at news coming across HousingWire's weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues.
‘Tis the season for another lawsuit about mortgage-backed securities.
According to Reuters on Christmas Eve, Commerzbank sued four U.S. banks, claiming that they failed to properly monitor billions of dollars in mortgage-backed securities acquired by the German lender before the 2008 financial crisis.
"Bank of New York Mellon Corp and units of Deutsche Bank AG, Wells Fargo & Co and HSBC Holdings Plc were named in the lawsuits filed on Wednesday and Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
BNY Mellon was the trustee for over $1 billion in mortgage-backed securities bought by Commerzbank and $1.3 billion of investments tied to a collateralized debt obligation, Millstone II CDO, court documents showed."
Did anyone struggle with finding the perfect gift for someone who has everything?
Why not consider a zero downpayment jumbo mortgage?
As reported by HousingWire earlier this month, San Francisco Federal Credit Union is now offering a first mortgage for up to 100% of the purchase price or appraised value, whichever is less. The maximum loan amount is $2 million.
Here's a little more on the program from the SFGate:
"The mortgage is designed for middle-market buyers who earn too much to get low-income housing assistance and need to borrow more than $625,500, which is the limit in most Bay Area counties for loans backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration. On jumbo loans, which exceed that limit, most lenders require at least 20 percent down.
The target market for the Poppyloan is “professionals. People with good jobs,” and household income of $120,000 to $140,000, said Rebecca Lytle, the credit union’s chief lending officer. She said that some of these borrowers could come up with a down payment, but would rather not put every spare dollar into their house, raid their retirement plan or borrow from mom and dad."
Despite the article claiming the safety and rarity of the product, those at the SFGate just couldn't help themselves and went ahead and titled the article with this misleading headline: "No-down mortgages make a comeback."
No, they really aren't. For those who disagree and think these mortgages are making a "comeback," consider these four key differences.
The movie The Big Short opened in theaters nationwide this month to some great reviews, but according to Fortune, “it is the latest example of a Hollywood production laying the blame for the 2008 financial crisis squarely at the feet of Wall Street.”
So the burning question is, which seven movies tell the real story of the housing crisis?
Fortune has its list, which should probably include 99 homes, but sadly, doesn’t.
Also, forgive them for confusing the housing crisis and the financial crisis, as they've been watching a few questionable and inaccurate movies.
Seven to be exact.
The city of Dallas, situated in one of the nation's major housing markets, but often overlooked in favor of its suburbs, decided it wanted to reverse that trend and build more housing in Dallas itself.
Over the last seven months, the pursuit of that goal has sparked widespread changes intended to speed up the city’s development process, mostly in the planning and review phases, according to this article in the Dallas Morning News.
"But so far, it appears the plan is working, with 307 new middle-class single-family homes built or issued permits since the effort launched in April. If the pace continues, the city will easily surpass the goal set by Mayor Mike Rawlings as part of his Grow South initiative to build 1,500 new homes in the area before he leaves office in 2019."
The FDIC closed no banks over the weekend.
