My colleague Jan Norman writes the number of Orange County individuals and businesses that filed for bankruptcy court protection leaped 77.2% in June. A personal bankruptcy seems to delay a bank seizing someone’s home but not prevent it. Democrats have … Read More

The Mortgage Bankers Association said today home-loan application volume decreased 3.5 percent last week vs. a week earlier as mortgage rates edged up. As I write this, the yield on a 10-year Treasury, a rough guide to 30-year fixed mortgage … Read More

Lenders began the foreclosure process on 2,591 mortgages in Orange County in July, reports ForeclosureRadar.com. The total for notices of default was up 4% from June and 17% from a year ago. click for larger image Loan servicers and banks … Read More

The Congressional Oversight Panel, which has been reviewing government efforts to rescue banks, released a report today, warning that bad loans and related securities remain a potential risk to the economy and small banks. Here are the key paragraphs (bold … Read More

I’m a little late to this news: Freddie Mac, one of the two mortgage giants seized by the federal government, on Friday reported its first profit in two years, and didn’t seek more aid from the U.S. Treasury. That’s exactly … Read More

Mortgage rates jumped today in Orange County after the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the nationwide unemployment rate dipped in July, surprising some market watchers. Jeff Altman, a partner in WestCal Mortgage Corp. in Orange, said banks are offering 5.62% … Read More

There is no second foreclosure wave coming, says Sam Khater, senior economist, First American CoreLogic. “To say there is a second wave implies the (current) wave has receded,” Khater told me. “I don’t see that the wave has receded.” Khater … Read More

Taylor, Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corp., which has an office in Laguna Hills, closed its mortgage lending operations after the Federal Housing Administration barred it from making loans insured by the agency, reports Ocala.com, the Web site of the Star-Banner … Read More

GMAC Inc., the auto lender, may cut its losses and need for capital by sending its mortgage unit Residential Capital, which controls Costa Mesa-based Ditech.com , into bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg , which quotes a report from CreditSights Inc. ResCap, … Read More

I’ve been a Cubs fan all my life and I’ve never seen anything like this season. The team has been an utter train wreck all season long, massively underperforming and losing boatloads of games they should have won. Their reward? … Read More