It is still hard but not impossible to get a jumbo home loan — that’s a mortgage too big to be sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In his latest column, Paul Muolo of National Mortgage News writes about one mortgage banker who has a system for jumbos:…

The Mortgage Bankers Association yesterday released a statement to a Senate subcommittee saying the system of turning loans into securities needs to be fixed and returned to its former glory. Securitization provides liquidity and disperses risk, according to the association. (Download the MBA Statement ) When it comes to…

In my last post, I noted the possibility mortgage rates could rise in January , if the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage-backed securities as planned. But 30-year fixed mortgage rates are indirectly linked to 10-year Treasury notes, and Goldman Sachs sees their yield at “risk” of falling toward 3%…

The latest from National Mortgage News: If the Federal Reserve Board suddenly stops purchasing agency mortgage-backed securities on Jan. 1, mortgage rates could jump by 30 basis points to 50 bps, according to Fannie Mae chief economist Doug Duncan. Conventional mortgages with principal balance up to $417,000 would likely…

Bank foreclosed on 723 houses and condos last month, a 10 percent drop from July and half the year-ago total, reports MDA DataQuick. August marked the second straight month-to-month drop in foreclosures and the sixth month in a row they fell on a year-over-year basis. The Obama administration’s loan…