MortgageBlog.com

After working behind the scenes to negotiate on differences with House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank (D-MA), Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) on Wednesday rolled out a housing proposal that could be put to the Senate floor for a final vote as early as this week.

“Americans are looking to Congress to deliver solutions to the housing crisis, which has forced millions of homeowners to file for foreclosure, reduced home values for millions more, crippled the mortgage markets, and significantly weakened the American economy,” said Dodd.

The comprehensive housing legislation contains provisions from a Dodd-Shelby bill that was approved by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on May 20, as well as measures from the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which passed the Senate in April.

more at

http://www.housingwire.com/2008/06/18/dodd-shelby-roll-out-senate-housing-bill/

Filed under: 2008 Loan Limits, Jumbo Loans, Legal | Comments Off

From TucsonMortgageBlog.com

http://www.tucsonmortgageblog.com/18-of-20-real-estate-markets-show-signs-of-improvement/

In 18 of the 20 largest metropolitan areas, home values declined at a slower pace than in the previously measured month. The report also showed that national home prices are down 14.4 percent from March 2007.

Unfortunately, it’s the more sensational 14.4% figure that newspapers chose to report this morning. If you never went further than the headline, you’d miss a key piece of analysis.

Comparing today’s market to last year’s market is a lot less valuable than comparing it to last month’s market. That’s a better way to analyze the market’s health.

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Its amazing in 2008 you would still have to convince small business and big business that they need a REALLY GOOD domain name. Need a loan in Arizona? How about Arizonaloans.com. Want to read a blog on the Tucson Mortgage market? Perhaps TucsonMortgageBlog.com is a good place to start.

In the rush to find new interactive marketing methods, we should always remember what we learned from the old ones.

Such as the original interactive direct-response brand: 1-800. The one that is closest to set the gold standard model for dotCOM domain valuation. And the one which proved through 888, 877,855 and 866 that got too easily confused with the proliferation of local new area codes, and inevitably sent misdials to the 800 variant, why dot (anything else except a country code) won’t work.

800’s where we first learned that a great brand name and a great call to action are the same. In every ad medium — TV, radio, print or billboard — toll-free numbers boosted response rates, attracting not only more callers but more qualified callers — those with both the desire and ability to buy.

And any size business could do it.

Ranging from the South Florida Honda dealer who grabbed 1-800 NEW HONDA . . . to the national and global marketers who brought you:

1-800 MATTRESS

1-800 FLOWERS

1-800 THECARD

1-800 DENTIST

1-800 PetMeds

Simple. Memorable. Effective. Because the name and call to action are exactly what the customer is thinking — what interactive marketing authority Judith Oppenheimer calls vernacularly dominant. And she distills the lesson for today’s interactive marketers: “Common sense dictates that the pronounced assertive ‘I WANT’ behavior, its benefits and value, would apply to the vernacularly dominant domain name too.”

We know it does. And so did the 800# pioneers who migrated into this business early on. They simply took the words they knew customers embraced, costs they knew that could be eliminated online and a benchmark what a number sold for to determine what a name was worth.

And since they lived through the introduction of 888 extensions which proved nothing could say what 800 said, they knew not to embrace any other extension except those same words and dotCOM.

All of the top-of-mind 1-800 numbers have become top-performing dotCOM domains, generating the same type of results as their interactive forebears.

No surprise 800 guys became fantastic marketers from that industry and successfully migrated to the Internet and are amongst some of the most successful Web entrepreneurs today.

There is no question that call-to-action domain names are the easiest to remember and produce higher response rates. That’s because just like the people who dial 1-800 YOUR NAME, people who type in or click on YOUR DOMAIN.com are raising their hand to buy.

Look at the auction inventories and history not from multiples and overture scores but from taking off the dotCOM prefacing an 800# in your mind and asking “would that have had value? And would it have more value now?

Source
http://fragerfactor.blogspot.com/2008/05/1-800-duh-why-didnt-i-think-of-that-com.html

Filed under: Domain Names | Comments Off

Source: http://uk.reuters.com/article/bankingFinancial/idUKN1643735120080516

A new policy on mortgage down payment requirements from Fannie Mae (FNM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is “sound,” and could help unleash pent-up demand, James Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise, said on Friday.

“There is pent-up demand for housing,” Lockhart told reporters after a speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s bank structure conference.

“Maybe people are thinking that now is the right time to get a mortgage.”

Fannie Mae on Friday announced a new, national policy on downpayment requirements for conventional, conforming mortgages.

The guidelines supercede more stringent requirements adopted in December, requiring higher downpayments in markets where home prices are falling.

“It’s still sound underwriting and makes sense in this type of market,” Lockhart said. “They’re doing it in a controlled and good manner … they are trying to help people get into houses.”

Lockhart also said components of the Senate Banking Committee’s housing bill that touch on the government-sponsored enterprises, or GSEs, regulated by OFHEO, “look like a good, solid bill.”

“Hopefully they’ll vote on Tuesday and get moving on this,” Lockhart said. “If they can’t get the legislation done now, then when?”

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WASHINGTON — The steeper slide in home prices is accelerating the pace of foreclosures, Fannie Mae said Tuesday as it outlined plans for shoring up its finances following a $2.2 billion first quarter loss.

While the nation’s largest buyer of home loans will slice its dividend and attempt to raise $6 billion, mostly by issuing new shares, federal regulators loosened Fannie’s capital requirements as the government looks for ways to bolster the housing market.

Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the company’s financial strength rating because of the potential for further losses from soured home loans over the next two years, but investors pushed Fannie’s shares higher, in anticipation of the bigger role Fannie will play in the mortgage market.

http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/business/20080506/276067311.shtml

Fannie Mae reported a larger-than-expected first-quarter loss of $2.2 billion, and said it plans to lower its dividend and raise $6 billion in additional capital. But it also estimated its market share increased to about 50 percent of the new single-family mortgage related securities issued. Fannie Mae shares rebounded to rise $1.68, or 5.9 percent, to $29.97.

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=8279190

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AtlantaLoans.com has re-launched with a new look and feel.

“AtlantaLoans.com allows Atlanta residents, people relocating to Atlanta and others that need to find Atlanta financial service providers quickly and easily” said AJ Martin, the founder of Cityloans LLC network which includes AtlantaLoans.com. We look forward to rolling out many more cities very soon” added Martin. Those cities will include TampaLoans.com, BostonLoans.com, MiamiLoans.com, LosAngelesLoans.com, ChicagoLoans.com and NewYorkLoans.com.

Using a simple, yet effective, domain naming strategy, the Cityloans LLC network of sites makes it easy to locate any of its local lending sites. Each site’s web address is simply the combination of a city name with the word “loans” and the .com domain extension.

According to Martin, a domain name falls into one of four categories; brand name, non-sense name, personal name or generic search phrase name. Martin considers most generic domain names as search shortcuts to a site with a domain name that exactly matches a pre-defined keyword search phrase. Many generic search phrase names have content that anticipate the user’s needs and therefore create a faster more efficient way to locate meaningful content than using a blank box search.

“Web users typically have a specific need. Many commerce based searches reveal that consumers need to locate a good/service, research good/service, find a specific answer or solve a specific problem. By directly navigating to Atlantaloans.com we anticipate the consumer is really just searching on the keyword phrase ‘Atlanta loans’ and we provide content that will likely meet that consumer’s specific need. It’s really conceptually that simple however the magic is in execution” said Martin.

“Helping people find things they need quickly, cheaply and efficiently is, to me, the most important use of the internet”. “Our network of geo-generic domain names helps consumers find us very easily. It is then our job to then help them find local financial service providers. By creating a quick, efficient and free tool we add to the value of the internet and AtlantaLoans.com is a great example of how we add value.”

AtlantaLoans.com is part of the Cityloans.com network. The Cityloans.com network owns and operates over 700 local lending sites that cover the largest 700 cities in the United States.

Filed under: AtlantaLoans.com | Comments Off

http://media.cnbc.com/i/CNBC/Sections/Video/CNBC_Live/player/cnbc_live.html?v=102

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from http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/02/news/economy/housing_bipartisan_draft/index.htm

Democrats and Republicans agree to compromise on bill aimed at averting foreclosures and helping those hurt in housing crisis.
By Jeanne Sahadi, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: April 3, 2008: 11:35 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — With unusual speed, leading Senate Democrats and Republicans have negotiated a bipartisan, $15 billion housing relief package that the Senate will start debating Thursday, and will likely vote on by next week.

The package contains funding to help borrowers refinance unaffordable loans and help boost activity in neighborhoods with properties in foreclosure. It also includes a big business tax break for homebuilders, as well as a new tax credit and deduction for homeowners and home buyers. Additionally, the package has measures to make loans that are insured by the Federal Housing Administration - which helps borrowers with weak credit or little or no cash for a downpayment - more accessible.

Lawmakers have been under election-year pressure to do more about the mortgage crisis. The Senate package reflects concessions from both sides of the aisle. But the package will be subject to amendments and the House will have its say next week after the Senate votes.

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As Downturn Rages On, Lenders Consider eMortgages

Seattle-based DocuSign said Wednesday that it was selected as an approved electronic signature vendor for Wells Fargo, and will provide its service to major correspondent lenders working with the bank. DocuSign provides a on-demand platform for electronic signatures of key disclosure documents, including truth-in-lending notifications and 1003 applcations.

“We have enabled our correspondent customers to double their close rates and eliminate 80 percent of the cost from their expensive paper signature process,” said DocuSign CEO Matthew Schlitz.

http://www.docusign.com/

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If you are looking for a street price for Bear Stearns stock price I guess this may give you a hint…

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/27/bear-stearns-ceo-sells-hi_n_93790.html

NEW YORK — Bear Stearns Cos. Chairman James Cayne on Thursday sold his holdings in the embattled investment bank ahead of its expected acquisition by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Cayne sold 5.66 million shares for exactly $10.84 a share for $61.3 million. However, it was not known if those shares were dumped into the open market or if Cayne sold them to another party.

A spokesman for Bear Stearns would not comment on the sale.

JPMorgan has offered about $10 per share in its acquisition of Bear Stearns. That was increased from the original offer of $2 per share amid speculation that major shareholders would not accept the deal on those terms.

Shares of Bear Stearns have traded above the prices offered since the deal was announced as some investors felt a rival bid might be in the offing. There has also been speculation that Cayne might try and muster a competitive offer with Joseph Lewis, a billionaire financier who is Bear Stearns’ second-largest shareholder.

Filed under: Bear Stearns, Sub-prime Meltdown | Comments Off