Tag archives for Billions Of Dollars

Fannie and Freddie Force $180 Billion Buy-Back for Bad Loans

The four largest banks in the country – Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citibank – may be forced to buy back nearly half of the bad loans that the sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help relieve stress on the GSEs. It appears that repurchase requests will center around loans that were made without adequate Read full article »

Banks are Being Seized for Real Estate-Related Foreclosures: Maybe 30 Billion to Community Banks Will Help…

This past weekend, the FDIC shut down banks in both Nevada and Washington. Carson River Community Bank in Carson City, Nevada and Rainier Pacific Bank in Tacoma, Washington bit the dust late Friday, with Carson River’s deposits being assume by the Heritage Bank of Nevada and Rainier Pacific’s deposits being assumed by Umpqua Bank in Roseburg, Oregon. In both cases, Read full article »

125% LTV Refi Loans Are Back… Say It Aint So!

In another move displaying the utter idiocy of the federal government, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now again authorized to offer 125% LTV refi loans. Can somebody out there tell me why this makes sense?  Short answer:  It doesn't make sense, and this is short-sightedness nearly at it's finest. (The high-water mark for short-sightedness goes to the Obama stimulus program, Read full article »

Resolution Trust Corporation – A Real Estate Investing Opportunity

Months ago, I pointed out how eerily similar today's mortgage crisis is to the Savings & Loan Crisis of the 1980's.  And it's become even more true today. The news this morning is that the government is now publicly giving serious consideration to establishing an entity similar to the Resolution Trust Corporation that was formed in 1989 as a government-owned asset Read full article »

A Sad Day For The Real Estate Market

President Bush has dropped his threat to veto the massive Housing Rescue Plan, and it will likely be passed into law in the coming days. As a result, many financially irresponsible homeowners will be given more affordable mortgages and will not learn the lessons that will make the immediate and long-term future of our housing market more solid. That's not Read full article »

The Politics of Real Estate

Few industries are as profoundly impacted by the political machinations in Washington as the real estate industry. Whether it's old legislation like Jimmy Carter's Community Reinvestment Act or Barack Obama's massive mortgage bailouts, the U.S. political machine has a huge impact (usually bad) on the business of real estate.

Ideally, we could ignore politics. But here at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter, we insist on seeing the world with clarity - including the reality of Washington's aggressive involvement in every facet of our business, from mortgage lending to real estate sales license; from loan modification regulations to appraisal requirements... every piece of our business is profoundly impacted by politics. So rather than stick our heads in the sand and ignore reality, readers of the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter choose to be informed and prepared.

About Bryan Ellis

Bryan Ellis is an Atlanta-based real estate analyst and publisher of the widely read newsletter "The Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter". With over 200,000 subscribers - including real estate investors, agents, brokers, appraisers and other real estate professionals - the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter is among America's largest sources of unbiased coverage of politics and public policy for the real estate industry.

Bryan Ellis serves as editor in chief for the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter and is assisted by an extraordinary staff of writers, researchers and editors who are each real estate experts in their own right and who assure that the news we report is well researched, factual, and highly relevant to today's real estate industry.

Bryan is very happily married and has two wonderful daughters. He makes his home in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia. You can contact the team at the Bryan Ellis Real Estate Letter here.