Sales of previously-owned homes rose higher than expected in March, reversing a three-month slide. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Thursday that existing-home sales jumped 6.8 percent to a 5.35 million-unit annual sales rate. Forty-four percent of last month's sales were attributed to first-time buyers racing to make the window for the homebuyer tax credit, but NAR still sees the March numbers as a signal of what will be a strong spring season and a broad home sales recovery.
In response to the notable first quarter profits reported by Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, the Association of Mortgage Investors (AMI) released a statement saying these four banks need to stop shifting their mortgage losses to investors in first-lien mortgages and confront their conflicts of interest. While the big banks have aggressively modified first mortgage debt, AMI says they have done little to nothing on second liens. As a result, homeowners remain deeply in debt with second mortgages that exceed the current value of their home.
Redwood Trust Inc. plans to sell the first private securitization of newly originated mortgages since 2008. The residential mortgage-backed security (RMBS) consists of 225 prime jumbo mortgage loans worth approximately $222 million. The bond could be a big step toward restoring a secondary mortgage market left stagnant by the housing crisis, when mounting defaults caused investors to recoil.
Regulators have repeatedly warned that failures of small and mid-sized banks are expected to escalate. While many have gotten a handle on problems arising from the housing crisis, top officials say losses from commercial real estate loans now threaten to topple nearly 3,000 of the nation's community banks. It's true that bank failures and government seizures continue at a pace not seen since the savings and loan crisis, but a new study shows that community banks appear better positioned to weather further economic deterioration than their larger competitors.
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