The original First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit, issued in 2008, required repayment. The credit issued in 2009 did not. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) reported that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could not distinguish between 2008 and 2009 home purchases and outlined concerns that controls would not be adequate to prevent [...]

For information on highlighted terms in the commentary, click here. Stocks are back in negative territory after weak economic news in unemployment and manufacturing. After this mornings jobless claims report jumped up, we now have close to 10 million unemployed workers in the country. Also, a regional report from the Philadelphia Fed showed that manufacturing [...]

Our current economic crisis has been analogized as a “Financial Tsunami” because of the devastation of force and the uniformity of destruction regardless of your position in the financial landscape. The analogy sends a clear message that this event is not a normal cyclical storm, but one of great and rare magnitude that requires an [...]

My letter to Arizona Senators and Representatives: As the Senate and House reconciles their respective versions of financial reform, the Loan Originators in Arizona ask you to encourage them remove any reform relating to mortgages. We recognize that during the real estate boom many excesses were taken. The aftermath has created suffering for consumers and [...]

Fannie Mae is stepping up lender responsibilities on conventional loans. Known as the “Loan Quality Initiative” (LQI), the new policies will change the mortgage lending process. Two of the biggest changes include re-verifying borrower’s debt prior to closing and ensuring that no members of the transaction are on a “exclusionary list.” These federal lists cover [...]

Having gone through legislative and regulatory changes that made it difficult to remain an independent mortgage broker, I see similar writing on the wall for small mortgage banks. The rhetoric of financial reform is centered on eliminating institutions that are too big to fail”, yet the results of proposed language could reduce mortgage banking to [...]

In 2003, the United States Senate designated April as Financial Literacy for Youth Month in order to create higher economic literacy and education among children. In March 2004 the Senate passed Resolution 316 that officially recognized April as National Financial Literacy Month to broaden the spotlight to include problems resulting from pervasive financial illiteracy among [...]

The Credit Wise Cats is a program comprised of 12 to 15 University of Arizona students who provide personal financial education to college students and students in grades K-12 in the greater Tucson community. The CWC educators are extensively trained by the Take Charge America Institute (TCAI) faculty and staff to provide community outreach through [...]

Future retrospection will likely show 2009 as the most challenging year for the modern mortgage industry, and 2010 as the most defining. The Mortgage Industry Update will be back in full force on January 11th, covering all of the issues that will reshape the mortgage industry. The new 3-page Good Faith Estimate goes into effect [...]

The tax credit is an incentive to get homebuyers into the market; for some, this incentive will turn into a penalty. The media is doing a great job of getting information out that the first time homebuyer tax credit of $8,000 is available for qualified buyers who purchase a home before December 1, 2009. Unfortunately, [...]