Borrowers shopping for a mortgage are obliged to select a lender before the price is “locked.” As a result, borrowers in shopping mode are vulnerable to lowballing — the practice of quoting a price below the market as a way of influencing the shopper’s selection. Borrowers who have already selected a lender but have not …
Low property valuations and steep sales discounts reduce the proceeds from liquidated loans by almost a third, according to Moody’s Investors Service. As home prices drop, equity erosion drives most of the losses incurred on defaulted mortgage loans, but the analysts at Moody’s say in today’s environment that’s not the whole story. They maintain that …
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Q: Knowing that I would be selling my home, I have been following price ranges for comparable properties to my home on a couple of major real estate websites. Now that I am ready to list, all the agents I’ve talked to say that the websites are so out of line that their recommendations are …
Continue reading ‘Four ways online real estate valuations fail’ »
Negative equity remains one of the biggest challenges for the housing market. For some borrowers it can become their rationale to stop making mortgage payments and intentionally default on the loan. The risk of such strategic default is rising among loans that have “always performed,” according to the credit analysts at Moody’s Analytics. They say …
Continue reading ‘Risk of Strategic Default Rising in Low-Risk Areas’ »