homesmillbrae.com » Tight Credit

Mortgage Mess Still Mires US Housing Recovery

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 11:27:01 +0000

Mortgage applications to purchase a home dropped more dramatically than did refinances, down 10 percent from the previous week. While one week does not a trend make, rising mortgage rates, coupled with severe inventory shortages, are not the mix needed for a healthy spring housing market.

(Read More: Beware the Escape Hatch in the New Mortgage Rules)

“Many homeowners may simply be deciding to play the market and wait for their home to appreciate before putting it up for sale. Despite the drop in applications, we have seen anecdotal evidence of homes selling very quickly after entering the market,” says Bob Walters, chief economist at Quicken Loans.

Days on market are shrinking across the nation, but only because supplies are so low. It’s not just the former boom to bust to boom markets, like Phoenix and Las Vegas; local Realtor associations show inventories are down dramatically from a year ago in Charlotte (-29 percent), Dallas (-19 percent), Minneapolis (-32 percent), and Washington, DC (-36 percent) to name a few.

“The low and negative equity of a large number of mortgage holders has kept significant inventory off the market, and many would-be sellers with adequate equity feed into the problem by holding off until they find something to buy,” says Jonathan Miller of CEO of Miller Samuel Inc. “I believe the chronic low inventory phenomenon we are seeing has little to do with lack of consumer confidence and more to do with reasonable access to mortgage financing.”

President Obama echoed that sentiment in his State of the Union addressTuesday night.

“Overlapping regulations keep responsible young families from buying their first home,” Mr. Obama said. Not exactly a new sentiment, as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, has said the same thing several times, as have other federal regulators.

(Read More: Fewer Behind on Mortgages, but for How Long?)

Rising mortgage rates and tight credit standards keep first time-home buyers out, while falling inventories make it more difficult for existing home buyers to move up. The housing market is therefore still largely in the hands of all-cash investors, looking for distressed properties to buy and then rent out. Ironically, perhaps for now, more distressed properties coming to market will be what keeps home sales afloat.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100456918

Mortgage Mess Still Mires Housing Recovery

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:18:54 +0000

(Read More: Beware the Escape Hatch in the New Mortgage Rules)

President Obama echoed that sentiment in his State of the Union addressTuesday night.

(Read More: Fewer Behind on Mortgages, but for How Long?)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100456918

Housing’s Recovery Means Fewer Can Afford Homes

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:14:05 +0000

Rising home prices are not the only factors hitting home affordability. Fees charged to lenders by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (known as “guarantee fees” for bundling and selling mortgages) began rising dramatically in the past month and are now at a high of 46 basis points, according to Capital Economics. These fees are passed on to borrowers in higher interest rates. This is one of the reasons why rates, still at historic lows, are not as low as the Federal Reserve had hoped when it announced another round of purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities.

(Read More: Housing Recovery Is Leaving Behind First-Time Buyers)

Congress raised guarantee fees in 2011 to pay for a payroll tax cut. There is yet another plan to raise fees further to fund immigration reform, although the bill is widely expected to fail.

“Dipping back into the housing piggybank to pay for unrelated policy items on the backs of America’s homebuyers ends the wrong message at a time when the housing market is starting to show signs of recovery,” wrote David Stevens, President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association in a statement last month.

(Read More: Big Money Is Making Big Bets on a Housing Rebound )

Raising guarantee fees is another way for government to wind down the two mortgage giants it still backs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but that comes at a cost to borrowers who are already hampered by stricter underwriting standards.

“G-fees will continue to increase as a way to run down the GSEs’ role in the mortgage market,” writes Paul Diggle of Capital Economics. “Stronger mortgage demand suggests that would-be buyers are growing in confidence. Nevertheless, mortgage lending will continue to be held back by tight credit.”

(Read More: Home Builders Beg for Skilled Workers)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100301299

Housing Still Precarious in Obama’s Second Term

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 20:18:20 +0000

The housing market is on the slow road to recovery. Home prices in the last three months rose in 120 out of 149 metropolitan markets surveyed by the National Association of Realtors.

Compare that to just 39 rising metros a year ago. The median home price is up 7.6 percent from a year ago, the strongest year-over-year increase since the first quarter of 2006.

Much of that is due to the shift in sales away from distressed properties, as lenders modify more loans and in some case write down mortgage principal.

The one thing standing in the way of a more robust housing recovery, is tight credit. Mortgage rates are at near-historic lows, but too many potential home buyers still cannot access these rates due to damaged credit.

“Mortgage-dependent buyers are still only bit-part players in the U.S. housing market recovery,” writes Ed Stansfield of Capital Economics.

So how does a second Obama term play into this still fragile housing market?

“The President’s victory is broadly positive for mortgage insurers and broadly negative for banks and homebuilders,” writes Jaret Seiberg, Senior Policy Analyst at Guggenhiem Partners.

Household formation is coming back, which is great news for the nation’s home builders, if they can obtain the financing they need to build and if their potential buyers can as well. That’s where the fiscal cliff comes in and the fear of another recession.

“The National Association of Home Builders urges President Obama and congressional leaders to work together to resolve issues related to the ‘fiscal cliff’ by extending all of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts while being mindful of how broad-based tax reform will affect the fledgling housing recovery,” wrote NAHB chairman Barry Rutenberg in a release Wednesday.

Since housing finance barely came up during the campaign, and President Obama never gave voters any kind of vision about the future of mortgage lending, according to Seiberg, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will likely remain unchanged/unreformed through the mid-term elections in 2015.

The bigger issue is regulation in the mortgage market under Dodd-Frank legislation and the potential of the overall economy going over the fiscal cliff. Lenders face new rules on mortgage underwriting and how much mortgage risk they may be required to hold (QM/QRM). While a Romney administration could have stopped some of the rule-making (albeit not all of it), it will now go forward as planned. The mortgage industry is therefore reacting cautiously.

“We will ask for greater focus from this administration on ensuring that this regulation coming from so many different regulators is being considered more thoughtfully,” said David Stevens, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA is renewing its call on the President to appoint a federal housing policy coordinator to act as something of a “traffic cop” to ensure “a coordinated housing policy where federal and regulatory agencies are effectively talking to each other” during the rulemaking process.

As for the millions of borrowers who still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, the Obama administration has consistently said it wants to extend mortgage refinancing to take advantage of today’s record low rates. With Democrats still holding the Senate, it seems more likely they could get new legislation on mortgage refinancing, but analysts bet again the removal of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator, Edward DeMarco, who has stood staunchly in the way of lowering mortgage principal.

Click on ticker to follow real estate news:

US Home Builders

—Toll Brothers
[TOL
Loading...

()

]

—DR Horton
[DHI
Loading...

()

]

—Hovnanian Enterprises
[HOV
Loading...

()

]

—PulteGroup
[PHM
Loading...

()

]

—Ryland Group
[RYL
Loading...

()

]

—Lennar Corp
[LEN
Loading...

()

]

—Beazer Homes USA
[BZH
Loading...

()

]

—Meritage Homes
[MTH
Loading...

()

]

—KB Home
[KBH
Loading...

()

]

Questions? Comments?

Follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick or on Facebook at facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49727669?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Pending Home Sales Barely Budge in September

Fri, 26 Oct 2012 19:36:09 +0000

In a sign of a still struggling housing market, signed contracts to buy existing homes were essentially flat in September from August, edging up just 0.3 percent according to a monthly index from the National Association of Realtors.

The index is 14.5 percent above September of 2011. Closings, the final stage of an existing home sale, fell in September, with Realtors continuing to cite tight credit as a headwind to recovery.

“Home contract activity remains at an elevated level in contrast with recent years, but currently appears to be bouncing around in a narrow range,” wrote NAR’s chief economist Lawrence Yun in a release. “This means only minor movement is likely in near-term existing-home sales, but with positive underlying market fundamentals they should continue on an uptrend in 2013.”

(Read More: Is Housing Recovering as Much as Everyone Thinks?)

Contract activity has increased on an annual basis for seventeen straight months, but is fluctuating month to month and region to region. The Realtors’ index of so-called pending home sales rose 1.4 percent month-to-month in the Northeast, fell 5.8 percent in the Midwest, rose 1 percent in the South and rose 4.3 percent in the West. The western region, which includes some of the hardest hit states of the housing crash, was the only region to see nearly flat gains from a year ago. That is do to low supplies of distressed properties.

(Read More: Is There a Housing Shortage?)

Investors have focused their attention and cash on formerly hard hit cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas and several California cities.

The National Association of Realtors estimates that completed existing home sales in 2012 will total close to 4.6 million, an increase of 9 percent from 2011. Lower housing inventories, they also predict, should push existing home prices up 6 percent this year nationally.

Questions? Comments? And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49551005?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Credit Clips Homebuilder Confidence

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 01:09:47 +0000

After a summer of significant monthly jumps in confidence among the nation’s home builders, fall appears to be bringing in a chill.

Builder sentiment edged up just one point in October, according to an industry association index, but credit issues still plaguing the market appear to be holding sentiment from making the final move from negative to positive.

(Read More: Are Big Home Builder Stocks Too Hot?)

“The slight gain in builder confidence this month is an indication that, while still moving forward, the speed at which the housing recovery is proceeding is being moderated by the various constraints such as tight credit, difficult appraisals and more recently, the limited inventory of buildable lots in certain markets,” explained National Association of Home Builders’ chief economist David Crowe. “These are the complicating factors that make it difficult for builder confidence to reach and surpass the 50-point mark, at which an equal number of builders view sales conditions as good versus poor.”

Buyer traffic continues to improve, marking the only positive move in the NAHB’s monthly index. Both current sales conditions and sales expectations over the next six months were unchanged, both still below the positive mark. Regionally, confidence improved in all but the Northeast region.

(Read More: How to Play the Housing ‘Boom’)

Record low interest rates are bringing buyers back to the market, tempting them, but often turning them away at the same time. The rates are great, if you can get them, but a lot of potential buyers, especially much-needed first-time home buyers, cannot.

“You have to have substantial down payment. The minimum down payments are difficult,” says Jane Fairweather, a real estate agent in Bethesda, Maryland. “The people that can manage them run into appraisal problems, banks are still squirrely, so mortgage money is still an issue in the marketplace.”

That is not likely to improve any time soon. Details on new regulations in the mortgage market are beginning to leak out of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and while they appear to be less onerous than once expected, they are not exactly benign.

“For us the biggest issue with QM (the Qualified Mortgage rule that will be issued by the CFPB as part of financial reform legislation) remains that banks have an incentive to be more conservative in their underwriting until they are confident on how the Qualified Mortgage safe harbor will protect them from borrowers trying to avoid foreclosures by claiming that they never should have gotten the loan in the first place,” writes Jaret Seiberg of Guggenheim Securities. “This is why we believe we remain at risk for a purchase mortgage credit crunch in 2013.”

(Read More: Homebuilders Rise as Market Continues Recovery)

While credit is an obstacle to the home builders, dramatically low supply of existing homes is a near-term boon.

“October is going rather well. What I see as an interesting story is that realtor listings of existing homes keeps dropping,” notes Stephen Paul, executive vice president of MidAtlantic Builders in Rockville, Maryland. “I think the reason for this is that we are past the big short sale and foreclosure problem, and the balance of people are remaining in their homes with upside down mortgages, making their regular payments. They are not moving, not defaulting, just standing pat. That has shrunk the existing home inventory and will help the new homes market.”

CNBC Realty Check producer Stephanie Dhue contributed to this report.

Sector Watch: US Home Builders

Toll Brothers
[TOL
Loading...

()

]

DR Horton
[DHI
Loading...

()

]

Hovnanian Enterprises
[HOV
Loading...

()

]

PulteGroup
[PHM
Loading...

()

]

Ryland Group
[RYL
Loading...

()

]

Lennar Corp
[LEN
Loading...

()

]

Beazer Homes USA
[BZH
Loading...

()

]

Meritage Homes
[MTH
Loading...

()

]

KB Home
[KBH
Loading...

()

]

Questions? Comments? And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49430599?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

CitiMortgage CEO on Tight Credit: ‘There’s Nothing Wrong with People Making Profits’

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:20:26 +0000

Mortgage rates are at record lows, but they could be even lower.
Several reports recently have documented why the spreads between mortgage bonds and mortgage rates have widened so much, but few have agreed as to why mortgage rates have not fallen lower, given the Federal Reserve’s latest announcement that it would buy more agency mortgage backed securities.

The mortgage lending landscape has changed dramatically since the financial meltdown of 2008, with some ramping up volume and others exiting the business. Wells Fargo
[WFC
Loading...

()

] mortgage origination was up a whopping 72 percent in the first half of this year from the same time a year ago, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Bank of America
[BAC
Loading...

()

] originations were down 65 percent. Underwriting is tight, and lenders make no apologies, but mortgage banking profits are also way up, and lenders make no apologies for that either.

“There is nothing wrong with people making profits, I think both sides of the system need to be healthy. I don’t want to defend lenders, but I will say that the amount of infrastructure it takes to do these billions and billions of dollars of loans is not insignificant,” said Sanjiv Das, CEO of CitiMortgage
[C
Loading...

()

]. “We’ve had to build new sites, had to hire thousands of people, train them, make sure they are doing the right sets of activity. Remember, we are dealing with huge amounts of regulatory pressure at the same time, making sure that every I is dotted and every T is crossed.”

Das points to huge loan volume increases, especially with refinances, as more borrowers try to take advantage of record low rates. He also says that regulatory uncertainty has lenders strapped in what they’re willing to do now, especially given a still murky atmosphere surrounding mortgage put-backs by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on legacy loans (put backs: when Fannie and Freddie make banks buy back bad loans).

He also points to great uncertainty surrounding the potential fiscal cliff. The loss of the mortgage interest deduction, as well as the potential end of the current tax exemption on short sale debt forgiveness, could have a halting effect on the current housing recovery. (Read More: Housing Alert: Short Sales May Be in Big Trouble)

“Housing is beginning to show its first signs of recovery: Home prices look like they have bottomed, there’s a lot of credit that’s being made available, at least through refinancing right now, and I think it’s a good thing,” notes Das. “I think that momentum should not be disturbed by any structural changes with respect to tax policies right now. It could be addressed 2-3 years down the pike, and I think short sales are a very important mechanism for people to be able to get out of their underwater homes. It should continue to be made easy not more difficult.”

Das says that while banks like CitiMortgage are working more quickly through the backlog of millions of delinquent mortgages, there will not be a flood of foreclosures hitting the market this fall and winter. A change in tax policy on short sales, however, could add to the foreclosure volume, as we noted in an earlier post. Citi, like other lenders, is using more alternatives, like rental programs for troubled borrowers, rather than eviction, but foreclosures will continue to work through the market for several years to come. (Read More: An Enigma in the Mortgage Market That Elevates Rates)

That continued dress, coupled with ever more litigation, regulatory uncertainty and the looming fiscal cliff, will keep mortgage rates from falling as well as some, like the Federal Reserve, might have hoped. In any event, as low rates spur more refinances, banks have and will raise rates a bit just to manage the demand.

Questions? Comments? And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49258201?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Home Builders Bullish for Fifth Straight Month

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 05:29:43 +0000

The nation’s once-beleaguered home builders are more confident than they have been in six years.

A surge in new orders for homes, especially among the big public builders, pushed builder sentiment on an industry survey up three points to the highest level since June of 2006.

The National Association of Home Builders confidence survey now stands at 40, although 50 is still the line between positive and negative. This is a vast improvement from where it was just one year ago: 14.

“Builders across the country are expressing a more positive,” notes NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe in a release. “However, against the improving demand for new homes, concerns are now rising about the lack of building lots in certain markets and the rising cost of building materials. Given the fragile nature of the housing and economic recovery, these are significant red flags.”

Builders also cite tight credit conditions for builders and buyers as another barrier to a stronger recovery. Still, the builders say they see improvements in current sales conditions, buyer traffic, and future sales expectations, with the last one rising above 50 into the positive territory. (Watch: US Housing Most Affordable in Years – Pro)

This sentiment appears to be widespread.

Confidence rose in every region of the country with the highest monthly gains in the West and Midwest where there are the largest volumes of new construction.

This confidence mirrors investor confidence in the stocks of the public builders, which are now at their highest levels since 2007. (Watch: Home Builders Are on Fire)

Even before this index was released, Goldman Sachs Group
[GS
Loading...

()

] Tuesday reiterated its optimism in the sector, citing, “a long list of positives” including the recent announcement from the Federal Reserve that it would purchase billions of dollars’ worth of agency mortgage backed securities, as well as rising home prices and low inventories. Goldman’s top picks are MDC Homes
[MDC
Loading...

()

], Toll Bros.
[TOL
Loading...

()

], PulteGroup
[PHM
Loading...

()

] and KB Home
[KBH
Loading...

()

].

Surging Homebuilders Have Further Upside: Analyst

Builder Stocks With Big Potential: Pro

Flood of Foreclosures

Cities With the Most Affordable Homes

Questions? Comments? And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/49071658?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

More good housing market news: Bay Area’s August home sales strongest in six …

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 05:08:26 +0000

SAN JOSE — The Bay Area real estate market’s resurgence continued in August, as the region posted its most home sales for the month in six years, DataQuick reported Friday.

A total of 8,579 homes sold in the nine-county Bay Area in August, the real estate information service reported, an increase of 14.2 percent. While the median price dipped slightly from July — from $421,000 to $410,000 — it increased 10.8 percent year-over-year; sales typically increase and median price typically decreases from July to August, DataQuick reported.

Bay Area home sales have increased year-over-year every month since July 2011, as the region’s housing market recovers from the subprime mortgage crisis that sent the economy into the Great Recession and crated home sales and prices.

August was the fifth consecutive month that the median price increased from the same month the previous year, as higher-priced homes have begun selling at a faster clip while fewer foreclosures are purchased. Foreclosures accounted for 14.9 percent of resales in August, the lowest percentage since December 2007, while 40.2 percent of homes sold went for more than $500,000.

While the market has definitely boomeranged during the past year, it is not completely healthy because of a tight credit market that can keep prospective homeowners for obtaining a mortgage loan, DataQuick president John Walsh said Friday.

“Most economists agree that the housing market is off

bottom. But there’s a big gap between the market being ‘off bottom’ and being normal, which it’s not. The single biggest bottleneck is still the dysfunctional mortgage lending market. It’ll be interesting to see how yesterday’s announcement that the Fed is going to buy mortgage-backed securities plays out,” Walsh said in Friday’s news release.
Sales and prices increased in all nine counties in August, with the largest leaps in home sales showing up in the North Bay, where Napa County had a 32.2 percent year-over-year increase and Marin had a 29.2 percent jump. San Francisco County sales increased 29.1 percent from August 2011.

The largest median price increase occurred in Contra Costa County, with a 15.2 percent bump from $260,500 to $300,000. The sales bump in Contra Costa was the lowest in the Bay Area, however, as 4.6 percent more homes sold than in August 2011.

Alameda County home sales increased 22 percent year-over-year, while the median price rose 8.9 percent to $380,000. Santa Clara County’s median price jumped higher than $500,000, at $542,750, thanks to a 10.3 percent increase; home sales increased in the South Bay county by 9.3 percent.

San Mateo County’s growth was tame compared with its neighbors, with the Peninsula gaining 5.6 percent in sales and 3.9 percent in median price, at $592,500.

DataQuick is a San Diego-based real estate information service. Due to late data availability, the company estimated August sales in Alameda, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/mercbizbreak.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_21544164/more-good-housing-market-news-bay-areas-august

Regulator Claims New Rules Will Loosen Mortgage Lending

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:39:51 +0000

Ask any real estate agent, home builder or home buyer what is the biggest barrier to entry in today’s housing market, and the likely answer will be: tight credit.

The lax lending of the latest housing crash is no more, but some claim the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.

High credit scores and large downpayments are often required to get the lowest mortgage interest rates, and that is knocking many would-be home owners out of the game.

While some argue that we have just returned to the days of responsible lending, banks are clearly more gun shy due to the billions of dollars’ worth of bad loans that they have been forced to repurchase from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The two mortgage giants have claimed false “representations and warranties” on thousands of loans sold to them by lenders. (Read More: ‘Wind Down of Fannie, Freddie: ‘Positive for Housing’?)

The representations and warranties are basically what the lender tells Fannie and Freddie about the loans and the borrowers.

Through the first half of 2012, lenders have had to repurchase a total of $41.95 billion in mortgages from Fannie and Freddie. (Read More: Fannie Mae COE: ‘Comfortable’ With Decision Not to Slash Mortgage Balances.)

That covers loans made before 2005 and through the second quarter of 2012, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. Actual GSE (Fannie/Freddie) repurchase requests or demands are about double that amount.

Given that, it is no surprise that the banks have tightened lending.

“For the market to reclaim the strength it once had, and to provide a cornerstone for the mortgage market of the future, it is vital we consider ways to improve the representation and warranty model,” said Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s regulator, in a speech to the American Mortgage Conference in North Carolina Monday night.

To that end, the FHFA has released new guidelines that will go into effect on new loans starting the first of next year. Part of the new “framework,” is relief for lenders from mortgage repurchase obligations on loans where the borrower has made on-time monthly payments for 36 consecutive months. On refinances through the government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), that term would be knocked down to 12 months. (Read More: Why Millions of Americans Still Can’t Refinance Their Mortgage.)

The new framework also provides faster and more in-depth monitoring of loans by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Apparently new data-collection systems will allow for that. This is an improvement because usually the loans are reviewed only after they have defaulted.

“To the extent that a lender controls the origination process, they determine whether or not they are delivering a quality loan,” said a source close to the matter. “Their behavior will determine whether they get relief.”

Banks have been asking for more clarity in the whole repurchase process, and the FHFA is promising that new framework. This all covers new loans, however, and does nothing to address the still thousands of bad loans in the system made during the housing boom. (Read More: Big Banks Pushed to Outsource Mortgages.)

“The FHFA is trying to get banks to lend, take more risk when they sell these loans to the GSE’s,” said FBR’s Paul Miller. “There is a huge problem with people with lower FICO scores not getting access to credit, so the GSE’s have come under a lot of criticism.”

Will it work?

“This will have minimal impact,” claimed Miller, who points to still huge put-backs in process on legacy loans from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA. Put-back risk is one of, if not the top reason lenders are not loosening mortgage credit availability.

“Our concern remains that these initial [loan] reviews could cause lenders to further tighten underwriting standards for fear of running afoul of FHFA’s standards,” added Jaret Seiberg of Guggenheim Partners, who said today’s announcement of the standards only adds to his worries of a credit crunch in 2013.

Still the FHFA claims lenders asked for more clarification on quality controls and asked for earlier monitoring of loans, and that is what they’re getting.

“Ultimately, better quality loan originations and underwriting, along with consistent quality control, will help maintain liquidity in the mortgage market while protecting the Enterprises from loans not underwritten to prescribed standards,” DeMarco said.

The trouble is, this is not the only issue keeping credit tight. (Read More: US Home Builders Begin to See Credit Thaw.)

The future existence of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac themselves are still in question, and banks are also facing new regulations under the Dodd-Frank (learn more) law that could complicate lending further and heighten lenders’ exposure to risk. For the mortgage lending business, it is still an uncertain future.

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick

Questions? Comments? And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48988843?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS