From the category archives:

Credit

Mythbusting: How Inquiries Impact Your Score When Shopping for a Mortgage

by Alex Stenback 04.28.2011

One of the more resilient pieces of consumer-pop-mythology is the idea that a credit inquiry or multiple credit inquires will always and universally screw up your credit score. As a point of fact, this is not true, and with apologies to George Orwell: Not all credit inquiries are equal, but some inquiries are more equal than [...]

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FICO: Quantifying the Damage, How Short Sales May Impact Credit Scores

by Alex Stenback 12.03.2009

FICO, purveyer of the widely used credit scoring model of the same name, has always held information on how their models score specific behaviors – like bankruptcy - a secret.  In fact, it wasn’t long ago that the score itself was supposed to be kept from the consumer. This is all changing, and FICO is now giving [...]

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On Lending “Disparities” in the Twin Cities

by Alex Stenback 02.13.2009

I’ve tried to avoid commenting on this Racial Disparities in Twin Cities Lending study that is making the press rounds, but since I’ve gotten at least a dozen emails on it, here it is. The study takes a few dozen pages to say: “Lenders are substantially more likely to deny loans to people of color, regardless of their [...]

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Born Again: When will you be eligible for a mortgage after a foreclosure or short sale?

by Alex Stenback 10.24.2008

Did you miss the fact that foreclosure filings were up 71% in the third quarter? Which makes it a good time to remind everyone of the rules that govern when and how you'll be eligible for a mortgage after you've been foreclosed, surrendered a deed, or negotiated a short sale. For borrowers with a foreclosure, short sale, [...]

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As Home Prices Fall, Costs of Financing Continue to Rise

by Alex Stenback 08.07.2008

Can we talk about risk based pricing? In the simplest of terms, risk based pricing is a system where the interest rate and/or fees paid for a mortgage vary based on the characteristics of both the borrower and the loan itself. Some borrowers are more likely to default.  Some loan types, such as those with [...]

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Pain for Prime Borrowers: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac to Hike Fees; or How a Three-Point Difference in Your Credit Score Could Cost You Thousands.

by Alex Stenback 03.17.2008

Back in November of 2007, Fannie and Freddie (the two GSE’s, or "Agencies" under whose guidelines some 70% of mortgages are underwritten) announced additional fees which would be tacked onto mortgages for borrowers with credit scores below 680 as of March 1st.  We reported on this here. Since then, credit markets have deteriorated further, so [...]

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Behind on The Mortgage: What is a Delinquent Borrower to Do?

by Alex Stenback 01.04.2008

We’ve posted this once before, but given the number or search queries, emails, and phone calls we are getting asking the question posed in the title, we thought it was worth re-posting a summary of David A. Smith’s excellent advice on what to do if you are, or are in danger of, falling behind on [...]

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The Price of Average Credit just Went Up

by Alex Stenback 11.21.2007

As you can see in the chart at right, the mounting losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government sponsored enterprises who buy and guarantee 40% of US Home loans, have punished stock prices in the two mortgage giants. And the buck won’t stop at investors portfolios. Beyond the meltdown in share prices, [...]

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Graphic: Prime vs. Subprime Late Payments

by Alex Stenback 11.19.2007

Just in case you’ve been living under a rock and have some lingering doubts about how poorly sub-prime home loans have been performing, and how utterly, insanely, lax lending standards had become in the sub-prime space, take a look at the graph at right from the WSJ. That is one wicked looking curve, that has [...]

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