| New Century can't issue mortgages
New Century Financial Corp., the nation's second-biggest subprime mortgage lender, was ordered to halt operations in its home state of California Tuesday, and Fannie Mae stopped buying the company's loans.
California told New Century to stop taking mortgage applications and turn over pending loans to other lenders, the Irvine, Calif.-based company said in a regulatory filing. The state accounted for 37 percent of New Century's loans in 2005, the most recent year for which data is available. New Century said similar orders came from Florida and Washington.
Fannie Mae, the biggest source of money for U.S. mortgages, served notice it will no longer buy New Century's loans, according to the filing. New Century must deal with the cutoffs after at least 10 other states said they want the company to halt operations, and the lender said Tuesday it expects to receive additional orders from more states.
Monday Newspaper Review - Irish Business News and International ...
The Irish Independent reports that single people applying to purchase 'affordable' homes in west Dublin will have to have a salary of at least 67,000 to qualify. Despite the three-bedroom homes being offered for sale at a discount to the market price, applicants will have to earn twice the average industrial wage just to meet mortgage repayments. The houses, which are for sale in a development called Phibblestown Wood in Ongar, are priced from 310,000 to 345,000. Located close to Blanchardstown shopping centre, most have large back gardens and are suitable for families. Affordable homes are sold in new estates at a discount to the market price for people on lower incomes. But the high income threshold required to purchase them shows the difficulty that many first-time buyers have when it comes to buying a home.
No Shelter From the Housing Storm
As the saying goes, never try to catch a falling knife. And what made me think of that? This: New single-family home sales declined 3.9 percent in February to an annual rate of 848,000, according to new Commerce Department data. That's the lowest level in almost seven years and much weaker than the 990,000 rate expected by the consensus. Plus, it's the absolute reverse of the 3.9 percent rise in existing home sales. Even worse, sales were revised lower for November, December, and January. Here are four Wall Street takes on the news, none of them particularly cheery: .
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