Home >> Author Archives: Samantha Guzman

Author Archives: Samantha Guzman

Samantha Guzman is an award-winning visual journalist and graduate of the University of North Texas Mayborn School of Journalism. She specializes in visual storytelling and has skills in video, audio and photography, in addition to news writing. She has traveled to Mexico and Bosnia as an assistant for multiple multimedia projects and taught news writing, photojournalism, and narrative storytelling in the past.

Over 7 Million Borrowers Eligible for Refinance

refinance

In their monthly Mortgage Monitor Report, Black Knight reports the number of potential refinance candidates currently sits at 7.1 million, a substantial increase form just 4.1 million potential borrowers in February 2014. However, Black Knight’s SVP of Loan Data Products, Trey Barnes, says that number is fragile. According to Barnes, any increases in mortgage rates could cause that number to drop, even marginally.

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BLS Jobs Reports Shows ‘Disappointing’ Growth

After months of solid gains with the administration touting that the labor market is at its healthiest level since the turn of the century, payroll employment increases for March fell well short of expectations with just 126,000 jobs added, according to data released the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.

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FICO Releases Alternative Credit Pilot Program

After extensive research, data scientists from FICO found that info such as property records, telecommunications, and utility information can be used as reliable sources to score 15 million consumers who do not have enough credit data to generate FICO score. By using this alternative data from LexisNexis and Equifax, FICO will give card issuers a FICO score that complies with relevant regulations that they can use to extend credit responsibly to millions of additional people.

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Report: Housing Market is Healthiest Since 2001

According to data, none of the housing markets in the nation’s largest 40 metros are in negative territory, and only six of them are even neutral. The healthiest housing markets in the nation are in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. Only two metros in the nation are in negative territory (Bismarck, North Dakota and Atlantic City, New Jersey), and even these are nearly in the neutral zone.

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Bank of America Settles Two Financial Crisis Lawsuits

Deutsche Bank‘s and BNP Paribas‘s mortgage units were investors in notes issued by Taylor Bean’s Ocala Funding unit, a mortgage conduit. The two banks sued Bank of America, which acted as middleman between the investors and Ocala, for $1.75 billion in 2009 over their losses on the notes.

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HUD Secretary: FHA is Exploring Alternative Credit Scoring for Mortgage Borrowers

Co-hosted by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), The Asian Real Estate Association of America, and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the event included two roundtable discussions and a keynote address from Castro. Realtors within these organizations believe in safe access to mortgage credit for borrower who can show they are able to own a home and keep up with payments. However, due to restrictive lending many of the qualified borrowers are not able to enter the housing market, according to NAR President Chris Polychron.

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Former FDIC Chairman Criticizes Lack of GSE Reform

On an Investors Unite Conference call Wednesday, Isaac said while in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis the government used Fannie and Freddie to stabilize housing finance, the government’s current actions could cause another, potentially worse, crisis.

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Stewart Hires Brad Rable as Chief Information Officer

Rable most recently served as an executive partner with Gartner Executive Programs where he worked with C suite and information technology senior executives, providing organizations with tools and insights to deliver exceptional business results. Prior roles include serving as EVP, chief information officer, and chief strategy officer for AIG/United Guaranty where he lead the technology and product development divisions as well as the innovation team that launched the AIG Mortgage Advisory Company.

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