This Mortgagee Letter introduces new minimum credit scores and loan-to-value (LTV) ratio requirements for FHA-insured loans.This guidance is effective for case numbers assigned on or after October 4, 2010....(read more)

From the BLS : Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-54,000) in August, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Government employment fell, as 114,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly (+67,000). Census 2010 hiring decreased 114,000 in August. Non-farm payroll employment increased 60,000 in July ex-Census. Both June and July payroll employment were revised up. "June was revised from -221,000 to -175,000, and the change for July was revised from -131,000 to -54,000." Click on graph for larger image. This graph shows the unemployment rate vs. recessions. Nonfarm payrolls decreased by 54 thousand in August...(read more)

A few more comments: Decennial Census layoffs came in close to my estimate (-114,000 actual vs. estimate of -116,000) The seasonally adjusted (SA) teen participation rate increased from 34.6% to 35.2%. This was because so few teens looked for jobs this summer. This was a factor in pushing up the overall participation rate even with a weak job market. The before rounding participation rate (SA) rose from 64.55% in July to 64.73% in August, and the before rounding unemployment rate rose from 9.51% in July to 9.643% in August. It won't take much to push the headline unemployment rate to 9.7%. Click on graph for larger image. The BLS diffusion index for total private employment declined to 53.0 from 56.7 in July. For manufacturing, the diffusion index declined to 47.0 from 53.0 in July, and...(read more)

Economist David Rosenberg urged a note of caution when reading Thursday's positive pending home sales report....(read more)

Federal Housing Stimulus: How Much More?...(read more)

Five years ago, one of the most destructive natural disasters in our nation's history hit the Gulf Coast. When they hit the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita took thousands of lives, displaced millions of residents, wiped out hundreds of square miles of coastal land, and inflicted major damage to nearly 300,000 homes....(read more)

On August 27, FHA announced its intention to make modifications to its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) product, a reverse mortgage loan insured by the federal government, to make it more att read more...(read more)

A lot of people have been quoting this passage from Chip Case’s op-ed on housing as an investment: For people with a more realistic version of the American dream, buying a house now can make a lot of sense. Think of it as an investment. The return or yield on that investment comes in two forms. First, it provides what is called “net imputed rent from owner-occupied housing.” You live in the house and so it provides you with a real flow of valuable services. This part of the yield is counted as part of national income by the Commerce Department. It is the equivalent of about a 6 percent return on your investment after maintenance and repair, and it is constant over time in real terms. Consider it this way: when Enron went belly up, shareholders ended up with nothing, but when the housing market...(read more)

Economists and others weigh in on the drop in total nonfarm payrolls and rise in the unemployment rate....(read more)

H&R Block Inc., the tax preparer whose stock slid 18 percent last month, told investors yesterday to ignore speculation that it faces a surge in costs tied to its defunct mortgage business. The stock rose almost 10 percent in early New York trading....(read more)

The U.S. non-manufacturing sector grew in August for an eighth straight month but at a slower pace than July and at a rate that was below expectations, according to an industry report released on Friday....(read more)

On September 1, Treasury notified HFAs participating in the New Issue Bond Program (NIBP) that it has approved chang read more...(read more)

Working Paper 2010-15. Kristopher Gerardi and Yuping Tsai.Working Paper 2010-15. Studying the introduction of a Taiwanese social security program, the authors find that the probability of an adult child providing monetary transfers to his or her parents decreases substantially if the parents receive public assistance....(read more)

Even in the face of stagnant - or sliding - home prices, an overwhelming 90 percent of homeowners say they don't regret buying their current home, according to a new study by Bankrate, Inc....(read more)

A monthly measure of potential U.S. future inflation rose in August but continued to signal muted pressure, a research group said on Friday. The Economic Cycle Research......(read more)