This Week’s Short Stories

Rent-to-Own Gaining Credibility?
Investors who use rent-to-own or contract-for-deed strategies may get some good press and help from the media. With new and much stricter lending guidelines in place, sites like money.usnews.com are publishing consumer articles about using these methods to purchase property when a mortgage is difficult or impossible. The benefits of having the time to improve credit scores or build up a down payment are being positively presented these days as good for the consumer.

Mortgage Rates Coming Down
This week brings good news for consumers seeking a new mortgage or desiring to refinance. Current rates are:
• 4.23% for 30-year fixed mortgages
• 3.33% for 15-year fixed loans
• 3-year ARMs are down to around 2.85%
Many analysts are predicting rising rates in 2014, so this may present a limited window of opportunity.

Ocwen Financial Gaining Business and Scrutiny
While the vast majority of consumers are getting mortgages from the big banks, but many of those loans don’t stay in-house for long at all. The rights to those loans are being sold, and Ocwen Financial is one of the largest mortgage servicers out there. However, déjà vu is setting in when rumors of “robo-signing” and other mortgage servicing and foreclosure irregularities are surfacing again. Regulators are increasing their scrutiny of companies like Ocwen.