In fact, significant portions of it require no approval from a hyperpartisan Congress and could begin affecting consumers within weeks. Here’s a quick rundown on key pieces of the plan, with a handicapping of their likely impact this year:

• You came through the housing bust and recession far more debt-averse than you were before.

• You’ve been reluctant to consider selling your house because you don’t believe you’ll get what it’s really worth.

These are key questions affecting millions of potential home buyers who hope to qualify for mortgages as well as current owners looking to refinance. New research from a major credit-risk evaluation company suggests that the drop in huge numbers of Americans’ scores was dramatic.

Could gloomy popular assumptions about how tough it is to get a mortgage be deterring large numbers of qualified people from even applying?

Could the same worries — I can’t come up with the big down payment I need, my credit scores are too low, my bank account has almost none of the reserves that lenders want to see — put a needless damper on a housing recovery in the new year?

It’s a serious problem in markets across the country. For example:

Is there much of it left after the wealth-killing recession and real estate bust? Where is it? Who’s got equity? You might be surprised.

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]]> http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=449666e56d7dbe97afd3f4089b41c09a http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/whos-got-positive-equity-you-might-be-surprised/2011/09/26/gIQAtHZq9K_story.html?wprss=rss_linkset http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/whos-got-positive-equity-you-might-be-surprised/2011/09/26/gIQAtHZq9K_story.html?wprss=rss_linkset http://www.washingtonpost.com/Fragment/SysConfig/WebPortal/twpweb/rss/mobile/blog-entry.jpp?id=1000.2.1482856579 http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/whos-got-positive-equity-you-might-be-surprised/2011/09/26/gIQAtHZq9K_story.html?wprss=rss_linkset http://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/whos-got-positive-equity-you-might-be-surprised/2011/09/26/gIQAtHZq9K_story.html 1000.2.1482856579 ea539fe6-e861-11e0-8a05-c10ec107dc66 Fri, 30 Sep 2011 08:09:00 EST Sat, 1 Oct 2011 11:52:12 EST 20111001165212 The Washington Post /2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/09/26/RealEstate/Stories/harney1.xml Remember the proposed requirement from six federal agencies that home buyers make down payments of at least 20 percent if they want the lowest interest rates?

Remember the controversy that erupted over the plan last spring, when labor unions joined with bankers, civil rights groups, mortgage companies, real estate agents and consumer advocates to try to make sure it didn’t take effect? A bipartisan group of 39 senators and more than 250 Democrats and Republicans in the House even signed letters demanding that the agencies ditch the proposal on grounds that it would greatly harm a housing market in deep trouble.

Did you shop for competing prices? Or did you end up using the title, escrow agency or lawyer your realty agent or loan officer recommended?

• 91 percent of its borrowers make zero down payments.

• Loan amounts go well into the jumbo range — to $1 million and sometimes above, even with little or nothing down.

The compromise legislation created an unusual mechanism — an evenly split, 12-member bipartisan supercommittee — that could call for major cutbacks on real estate write-offs by Thanksgiving.

Call it a pipe dream or a significant model for other lenders and investors, but one company says it has found an important combination: Modify underwater borrowers’ loans so that their payments are reduced to a manageable amount, cut their principal debt over time, and make the deal dependent on their scrupulous on-time monthly payments of the new amount and an agreement to share a portion of any profits they make if they sell the home in the future.

Whatever the answer, this much appears to be certain: Exceptionally large numbers of signed real estate contracts fell apart last month, failing to reach settlement. According to the National Association of Realtors, one of every six real estate agents polled in June reported having signed contracts canceled before closing — up from just one in 25 the month before. The typical monthly cancellation rate over the past 16 months has ranged in a narrow band between 8 percent and 10 percent.

Are medical-bill collection accounts buried away inside millions of consumers’ credit files — even bills that were fully paid or settled years ago — functioning as a drag on the housing market?

That might sound far-fetched, yet some credit and mortgage-industry experts say negative medical-collection records are playing a little-recognized but significant role in depressing otherwise creditworthy loan applicants’ scores. Lower scores, in turn, are disqualifying borrowers from getting mortgages in today’s toughened underwriting climate or forcing them to pay higher interest rates, fees and down payments.

You might think not, but two new legal actions by federal fair lending regulators suggest that the mortgage industry — and even federally run financing giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — might need to address the issue.

A comprehensive new study estimates they will lose more than $375 million this year alone when they sell undervalued houses to tag teams consisting of realty agents and investors. Worse yet, the trend appears to be growing at the rate of 25 percent a year.

These might sound suspiciously like teaser quotes with tricks in the fine print, but they are in fact signs of an important shift underway among American homeowners: Not only have they been refinancing at a robust pace in recent weeks, but they’re also ratcheting down on the remaining number of years they plan to pay on their mortgages.

Millions of Americans whose credit scores have declined in recent years because of economic stresses could start rebuilding their scores if their rent, utilities, cellphone, insurance and other monthly accounts were reported to the national credit bureaus.

Both the Federal Housing Administration and mortgage investor Fannie Mae recently launched start-ups in the energy conservation arena. Here’s a quick overview, with some pros and cons:

When you pay $450 to $550 at settlement for an appraisal on a home purchase or refinancing, do you assume that all or most of the money is going to the appraiser who performs the valuation?

That’s logical, but probably not correct. Despite new Federal Reserve regulations, which took effect April 1, that require lenders to pay appraisers fair fees, growing numbers of them say they are still being offered $200 to $250 — even as little as $134 — for work that gets billed out to consumers on settlement sheets at $450 and higher.

Critics say yes. The government says the critics aren’t providing the full picture.

Most likely you do. But the widely publicized “robo-signing” and foreclosure scandals suggest that for thousands of homeowners, fair dealing and competence have not been routinely available at some of the largest mortgage servicing operations in the country.

What he's talking about is the combined effect of new credit transparency standards that have been imposed on lenders by mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. As of Feb. 1, Freddie Mac began requiring lenders to dig back 120 days into your credit bureau files to detect any "inquiries" - signs of your applying for credit anywhere else - and then to check out whether any applications were approved. If they resulted in significant new debts, your mortgage deal could be affected, and your lender might have to revise the terms or the rate you're being offered.