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Colleges Monitor Financial Aid Needs
Posted on December 20th, 2008 No commentsDespite the alarm about volatile credit markets, financial aid directors at Madison-area colleges and universities say they haven’t heard from many students who can’t get loans to cover college costs. Although some banks are no longer offering alternative student loans, students have been able to turn to other financial institutions, like credit unions, a University of Wisconsin-Madison financial aid director said in the Wisconsin State Journal.
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Town Bank Parent Gets Govt. Boost
Posted on December 19th, 2008 No commentsWintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., the parent company of Delafield-based Town Bank, has received $250 million investment through the U.S. Treasury’s program to boost capital levels at banks, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
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Mortgage Applications Multiply
Posted on December 19th, 2008 No commentsFalling interest rates have boosted the number of mortgage applications at some Kenosha-area banks this week. Steve Steiner, senior vice president with North Shore Bank, said their mortgage business has been up three to four times, in the “tens of millions of dollars” range, compared to before. “This usually isn’t the time when people are thinking about buying or refinancing a home,” he said in theKenosha News.
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Wells: Recession Will End in ’09
Posted on December 19th, 2008 No commentsThe deepest and longest recession since the 1930s will end in the second half of 2009, according to Wells Fargo & Co. economists. The third quarter of next year will be “better than expected” by many, said chief investment strategist Jim Paulsen in the Business Journal of Milwaukee.
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New Rules Change Credit Practices
Posted on December 18th, 2008 No commentsNew credit card rules coming from the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators could cost the banking industry more than $10 billion a year in interest payments, according to a study by the law firm Morrison & Foerster in anAssociated Press article.
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M&I Declares Foreclosure Moratorium
Posted on December 18th, 2008 No commentsMarshall & Ilsley Corp. declared a three-month foreclosure moratorium on mortgages it holds for owner-occupied homes. The moratorium will allow the bank to work with struggling homeowners on loan modifications that could include extending the loan term, lowering interest rates or deferring missed payments until the end of the mortgage, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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Fed Cuts Rate to Record Low
Posted on December 17th, 2008 No commentsBy cutting the federal funds rate, one Milwaukee analyst speculates that the Fed may be trying to get 30-year fixed mortgages down to 4.5 percent. The Fed’s actions are “virtually unprecedented,” said James McKenna, chief executive of North Shore Bank in Brookfield and a member of the American Bankers Association Board. “They are trying everything and anything from a monetary as well as a fiscal standpoint.” Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.
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Lower Mortgage Rates for Consumers
Posted on December 17th, 2008 No commentsAverage 30-year fixed mortgage rates fell to a national average of 5.18 with 1.13 points from 5.44 percent with points of 1.24 points a week earlier on 80 percent loan-to-value mortgages. But below-5 percent rates increasingly seem to be expected, especially since U.S. government policy-makers have said that’s what they’d like to see, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
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Homebuilders Seek Economic Incentives
Posted on December 17th, 2008 No commentsThe nation needs a better homebuyer tax credit, a program with below-market rates for 30-year fixed mortgages and more measures to prevent foreclosure to help end the housing crisis, Wiscconsin home-building leaders said in a national conference call about the industry’s proposed stimulus plan. The builders are pushing for 30-year fixed mortgages for less than the current market rate. Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.
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Mpls. Fed Predicts More Unemployment
Posted on December 17th, 2008 No commentsThe economic downturn will continue in 2009 in the Upper Plains, with unemployment rates rising and recovery in the residential real estate market expected to take more than a year, economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis say. In recent surveys, business leaders in Minnesota and Wisconsin were more pessimistic than in other states, Forbes.com reported.