Marc's Mortgage Matter's

Everyone asks everyone else, “When is the market going to come back?” First, one has to specify which market: the “interest rate market” or the “housing market”? Of course they are linked, but what difference do rates make if your borrower or the property can’t qualify? As we all know, the market for securitization, through which mortgages (and other debt) are packaged and sold as securities, is stuck in the mud and almost totally dependent on government support. Investors feel cheated by the rating agencies, investment banks, shady originators, and by borrowers who stretched the truth. Unfortunately bond investors first stopped buying private home mortgage deals, have stopped buying commercial mortgages, and now are nervous about credit card & auto debt. By some estimates, the securitization of debt, which helps the flow of capital, is 10% of where it was a year ago!