A new report from J.D. Power and Associates ranks home equity lenders according to the results of a customer satisfaction survey. As I reported earlier this week, overall customer satisfaction has improved since last year. However, not all HELOC lenders faired equally. Here are the results, on a scale of one to one-thousand: Bank of America: 811 SunTrust: [...] [...more]
The availability of no-doc and self-employed HELOCs has pretty much dried up. But, many HELOC lenders are still advertising these loans on their websites. For example, if you take a look at Wells Fargo’s main home equity webpage, you’ll see information for self-employed borrowers. Here are a few of the “benefits” that they claim to offer: - [...] [...more]
For months, HELOC borrowers have been complaining about frozen and reduced home equity lines. Now, a concerned congressman is asking lenders some tough questions. Representative Dennis Kucinich called the HELOC freezes “very disturbing.” “People have had their home equity lines suspended whether or not their credit is good or not, and whether they have sufficient equity in [...] [...more]
Over 400,000 HELOC borrowers have had their lines reduced and HELOC lenders are more unpredictable than ever. What’s the reasoning behind this recent instability? HELOC lenders have lost more money on these loans than ever before. Although home equity lines make up a small percentage of the mortgage market, their loss hits banks harder [...] [...more]
One fact is clear from the past few months: home equity lenders are extremely unpredictable. Because of declining property values, many HELOC clients have had their lines frozen or decreased. It’s hard on borrowers, but it makes financial sense for the banks. However, HELOC lenders haven’t stopped at that. Many customers have been surprised to find [...] [...more]
Washington Mutual just finished sending out the last of their HELOC freeze notices. The damage: customers have lost the opportunity to draw on $6 billion from home equity lines. We reported on this story earlier, but the total extent of the line freezes was not known at that time. Housing Wire explains the latest: “Washington [...] [...more]
Over the past four months, we’ve been keeping a list of major lenders sending out home equity line freeze letters. To date, an estimated 400,000 HELOC freeze notices have been sent and we receive information about new line freezes almost weekly. Here’s the latest update. Lenders Freezing Home Equity Lines of Credit Countrywide (recently froze almost all [...] [...more]
Washington Mutual customers may want to keep an eye on their mailboxes this week, as more HELOC freeze notices are on their way. According to the San Francisco Business Times, WaMu is sending out an undisclosed number of new line reduction letters: “Washington Mutual, Inc. has slashed or suspended $6 billion in available home equity credit [...] [...more]
Bank of America is now predicting even greater losses on HELOC investments than initially expected. The Los Angeles Times reports: “Bank of America Corp. warned Tuesday that its losses on home-equity loans would be worse than it predicted just three weeks ago, adding to evidence that more consumers are falling behind on debts… At an investor conference [...] [...more]
Some urban areas are experiencing the worst of the bubble burst. Vegas is near the top of that list. Today, Bloomburg published an exclusive article claiming that Countrywide has suspended HELOC lines for pretty much all of their Las Vegas customers: “Homeowners’ pain is acute in Las Vegas, where property values soared 50 percent or more [...] [...more]
