Freddie Mac

Who owns my mortgage? That's a question I have been asked almost two dozen times in the four weeks since Christmas, and the reason is always the same: A change is needed. Someone is trying to refinance the mortgage or trying to save a house from foreclosure, among possible scenarios. Finding the answer to this question has become extremely important to many homeowners, but especially to those in financial trouble. The many programs designed to stem the record tide of foreclosures have different requirements, depending on where your mortgage ended up after you signed that huge stack of papers at settlement.

President Obama detailed plans Wednesday to help an estimated 3.5 million homeowners refinance into lower-rate mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration and to turn hundreds of thousands of houses repossessed by lenders into rentals. The president spoke at a news conference in Falls Church, Va., where, he said, property values have declined 25 percent since the housing bubble burst five years ago. Obama, who announced the initiative in his State of the Union address Jan. 24, said the program was designed for "responsible" homeowners who are current in their mortgage payments but are unable to refinance loans at fixed rates as low as 3.8 percent because they owe more than their houses are now worth.

Second mortgages or deeds of trust are loans secured by a portion of the equity of a home. They are called seconds because they are "junior liens" - that is, in the event of a foreclosure, they are paid off after the first mortgage is paid. For example, suppose, you own a home worth $125,000. Let's say, too, that you've paid your first mortgage down to $50,000. In other words, you have $75,000 worth of equity in your home. You can either let that equity sit untouched, or you can use it as collateral to borrow for the kids' college education, or for a business investment you want to make.

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will suspend, from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2, evictions involving foreclosed occupied single family and two- to four-unit properties that had their mortgages. The suspensions will apply only to eviction lockouts related to Freddie- and Fannie-owned properties. During this period, legal and administrative proceedings for evictions may continue, but families living in foreclosed properties will be permitted to remain in their home.    - Alan J. Heavens

Area mortgage lenders are bracing for another flood of mortgage refinancings despite a management ouster at Freddie Mac, a key government-sponsored, mortgage-finance company. Freddie Mac's board of directors ousted the McLean, Va., company's president and chief operating officer Monday, saying they questioned his "cooperation and candor" in an ongoing investigation of accounting irregularities. Two other top executives resigned. "There's been almost no effect" of the controversy on mortgage rates, said Joseph A. Splendido, president of Colonial Mortgage Servicing Co., of Warrington, and a governor of the Mortgage Bankers Association of America.

URBANDALE, Iowa - Rising in polls and receiving greater scrutiny, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich found himself on the defensive Wednesday over huge payments he received over the last decade from the federally backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Gingrich, the former House speaker, said he did not remember exactly how much he was paid. A person familiar with the hiring said it was at least $1.6 million for consulting contracts stretching from 1999 to early 2008. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in order to address a personnel matter.

Action on a Senate bill that critics say will make it more difficult to obtain low-cost financing for home purchases has been delayed until after lawmakers return from their summer recess on Sept. 5. Senate Bill 190 - the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.) - is designed to limit the amount of business Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can do in the secondary-mortgage market. The two corporations are known as GSEs, or government-sponsored enterprises.

The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. has changed its rules in an effort to help some homeowners get rid of their private mortgage insurance earlier. The change, which could enable a homeowner to save hundreds of dollars a year, applies to all new and existing mortgages from lenders that resell mortgages to the agency, known as Freddie Mac. When a home buyer puts less than 20 percent down on a house, Freddie Mac requires the borrower to buy mortgage insurance to guarantee payments.

It's not quite like winning the lottery or finding a pot of gold. But for Main Line Federal Savings Bank, it's darned close. Imagine that you have 150,000 shares of stock that almost overnight increase in value by a total of about $11 million. And that you're Main Line Federal and that's more than you've earned over several years. Now imagine that in six months that stock doubles in price, as some predict, more than quadrupling your initial investment. You feel? a.)

Ethel Napper-Johnson said she had stumbled upon too many drug deals on the way to her apartment. She had watched too long as her complex became an open door to crime. So when the managers of the complex disappeared this summer, Napper-Johnson and other residents took over at Norfolk Manor Apartments, at 1415-1423 Clearview St. in Ogontz. Some fixed plumbing leaks and did other routine maintenance. Others swept the halls. A number of tenants put rent money in bank accounts to hold the funds until problems with the landlord were resolved.

In the Region   PolyMedix files for bankruptcy   PolyMedix Inc. , a small biotech company in Radnor, has sought Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission . In January, PolyMedix replaced its chief executive officer, Nicholas Landekic, with chief financial officer Edward F. Smith as interim CEO. Smith resigned Monday, according to the filing. A company spokeswoman did not return a call or e-mail. With its most advanced drug only in stage two (of three)

Q: What are "Fannie Mae" and "Freddie Mac," and what do they do? - John G., Petaluma, Calif.   A: Originally known as the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that support affordable homeownership by making mortgage money available. Instead of lending money, they operate in the secondary market, buying and guaranteeing qualifying mortgages from lenders so those lenders can turn around and lend more money to more borrowers.

rePresident Obama's re-election fueled some early investor concern that homeowner refinancing was set to increase after debt yields tumbled, and amid speculation that his administration would pursue aggressive measures to boost housing's recovery. Real-estate investment trusts that buy mortgage debt tumbled the most in a year on Wednesday with the expectation that more homeowners would be able to prepay mortgages. The policies of Obama and the Federal Reserve have expanded opportunities for homeowners to qualify for new loans while sending borrowing costs to record lows.

LIVERMORE, CALIF. - R.C. and Stacy Davis lost their condominium to foreclosure in 2009, a bad break that seemed destined to keep them from buying another home for many years. Yet last week - only three years after their foreclosure - the couple signed the papers to buy a four-bedroom house. Their avenue to homeownership? A loan backed by the Federal Housing Administration. The ability to get an FHA loan so quickly after a foreclosure could be welcome news to thousands of people who lost their homes during the housing bust.

Higher employment numbers last week helped pushed 30-year fixed-rate mortgages up from record lows, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The 30-year fixed averaged 3.59 percent, and the 15-year fixed averaged 2.84 percent. Last week, the 30-year averaged 3.55 percent. A year ago, it was 4.32 percent. The 15-year was 2.83 percent last week, and 3.50 percent a year ago. - Alan J. Heavens

The author Michael Lewis was asked on CNBC last week about the widespread notion that blame for the panic of '08 should be laid at the feet of greedy Wall Street executives, and the corollary that some of them should be in jail. Was the crash the result of criminal behavior or cluelessness? Lewis replied that while he is no expert on securities law, in all his reporting on the subject, he never encountered anything that made him think somebody ought to go to jail for it, and maybe that was one problem: The excess and recklessness were legal.

Thirty-year fixed-interest mortgage rates continued to slide this week, falling to 3.84 percent from 3.88 percent last week, Freddie Mac reported Thursday. The 15-year rate was 3.07 percent, down from 3.12 percent last week. "Signs of slowing economic growth and inflation remaining subdued allowed yields on Treasury bonds to ease somewhat and brought most mortgage rates to new all-time record lows this week," said Freddie Mac chief economist Frank Nothaft. — Alan J. Heavens