My Financial Healthcheck

Seriously delinquent FHA loans, those 90 days or more late, jumped 62.1% in the past year to 558,944, or 9.4% of FHA loans.  If these numbers continue this trend, taxpayers will eventually have to bail the agency out.  The FHA loan portfolio is a ticking time bomb, despite assures that it is on a sound financial basis.  More than 700 banks, or nearly one out of every 11, are at risk of going under.  The “problem list” has climbed to 702, the highest level since 1993.  Consumer confidence fell in February after threes straight months of improvement.  Nearly 25% of all mortgages are underwater, meaning more is owed on their loans than their value.  Being underwater is one of two main factors in determining a borrower’s likelihood of foreclosure.  Mortgage rates could be rising in the near future as the Federal Reserve completes its purchase of $1.25 trillion in mortgages.  Expects predict a jump of a quarter to half percentage point is likely.  Higher rates will limit what a buyer can afford for a home and the pending end to the homebuyers tax credit in April will also be bad news for the home buying market.