New Home Mortgage : New York, New Orleans, Arizona, Florida & Texas

Residential Capital LLC - a money losing mortgage lender - borrowed $468 million from a new $750 million credit facility arranged by its parent GMAC LLC. GMAC has been trying to prop up ResCap after defaults soared and credit markets tightened, leading to a $4.35 billion loss at ResCap in 2007. Residential Capital, LLC, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of GMAC Financial Services, is a leading real estate finance company, focused primarily on the residential real estate market in the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America and Australia.

Inflation fears pushed U.S. 30-year mortgage rates up after being unchanged for three weeks according to Freddie Mac. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.03 percent this week after three straight weeks at 5.88 percent. Rates on 30-year mortgages were last above 6 percent the week of March 16 when they averaged 6.13 percent. One-year adjustable rate mortgages, or ARMs, climbed to an average of 5.29 percent from 5.10 percent. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.62% this week, up from last week’s 5.40% average. The mortgage averaged 5.87% a year ago. And one-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.29% this week, up from last week’s 5.10% average. The ARM averaged 5.43% a year ago. A separate survey released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the volume of mortgage applications filed last week fell 14.2% compared with the week before. Lenders charged an average of 0.3 percent in fees and points on 30- and 15-year mortgages, down from 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent last week, respectively.

Bank of America Corp., seeking approval of its Countrywide Financial Corp. takeover, plans to modify at least $40 billion of mortgages during the next two years to keep customers in their homes. Bank of America said that it will locate its national consumer mortgage headquarters in Calabasas, Calif., once it completes its acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp. Bank of America also plans to double its community development lending, which focuses on affordable housing, small businesses and people in low-income and minority neighborhoods, to $1.5 trillion over 10 years. To accomplish this, the company will offer borrowers several options, including loan modifications and payment forbearance. It will not charge borrowers in foreclosure new late charges, and, in some cases, will waive prepayment penalties. Critics have said that BofA needs to make a strong commitment to working with troubled borrowers and minority communities in the wake of the proposed acquisition, which would ostensibly create the nation’s largest mortgage banking operation.

First National had a strong start to 2008, with solid increases in our key metrics,” said Stephen Smith, Chairman and President. First National Financial Income Fund owns a 19.97% interest in First National Financial LP, a Canadian-based originator, underwriter and servicer of predominantly prime residential (single family and multi-unit) and commercial mortgages. First National’s mortgages under administration were $34.6 billion at March 31, 2008, up 36% from $25.4 billion at March 31, 2007 and up 5% from $33.1 billion at December 31, 2007.

Canadian banks will improve certain disclosure practices as urged by the G7 in its recent Financial Stability Forum report. The severity of the financial crisis has prompted an extraordinary meeting of the heads of the central bank, the country’s banking regulator, the federal Finance Department and the big banks, who will gather this morning to talk about what Canada should do to prevent another liquidity crisis. Within 100 days, Canadian banks will establish and adopt “leading practices for disclosure” by tweaking the way they disclose bank securities at mark-to-market values, among other items. Policy makers and regulators are under pressure to show they are taking action in the wake of the financial turmoil that’s reverberated in markets around the world.