When Fannie and Freddie make a move, the real estate industry takes notice. But when they tightened the rules for mortgages in Deschutes County, our local daily didn’t bat an eyelash.
Fannie and Freddie are Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac (FHLMC), two government-sponsored enterprises that insure most of the home mortgage loans in this country. Home buyers typically need mortgage insurance if they can’t make a down payment of 20% or more.
In the wake of the popping of the real estate bubble, Fannie and Freddie have flagged portions of three Oregon counties – Deschutes, Lane and Jackson – as high-risk and imposed tighter restrictions on the types of mortgages they’ll guarantee there. The designation will make it harder for buyers – especially first-timers and others who don’t have much money for a down payment – to get mortgages and could have the effect of worsening and prolonging the local real estate slump.
The Oregonian ran an Associated Press story about Fannie and Freddie’s new rules at the top of the front page of its Business section on Friday, with a sidebar headlined “Insurers flag Jackson, Deschutes counties.” But for whatever reason, The Bulletin didn’t pick up it up.
Our hometown rag did run a piece on Thursday noting that Wells Fargo had downgraded its rating of the Deschutes and Jackson County markets to “soft” – but it put its own spin on the news, quoting Doug Houser, Wells Fargo’s Central Oregon home mortgage branch manager, as saying: “Basically, the opportunity is ripe. For a borrower, it’s just a great time. Values are great and interest rates have remained low, which usually don’t happen at the same time.”
So get out there and buy, buy, BUY before April 25 arrives and Bend home prices shoot through the roof again.
This article appears in Mar 20-26, 2008.
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If you don’t have good credit and cash for a down payment you’re out! So what’s new? This is sound lending, not what was going on last year. Why is this a problem? It seems The Source is reporting one sided. If it bad news you want to print it, if its good news…well The Source isn’t going to print that. I am disappointed in the The Source, Have you hired Lars Larsen? His type of reporting is just up your alley. I for one am going to stop reading the source. For me I need more good news and less negativity.
Dear Source,
Please don’t tell me anything I don’t want to hear. Please only tell me what I already think.
Mommy told me I’d be rich and famous and live forever.
So there.
News wars, is this a way of self importance or a way of creating news? I guess this is why this article was written by the “Eye.” I don’t write professionally in fact I am a chef. This article proves that you don’t have to be a pro to judge someone’s work because this was horrid. If you see something as news worthy, and view yourself as a news source (no pun intended) then write or run an AP story. If you folks are such a great news outlet you should try to prosper off of it. Instead of giving your services away for free, you could try to sell your paper. I think the Bulletin does that.
“If it bad news you want to print it, if its good news…well The Source isn’t going to print that.”
There hasn’t been any good news lately in the local real estate market. If you hear of any please let us know.
Nathan: I think it’s worth noting that The Bulletin didn’t publish the Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac story because it fits in with a pattern (noted by many people besides me) of trying to spin real estate news in a positive direction. The Bulletin is Central Oregon’s only daily newspaper, the principal source of news for tens of thousands of people. It’s legitimate to ask whether it’s doing a fair and honest job. And if the Source doesn’t raise the question, who will?
The truth…..you can’t handle the truth! The truth is that there were bad loans made all over the country to people that knew they were lying about their income by lenders that encouraged them to do so. So now the chickens have come home to roost for both respectively. If there was a guy sneaking up behind me to hit me over the head with a bat, I would not complain about someone being a glass half empty person for telling me so. For all of you out there who want to continue being one of the three monkeys (Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil)Good luck selling your home this spring.
HBM: Print me the news, don’t tell me who isn’t printing me the news. I mean come on, I found this story on yahoo’s homepage, under the section called local news. So Source, what is the news here, Fannie and Freddie or the Bulletin? Either choice was lacking in this piece.
Nathan: When the only daily newspaper in Central Oregon decides not to give its 32,000-plus readers important news, I think that’s news. I guess you don’t.
“If it bad news you want to print it, if its good news…well The Source isn’t going to print that.”
Actually, this is good news. It means that in the short term it will be harder to buy a house. Inventory will go up and prices will come down to the point where people can actually afford to live here. It may take a year or two, but it will happen.
That’s good news.
It’s bad news if you bought in 2005-2007, but good news for everyone who didn’t. Which are you?