Taper Talk Hurts Mortgage Rates

Taper Talk Hurts Mortgage Rates
This week, a broader consensus formed that the Fed will begin to taper its bond purchase program in September or October, and investors reacted by selling US stocks and bonds. The US economic data released this week provided little reason for the Fed to wait, and the European data showed unexpected strength. As a result, mortgage rates ended the week higher.
The Fed's massive bond purchase program powered stocks to record highs and helped push mortgage rates to historic lows. The Fed has indicated that it is almost time to begin to scale back the program, and the only reason to wait would be unexpected weakness in economic growth. This week's labor market and Retail Sales data was stronger than expected, though, causing more investors to anticipate that the Fed will taper in the next month or two. Both stocks and bonds were negatively affected by the growing expectations.
Mortgage rates received additional upward pressure from the economic news out of Europe. After eighteen months in a recession, second quarter GDP in the euro zone increased modestly, exceeding the consensus. In particular, Germany and France performed well. The recovery in Europe caused global interest rates to rise this week, including US mortgage rates. 

Obama Administration Overstated Statistics From a year-long mortgage-fraud initiative

President Barack Obama’s administration significantly overstated statistics from a year-long mortgage-fraud initiative, including total number of victims, their losses suffered and number of individuals criminally charged, according to an FBI memo.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in the document sent today, asked members of the administration’s Mortgage Fraud Working Group to correct and update any public materials related to the results released in October of a year-long law enforcement initiative targeting fraud schemes aimed at vulnerable homeowners.

The FBI restated the number of people criminally charged to 107 from 530. Agencies were asked to correct victims’ total losses to $95 million from an estimated $1 billion, and the number of victims found to 17,185 from more than 73,000.

“This targeted approach resulted in the successful filing of many criminal and civil cases around the country, but regrettably, the statistics reported in October included cases that fell outside the specific parameters of the initiative,” the FBI, which co-chairs the mortgage group, said in the memo.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-08-09/obama-mortgage-fraud-group-forced-to-correct-initiative-data