At ABBA First Mortgage, Inc. we are busy preparing for the upcoming mortgage rule changes in 2010.  Needless to say, many other mortgage professionals around the country are busy doing the same as well.  Our friend and colleague Rhonda Porter shared this poem today.  In the spirit of the season, I thought it was great and worth sharing with all of you too!

T’was the week before Christmas

When all through the lands,

LO’s and Closers were wringing their hands.

RESPA Changes are coming,

They all started to worry,

We’d better get trained, and trained in a hurry!

We all kept on hoping

There would be a delay.

But HUD said, “No Way,” it’s all here to stay.

“We love our new HUD

And our new GFE,

Don’t fret, don’t worry, it’s as simple as can be.”

We all shook our heads,

Threw our hands to the sky.

What were you smoking?  You must have been high!

You took a one page doc

And changed it to three.

Easier?  More simple?  How can that be?

The Regs don’t match up,

So now what do we do?

HUD says, “No comment, It’s all up to you.”

No info on TILA,

HMDA, REG B.

We are totally screwed, why can’t they see??

In a time when some borrowers

Think lenders are scary,

You’ve given 3 pages to make them more wary.

This doesn’t make sense,

Not one little bit.

We are all trying hard to not throw a fit.

So we all do our best

To put borrowers at ease.

But make more reform, please, please, please!

Please bring someone in

Who knows what to do.

What is best for both borrowers AND lenders too.

We are all still waiting,

Though not holding our breath

And hoping the government doesn’t “Reg” us to death.

So on this week before Christmas,

I’d like to wish you

Good luck with RESPA, I need it too!

A special thank you to Rhonda Porter at The Mortgage Porter for her permission to re-post this!  If you are on Twitter, you can follow Rhonda by clicking here.

ABBA First Mortgage, Inc. would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Thank you for the opportunity to help you obtain your mortgage financing objectives this year.  The trust that you place in us every day is not something that we take for granted!  We look forward to serving all of your mortgage needs in 2010.

- The ABBA First Mortgage Team

Further government intervention may be coming to help struggling homeowners facing foreclosure.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — With the nation’s jobless making up a major part of future home foreclosures, advocacy groups are meeting with top Obama administration officials to seek ways to help keep the growing wave of unemployed borrowers in their homes.

Groups are meeting with officials at the Treasury Department, Housing and Urban Development, and in the White House’s National Economic Council to have them take part of an existing $75 billion program to help homeowners modify mortgages and put it in a program that would help the jobless stay in their homes.

The program would go beyond a measure included in sweeping bank reform legislation that would use $3 billion in bank bailout dollars to give the jobless fixed-rate, low interest rate loans.

For more click here.

If we can do anything to help you stay in your home it would be our highest honor.  Please feel free to contact us at 866-676-3349 to discuss how we can save you money on your mortgage.

I always find these sorts of stories interesting- experts crunching data without any feel for the “man on the street”.

Based on credit performance of 27m consumers, national credit bureau TransUnion projects mortgage delinquencies of 60 or more days to drop nearly 3% by year-end 2010 to 6.39%, from an expected 6.56% at year-end 2009.

Recent years marked a series of “unprecedented” year-on-year increases, TransUnion said, with delinquencies rising in the the 11th straight quarter during Q309.

“Tied directly to anticipated unemployment rates and housing values, the decrease in delinquencies should be gradual…

Read more here.

I am not saying that we won’t see TransUnion’s findings come to fruition.  In fact, I earnestly hope that we will see mortgage delinquencies decline in 2010- that would be wonderful news for anyone that owns a home in our great country.  However, it seems like these sorts of findings are intended to rally the economy and not actually report on our current state.  I mean, they are simply speculating based on mathematical equations and probability.

I am not knocking TransUnion- I hope they are right.  But as you talk to your family, friends and neighbors do you get the feeling that things are really turning around?