Here’s Freddie Mac’s mortgage forecast update for 2015

Mortgage originations are expected to exceed Freddie Mac’s original forecasts, thanks to lower mortgage rates and an improving jobs picture, the enterprise’s February U.S. Economic and Housing Market Outlook said.

Freddie raised its 2015 originations forecast to $1.3 trillion, up from $1.2 trillion last month. The forecast for the refinance share of originations in 2015 was also revised up from 35% to 40%.

However, the home sales expectation of 5.6 million in 2015 and housing starts expectation of 1.18 million in 2015 are unchanged from last month. Due to continued strong growth in house prices and relatively low inventories, Freddie is expecting house prices to increase 3.9% in 2015 (up from a forecast of 3.5% last month).

For the overall economy, the forecast for economic growth was revised down compared to last month.

“Data for the fourth quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 indicate that overall economic growth may have slowed from the torrid pace in the third quarter of 2014,” said Leonard Kiefer, deputy chief economist with Freddie Mac. “We’ve lowered our overall projection of first-quarter growth to 2.5% (from 3.0% last month) and lowered 2015 annual growth by 0.1 percentage points to 2.9% for the year. Due to declining interest rates in January, we have lowered the projected path for most interest rates.”

The Federal Reserve is still expected to begin raising the fed funds target and short-term rates will rise accordingly, but long-term interest rates will only rise slowly. The average 30 -year fixed-rate mortgage rate forecast for 2015 was revised down to 3.9% for the year (compared to 4.2 %last month).

According to latest Freddie mortgage report, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.76% with an average 0.6 point for the week ending February 19, 2015, up from last week when it averaged 3.69%. A year ago at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 4.33%.

Source: Freddie Mac

"Despite the fact the yield curve has flattened, we remain optimistic about the course of the domestic U.S. economy over the next year. We also do not foresee a major turnaround in the global growth picture and therefore recent trends in foreign buying of long-term U.S. securities activity should continue. That means continued downward pressure on long-term interest rates here in the U.S. Even if the Federal Reserve begins raising short-term rates later this year, don't expect to see long-term rates -- including mortgage rates -- increase much,” said Kiefer.

“This is great news for housing markets, especially headed into the spring homebuying season. Lower rates help to offset some of the recent increases in house prices and keep homebuyer affordability high," he continued. 

Courtesy of housingwire.com

Mortgage brokers want to educate Consumer Reports

The March issue of Consumer Reports has more than a few mortgage brokers up in arms, and now the National Association of Mortgage Brokers is inviting the editors to sit down and learn about the industry before trashing it.

John Councilman, NAMB president, challenged the editors of Consumer Reports to spend some time with him "in the field" to see the real value mortgage brokers bring to the real estate transaction process.

Councilman made the invitation following an article in the March issue that said potential homebuyers should avoid using mortgage brokers, shop for mortgages online, and deal directly with large banks.

"In its March issue, Consumer Reports magazine recommended that borrowers not go to mortgage brokers. That is an amazing statement from a magazine that purports to be a resource for consumers.  The story is based on misinformation and outdated concepts,” Councilman said. “In truth, recent surveys show consumers would have saved money, received better service, and had greater consumer protections had they gone to a mortgage broker rather than to one of the too-big-to-fail banks the story recommends.

"While it would be great to be able to trust all large banks, and to believe everything you read on the internet, we believe it makes infinitely more sense for a prospective homebuyer to work with a highly qualified and credentialed mortgage professional when purchasing a home," said Councilman.

He said allegations that brokers steer buyers to more expensive loans isn’t true. 

"I have not heard of any government actions taken against brokers who are violating the laws referred to in the unfortunate Consumer Reports article, but there have been severe sanctions and huge fines imposed where lenders were allowing their retail originators to steer clients to more profitable loans," added Councilman.

Councilman said that the NAMB has lobbied to successfully pass regulations on the industry.

"The leadership of NAMB and I are willing to host the editors of Consumer Reports in seeing how it really works out in the field and we also hope they will publish our rebuttal to the ill informed piece they published in the March issue of their publication," he said.

Courtesy of housingwire.com

Getting the Right Mortgage

Property values are rising in many parts of the country, and prime home-shopping season is approaching. Some buyers are rushing to get mortgages before the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, which could happen in the coming months.

Lenders, for their part, are trying to coax more borrowers to enter the housing market by accepting smaller down payments and offering lower interest rates on certain loans.

Mortgages aren’t one-size-fits-all. The best deals and strategies often vary significantly depending on whether you are taking out a “jumbo” mortgage or looking for a modest first home.

Borrowers who are refinancing an existing mortgage, trading up to a larger home or contending with a less-than-ideal credit score also can have different options or challenges to overcome.

Here is how to find a loan that is tailored to your situation:

Going Jumbo

Buyers who live in the priciest housing markets or who are shopping for expensive homes often need to take out a so-called jumbo mortgage, which is a loan that exceeds $417,000 in much of the country and $625,500 in New York, San Francisco and several other large metropolitan areas.

Sekuleo Gathers, a 38-year-old physician, took out a roughly $700,000 mortgage to buy a home in River Edge, N.J., in December after learning that the rent on his apartment in Brooklyn, N.Y., would rise to $4,400 a month.

“It pushed me to say, ‘It’s time,’” he says.

Those loans are too large to be sold to mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,which means banks typically hold them on their books. That gives banks more flexibility to set their own interest rates—and many have been offering lower quotes for jumbo loans than for smaller mortgages recently.

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• Loans for Building a Dream Home

Large lenders quoted borrowers who planned to make a down payment of 20% to 30%—and who said they had a credit score of at least 720—an average rate of 4.05% on new 30-year fixed-rate jumbo mortgages in 2014’s fourth quarter, according to real-estate website Zillow. The average rate those lenders quoted similar borrowers for smaller mortgages was 4.23%.

Applicants for jumbo mortgages should include large lenders in their search. Such lenders may offer better deals than smaller rivals, which quoted similar borrowers an average rate of 4.11% on jumbo mortgages, according to Zillow.

Jumbo mortgages made up 19% of all the home loans given out in 2014 by dollar value, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a trade publication. As with most types of mortgages, the total loan amount declined from a year earlier—by 14%, in the case of jumbos.

The decline in new mortgages has made banks eager to entice many types of borrowers, and may have increased the incentive to sign up jumbo borrowers in particular. Many banks hope to offer other potentially lucrative services to applicants for jumbo mortgages.

“If [someone is] going to do a jumbo mortgage of $700,000 to $1 million, chances are she’s got some money,” says Mike McPartland, head of investment finance for North America at Citi Private Bank, a unit of Citigroup. “She’s got other things that to me as a banker are interesting: Who’s going to manage your retirement money? Who’s got your bank account?”

Take advantage of that kind of eagerness. Citi Private Bank allows lawyers who are partners at certain law firms to make down payments of as little as 10%, instead of the typical minimum it requires of 20%. Bank of America allows many doctors to make down payments of as little as 5% for mortgages of up to $1 million.

Citi Private Bank and UBS’s wealth-management banking group also allow clients to use a brokerage account maintained at the bank as collateral in lieu of a traditional down payment. The funds can remain invested and the borrower could avoid a tax hit from cashing out.

If you plan to take out a jumbo mortgage, it is worth starting your search at a bank where you keep most of your deposits or where you already have other ties, because that bank may be eager for a deeper relationship. Also seek out offers from other lenders, and then ask the original bank if it will beat any that are more attractive.

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Buying a First Home

Lenders are lowering the bar for home buyers seeking a first home by letting them make smaller down payments—an option that could appeal to young buyers and others who haven’t amassed significant savings.

In September, Regions Financial began offering mortgages to first-time buyers with down payments as small as 5%. TD Bank, the U.S. unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank, lowered its minimum down payment to 3% for certain borrowers last year. Nonbank lender Social Finance, which is based in San Francisco, began giving out mortgages last year and is permitting 10% down payments for home loans of up to $5 million.

Some lenders allow for no down payment. Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest U.S. credit union by assets, doesn’t require a down payment for mortgages of up to $1 million.

The catch is that lenders often charge a higher interest rate on such mortgages. Navy Federal Credit Union, for example, charges at least 4.75% on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage of $400,000 with no money down. With a 20% down payment, the minimum interest rate is one percentage point lower.

Some lenders require mortgage insurance when accepting a low down payment rather than charging a higher interest rate. Such insurance is often a recurring monthly charge, but can sometimes be an upfront one-time payment. Borrowers need to figure out whether a lower interest rate would compensate for the cost of that insurance.

One option is to get mortgage insurance from the Federal Housing Administration, which lowered its monthly insurance fee for new mortgages in January. The FHA currently requires a down payment of at least 3.5% on mortgages it insures, and borrowers who make that down payment will have to maintain the insurance for the life of the loan.

Other insurance providers allow borrowers to drop the coverage after a certain level of equity is reached.

Also, consider the risks of putting little or nothing down. If home values decline, you could end up “underwater”—that is, owing more than the house is worth.

First-time buyers should consider seeking preapproval for a mortgage before house shopping, so they have a clear sense of what they will be able to afford. Applicants generally need to provide their income, assets and debts, and other information.

Also, if you are unsure how big of a down payment you will be able to make, consider looking for a lender willing to let borrowers accept contributions from family or friends.

Trading Up

If you already own a home and are looking to move to a larger one, timing can be important. The ideal scenario is often to sell your existing home just as you are about the buy the new one, particularly if you need the money from the sale to make a down payment.

Kruger Donald, 53, made an offer on a house in Corpus Christi, Texas, and started the mortgage application process about a week after he accepted an offer on his home in Jacksonville, Fla. He says he used $15,000 from the sale as a down payment on the new ranch-style home, which he purchased in November.

“It was so crazy the way the timing went down,” says Mr. Donald, who is a captain in the U.S. Merchant Marine. “The way everything fell into place was just uncanny.”

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way and a borrower may need to move on the purchase before the sale is complete. One option is to apply for a short-term loan, which allows borrowers to get cash for a down payment by using their existing home as collateral.

Yet since the housing downturn, few lenders offer this type of “bridge financing,” saysKeith Gumbinger, vice president at mortgage-information website HSH.com.

In addition, borrowers generally need to have at least 20% equity in the existing home. The loans can require repayment in six or 12 months, he says.

Another option for borrowers who have a lot of equity in their current home is to sign up for a home-equity loan and withdraw the amount they expect to need for a down payment on a new house. In most cases, they will have to get this loan before they list their home for sale.

The payments on a home-equity loan may be more manageable than on a bridge loan since they are spread out over a period that could run as long as 20 years.

But getting the mortgage on your new home could be more difficult if your debt load is high. Many lenders require that monthly debt payments amount to no more than 43% of a borrower’s monthly pretax income, Mr. Gumbinger says.

Buyers who are trading up may be better off selling their house before they sign a contract to buy another home. Consider trying to work out an arrangement with the buyer of your home that will allow you to stay and pay rent while you search for a new house, says John Schleck, a mortgage-sales executive at Bank of America.

Refinancing

The refinancing wave that began in 2009 began to ebb in mid-2013 when interest rates rose. The total volume of refis dropped nearly 55% in 2014 from a year prior, as measured by dollar value, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.

Demand for refis ticked back up early this year after mortgage interest rates pulled back in January. Refinancing applications accounted for almost 74% of all mortgage applications in mid-January, the highest level since mid-May 2013, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association, a Washington-based trade group.

But the window of opportunity could close in a hurry if the Fed raises short-term interest rates soon.

For a refinancing to make financial sense, you likely will need to lower your interest rate by at least one percentage point, says Mr. Gumbinger, of HSH.com. Refis can work with a smaller drop for borrowers with a jumbo mortgage, he says.

Look into closing costs, as well. Those can equal about 2% of the loan amount, Mr. Gumbinger says. Then figure out how much time you will need to pay the mortgage with the lower interest rate to recoup the closing costs.

Consider a borrower who got a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage of $400,000 in August 2013 with an interest rate of 4.69%. If the borrower refinanced now and got an interest rate of 3.87% on a similar mortgage, he or she would end up with a monthly mortgage payment of $1,833, or about $239 less a month, according to Mr. Gumbinger.

However, if the borrower paid $7,800 in closing costs—about 2% of the loan amount—it would take nearly 33 months to recoup those costs and start pocketing actual savings from the lower interest rate.

Overcoming Credit Issues

Most lenders have avoided giving mortgages to borrowers with low credit scores since the housing downturn.

But some are slowly loosening standards or looking for ways that borrowers with weak credit can compensate for low scores.

For example, 14% of banks reported easing their credit standards “somewhat” on mortgages that are eligible to be sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a January survey by the Federal Reserve.

The mortgage giants typically only purchase loans if the borrower has a FICO credit score of at least 620. FICO scores were developed by San Jose, Calif.-based Fair Isaac Corp. and are the most widely used scores for consumer lending.

Wells Fargo, the largest mortgage originator by volume, lowered its minimum FICO score requirement for Fannie and Freddie mortgages to 620, down from 660, last year.

Navy Federal Credit Union has no minimum-credit-score requirement, and is reviewing applications it initially rejects for other ways an applicant could meet its lending standards, says Katie Miller, vice president of mortgage lending. That might mean a larger down payment or a smaller loan, she says.

Applicants with low credit scores should consider working with a mortgage broker who has access to many lenders and can let applicants know if they are likely to get approved and what interest rate they are likely to pay.

Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal

Millennials take the lead home buying pack

Despite the economic and financial challenges young adults have braved since the recession, the millennial generation represented the largest share of recent buyers, according to the 2015 National Association of Realtors (NAR) Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends study, which evaluated the generational differences of recent home buyers and sellers.

The survey additionally found that an overwhelming majority of buyers search for homes online and then purchase their home through a real estate agent, with millennials using agents the most.

For the second consecutive year, NAR’s study found that the largest group of recent buyers was the millennial generation, those 34 and younger, who composed 32 percent of all buyers (31 percent in 2013). Generation X, ages 35-49, was closely behind with a 27 percent share.

Millennial buyers represented more than double the amount of younger boomer (ages 50-59) and older boomer (60-68) buyers (at 31 percent). The Silent Generation (ages 69-89) made up 10 percent of buyers in the past year.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the survey highlights the untapped demand for homeownership that exists among young adults.

 “Over 80 percent of millennial and Gen X buyers consider their home purchase a good financial investment, and the desire to own a home of their own was the top reason given by millennials for their purchase,” he said. “Fixed monthly payments and the long-term financial stability homeownership can provide are attractive to young adults despite them witnessing the housing downturn and subsequent slow recovery in the early years of their adulthood.”

With millennials entering the peak buying period and expected to soon surpass boomers in total population, Yun said he believes the share of millennial purchases would be higher if not for the numerous obstacles that have slowed their journey to homeownership.

 “Many millennials have endured underemployment and subpar wage growth, and rising rents and repaying student debt have made it very difficult to save for a downpayment. For some, even forming households of their own has been a challenge.”

According to the survey (http://www.realtor.org/news-releases/2015/03/nar-generational-survey-millennials-lead-all-buyers-most-likely-to-use-real-estate-agent), 13 percent of all home purchases were by a multi-generational household, consisting of adult siblings, adult children, parents and/or grandparents.

The biggest reasons for a multi-generational purchase were cost savings (24 percent) and adult children moving back into the house (23 percent). Younger boomers represented the largest share of multi-generational buyers at 21 percent, with 37 percent of those saying the primary reason for their purchase was due to adult children moving back into their house.

“Even though the share of first-time buyers has fallen to its lowest level since 19871, young adults in general are more mobile than older households,” Yun added. “The return of first-time buyers to normal levels will eventually take place in upcoming years as those living with their parents are likely to form households of their own first as renters and then eventually as homeowners.”

courtesy of: mpamag.com

Market Madness Bracket 2015

It's that mascot-dancing, net-cutting, underdog-loving time of year again. As universities from across the nation get themselves ready for Selection Sunday, JustRentToOwn is celebrating the spirit of the season with a little competition of their own. Alas, Market Madness is here..

What are the best cities to buy homes in? Using a list of the largest cities in the US from CityData.com, we assigned seeds by size, from New York City in the first number one seed, to scrappy Lexington-Fayette, number sixty-four, the final contender to sneak past the cut. Rather than focusing regionally, this method creates the exciting opportunity for surprising upsets and pits rival cities on the rise up against one another in a battle royale for total national and regional dominance.

Will California come out on top or perhaps somewhere in Texas? Is it wiser to buy a home in Portland or Atlanta?

While I have my own opinions on the matter, we've elected to let the numbers speak instead--using metrics on economic strength, home value appreciation, cost of living, walk score, health and crime to assess which comes out on top. Each metric is run one round at a time until the final four to give a more holistic picture of the strengths each city holds.

One on one, head to head, mano y mano, market y market.

Click Here To Enlarge

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There's only one way to find out! Fill out your bracket with some favorites and check back THURSDAY for the Round of 64.

written by: Nicholas Brown

courtesy of: realtytimes.com

Google May Launch U.S. Mortgage Comparison Tool

In late 2012, Google launched its mortgage comparison tool via Compare in the U.K. and now, it appears the search giant is bringing it stateside.  Compare is aimed at helping users find deals on mortgages, credit cards, auto insurance and travel.

Google is currently looking to hire mortgage specialists in the California Bay Area and Seattle. The job ad details the search giant is looking for candidates who have worked at least three years as licensed loan originators.

A completed Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS) exam is also encouraged, and candidates are advised that they “may not also be acting as the licensed individual for any other mortgage entity while working with Google Compare.”

Currently, the U.S. version of Compare only helps users with finding deals on credit cards.

In early February on the heels of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s release of its borrower education tool, Google launched a mortgage calculator. The calculator’s goal is also to help educate potential borrowers about mortgage costs.

The built-in mortgage calculator will apparently appear when a user searches for terms like, “mortgage calculator,” “loan interest calculator,” and “interest calculator.”

Courtesy of: mpamag.com

Will Private Mortgage Capital Dry Up?

Can’t live with them, can’t live without them. That sums up the sentiment of leading mortgage and housing industry professionals when it comes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in the latest Collingwood Group Mortgage Industry Outlook Report.

In the March survey, mortgage professionals said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be initiating more risk sharing transactions to spur the private securitization market, and they are worried that keeping Fannie and Freddie in conservatorship is causing private capital to abandon the mortgage lending space.

However, they say it is highly unlikely that GSE reform will occur during the Obama administration. 94% of survey respondents indicated that housing finance reform is not a priority for the White House and as long as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are returning steady profits to the Treasury, there will be no incentive to reform them.

As a result of the survey, Collingwood said it does not expect GSE reform to occur until well after 2017. The biggest risk associated with keeping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as-is, according to survey respondents, is private capital abandoning the space. In contrast, others indicated that the biggest risk is the government using the GSEs as a political instrument or as a piggy bank used to fund budget shortfalls.

Respondents said it is important to have sufficient reserve capital and/or private mortgage insurance in place to protect taxpayers from the next business cycle downturn. Some suggested combining Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a single entity or moving to a single security.

The vast majority (85%) of survey respondents agree that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be doing more risk sharing transactions. These transactions allow private market participants to invest in the credit performance of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s single-family book of business. Most survey respondents indicated that they support these transactions because they help fuel the private securitization market and limit taxpayer risk while the GSEs are in conservatorship.

As for what Congress can do to improve the housing market, fewer than 50% of respondents selected “Repeal Dodd-Frank” or “Abolish the CFPB.”

Instead, the comments submitted clearly indicated that industry insiders prefer a tempered approach with reasonable modifications to these two reactionary reform measures stemming from the financial crisis. Many respondents stated that the Dodd-Frank Act should be revised to remove barriers to innovation and to reduce the cost of manufacturing a mortgage.

Similarly, respondents were pragmatic about the unlikely prospect of shuttering the CFPB and instead suggested that Congress consider amending the structure of the CFPB so that there is more oversight and accountability. Respondents also stated that at a minimum, the CFPB should provide greater transparency in the exam process and in the results of an exam.

Each month The Collingwood Group, a Washington, D.C.-based business advisory firm, in partnership with The Five Star Institute surveys top mortgage industry leaders in an effort to assess the state of their businesses, current events in the industry, and what it all means for home buyers and sellers.

Courtesy of: mpamag.com

Major Changes Coming for Credit Reporting

It was hailed by NBC news on Monday as the most radical change to credit reporting in decades and New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said his agreement with the three major national credit reporting agencies (CRAs) will reform the entire credit reporting industry and protect millions of consumers across the country.

The agreement between Schneiderman's office and Experien, Equifax, and Transunion reported on Monday requires the CRAs to institute a number of reforms to increase protections for consumers, over a three year period.  While the agreement is specific to New York State, it is expected that most of the reforms will be instituted nationwide.  

The three major CRAs maintain consumer credit information on an estimated 200 million consumers.  Information provided by "data furnishers" such as banks and collection agencies includes the type and amount of debt, both current and extending back seven years, and how consumers have managed that debt.  The CRAs aggregate information on individuals into files and provide reports to companies who use them to determine whether to grant credit to potential borrowers and at what cost.  The credit reports are also frequently used by employers to check on potential hires.

The Attorney General's office said that in a 2012 study by the Federal Trade Commission 26 percent of participants found at least one potentially material error in their credit report and 13 percent received a higher credit score after successfully disputing an error.  These findings, Schneiderman's office says, suggest that millions of consumers have material errors on their credit reports.

 "Credit reports touch every part of our lives. They affect whether we can obtain a credit card, take out a college loan, rent an apartment, or buy a car - and sometimes even whether we can get jobs," Schneiderman said. "The nation's largest reporting agencies have a responsibility to investigate and correct errors on consumers' credit reports. This agreement will reform the entire industry and provide vital protections for millions of consumers across the country. I thank the three agencies for working with us to help consumers."

The new agreement calls for reforms covering some of the most commonly expressed complaints from consumers about the credit reporting process including accuracy, the fairness and efficacy of complaint resolutions, and the harm done to credit histories due to medical debt.

• Improving the Dispute Resolution Process. Rather than relying as they do entirely in some cases on a fully automated complaint resolution process, the agreement requires that the CRAs have specially trained employees review all documentation submitted by consumers claiming that incorrect information belonging to other consumers has been mixed into their files or that they are the victim of fraud or identify theft. Even in cases where an automated dispute resolution system is employed a CRA employee must review the supporting documentation.
• Medical Debt. Medical debt constitutes over half of all collection items on credit reports and often results from insurance-coverage delays or disputes. Under the new agreement CRAs must institute a 180-day waiting period before medical debt is included in a credit report. In addition, while delinquencies ordinarily remain on credit reports even after a debt has been paid, the CRAs will remove all medical debts from a consumer's credit report once the debt is paid by insurance.
• Increasing Visibility and Frequency of Free Credit Reports. While current federal law provides consumers with the right to receive one free credit report a year from each of the three major CRAs, many are not aware of that fact. The agreement requires the CRAs to include a prominently-labeled hyperlink to the AnnualCreditReport.com website on the CRAs' homepages. Consumers will also now be entitled to receive a second free report each year if they successfully dispute an item on their report in order to verify the accuracy of the correction.
• Furnisher Monitoring. The Attorney General's agreement requires the three CRAs to create a National Credit Reporting Working Group that will develop a set of best practices and policies to enhance the CRAs' furnisher monitoring and data accuracy. This group will develop metrics for analyzing furnisher data, including: the number of disputes related to particular furnishers or categories of furnishers; furnishers' rate of response to disputes; and dispute outcomes. Each CRA will implement policies to monitor furnishers' performance and take corrective action against furnishers that fail to comply with their obligations.

Two additional provisions included in the settlement announcement make specific reference to New York State and were not mentioned in a joint credit release from the three CRAs so is not clear if they apply nationally.  The first relates to so-called "payday loans" and prohibits the CRAs "from including debts from lenders who have been identified by the Attorney General as operating in violation of New York lending laws on New York consumers' credit reports."  The second requires the CRAs to carry out an extensive three-year consumer education campaign in New York focusing on the free credit reports, and consumers' rights to dispute errors.  The campaign must be carried out via public service announcements and paid placements on television, radio, print media, and online and requires the CRAs to expand the consumer education materials available on AnnualCreditReport.com.

Experian, Equifax and TransUnion posted a joint press release on their respective websites announcing the launch of the National Consumer Assistance Plan to implement the agreement's reforms.  The release says "This new plan builds on years of work by the credit reporting agencies to enhance accuracy and extends consumer protections beyond the requirements of state and federal law," and lists the five major changes in the agreement.  

It concludes, "The U.S. credit reporting system helps consumers build their future by accessing credit for homes, cars, small businesses and even a good education. Both consumers and businesses benefit from reports being accurate as possible, and this National Consumer Assistance Plan will mark a significant step forward."

"This agreement addresses some of the most egregious problems in credit reporting that consumer advocates have complained about for many years," said Chi Chi Wu, National Consumer Law Center staff attorney. "We commend Attorney General Schneiderman and his staff for getting these changes, which should benefit consumers enormously."

written by: Jann Swanson

courtesy of: mortgagenewsdaily.com