China Helps First-Home Buyers as Market Cools: Mortgages
18.05.12
Kevin Xi had no trouble getting a
mortgage to buy a 1.53 million yuan ($242,563) one-bedroom
apartment in Beijing last month, even as China’s government
tries to cool the housing market. He even got a 10 percent
reduction on interest.
“I didn’t expect to get such a good rate,” said Xi, 27,
an employee of a property company whose 960,000 yuan mortgage
loan with Bank of China Ltd. was approved within five working
days. “I thought only employees from government agencies or
state-owned companies qualified.”
The government is pushing in two directions as it seeks to
slow price growth while avoiding a collapse. It’s lowering
borrowing costs for first-time homebuyers to encourage purchases
while Premier Wen Jiabao keeps curbs in place to stem the
speculators who have helped drive home prices up by as much as
140 percent since 1998. China’s 18 percent first-quarter drop in
home sales contributed to the slowest economic growth in almost
three years.
“Property is an important sector for China’s economy,”
said Jack Gong, a Hong Kong-based property analyst at Jefferies
Group Inc. “The central government will not forcefully crack
down on the market even if it is not supporting it. Fine-tuning
the mortgage policies shows the government’s clear intention to
uphold economic growth.
Source: BusinessWeek
Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco Announces First Quarter 2012 Operating ...
18.05.12
SAN FRANCISCO, Apr 27, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco today announced that its net
income for the first quarter of 2012 was $169 million, compared with net
income of $60 million for the first quarter of 2011.
The increase in net income for the first quarter of 2012 primarily
reflected the impact of a lower credit-related other-than-temporary
impairment (OTTI) charge on certain of the Bank's private-label
residential mortgage-backed securities (PLRMBS) and lower net losses
associated with derivatives, hedged items, and financial instruments
carried at fair value, partially offset by a $14 million decline in net
interest income.
Net interest income for the first quarter of 2012 was $242 million, down
from $256 million for the first quarter of 2011. The decrease in net
interest income for the first quarter of 2012 was due, in part, to lower
balances of advances, MBS, and mortgage loans and to a decline in
earnings on invested capital because of lower balances and the lower
interest rate environment, partially offset by an increase in advance
prepayment fees.
Source: MarketWatch (press release)