Sydney Financial Group is offering a Utah home equity loan program for local borrowers looking to eliminate consumer debt, manage their finances, and pay off their home loans in half the time. The Utah home equity loan program has recently been improved and now includes extra features such as a debt priority system, a financial planning calculator, and a multiple mortgage tracker. Sydney Financial not only helps Beehive state residents take out a Utah home equity loan, the company provides their clients with the tools needed to use their new loans effectively.

First, Sydney Financials copyrighted software helps homeowners pay off their original home loans early by leveraging the money from their Utah home equity loan. In the early years of a typical home loan, over 80% of the total payments go towards interest. Sydney Financial shows borrowers how to use their Utah home equity loan to pay down the interest on their original home loan and own their home free and clear – often in half the time. Second, the Utah home equity line of credit is used to help pay off high-interest consumer debt. Most credit cards have extremely high interest rates, some in excess of 18%. Utah home equity loan rates are often ½ the prime credit card rate or less.

The Sydney Financial system helps borrowers use their Utah home equity loans to save when paying back credit card debt. Since the interest rate is lower, the borrower will be able to pay off the debt faster. Third, the unique software program helps the clients plan for retirement. By using a Utah home equity loan to pay off their original mortgage early, the homeowner will have extra money to save towards their retirement years. Software users can log on any time to see the progress they’ve made and the time they have left until retirement.

ROYAL Bank of Scotland has become the latest lender to tighten up its criteria by pulling its 100 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage range, sold through external financial advisers. While 100 per cent mortgages will still be available through RBS’s branch network, people will not be able to apply for them through mortgage brokers. Since the credit crunch, most lenders have limited their maximum LTV – the proportion of the value of a property someone can borrow on a mortgage – to reduce the amount of risky lending they do.

A spokesperson for RBS said: “We regularly review our mortgage range against the market and, in the light of recent competitor moves, we are withdrawing our mortgages with a loan to value greater than 95 per cent.” John Postlethwaite, consultant with Punter Southall Financial Management, said: “With lenders withdrawing their 100 per cent LTV mortgages, it’s getting more difficult for first-time buyers.”It smacks of double standards for RBS to still have these 100 per cent mortgages through branches, but not intermediaries.” Earlier this week, Scottish Widows Bank reduced the LTV on its professional mortgage from 110 per cent to 100 per cent.

Loss claims in Quality Home Loans’ collapse have surged to $332 million as a three-way fight has broken out between the bankrupt lender, its investors and Pacificor, a Santa Barbara-based hedge fund that pumped more than $40 million into the company. The latest twist in the tangled Chapter 11 bankruptcy is a $60 million complaint by investors in Agoura Hills-based Quality Home Loans. Creditors have made $272 million in claims, and the investors’ filing pushed the total tab to the $332 million mark.

Last fall, a struggle broke out between John Gaiser, Quality Home Loans’ founder, and Michael Klein, the late Pacificor chief who publicly moved to take over the mortgage firm after it declared bankruptcy in August – a deal later rejected by the trustee overseeing the company. Since then, the “hard money” lender’s operations have ceased, it has shrunk from 191 employees to 10 and three major players are fighting over the assets:

• Investors in QHL Holdings Fund Ten and Golden State TD Investments – the entities used to fund Quality Home Loans’ lending – filed a $60 million complaint against the company and Gaiser, who lives in Camarillo.

• Independent of their investors’ filing, the QHL Holdings fund and the Golden State fund claim Quality Home Loans owes them $100 million and $75 million, respectively, for their help financing the lender’s home loans.

• Pacificor has asserted that Quality Home Loans owes it $42 million for cash infusions made in the months before the lender collapsed.

Some good news for the housing market emerged yesterday, as the British Bankers’ Association reported “exceptionally strong” demand for funds to remortgage property. That would suggest that the credit crunch may not be affecting those refixing their mortgages quite yet, contrary to some of the more gloomy predictions about their plight. The BBA said the number of remortgage approvals rose to 79,016, up 17 per cent on December and up 39 per cent year-on-year as a raft of borrowers came off two- and three-year fixed rate deals, albeit usually with a “payment shock” as they moved on to the higher rates now generally charged. Remortgaging activity hit its highest monthly share of all mortgage approvals since the BBA began collecting data in 1997, at 49 per cent.

However the BBA numbers exclude the types of lender who specialized in the UK’s “sub-prime” sector. The number of mortgages approved – that is entirely new finance flowing into the property market – was also up on December, although that was an exceptionally low figure. Some 44,288 new mortgages were approved by the major banks in January, higher than expected by analysts. A total of £18bn was advanced to consumers during the month, up from £15.5bn in December, although the figure was down 4.7 per cent on a year earlier. Nonetheless, the new mortgage approval figures remain among the lowest on record, and down 31.3 per cent on January 2007. There was little in the data to shift the expectation of a stagnant real-estate market in 2008, and the suspicion that first-time buyers are finding it difficult to obtain a mortgage.

RISING interest rates failed to dampen housing demand in December, with home loan approvals unexpectedly rising, according to data just released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The number of home loans granted in the month edged up 0.1 per cent, against a 3.3 per cent rise in November. Economists had predicted a 1 per cent fall in December. The ABS data showed 65, 645 loans were granted for owner-occupied housing in December, up from 64,928 the previous month. While the total number of home loans rose in December, the total value of the loans taken out fell 0.6 per cent, to $22.1 billion. The value of outstanding home loans rose 1.3 per cent, or $9.3 billion to $701.1 billion. First time buyers weren’t scared off by rising rates, with the number of loans to first time borrowers up 18.4 per cent in December.

Despite the uncertain rate environment, most Australians are still opting for variable home loan rates. Fixed rate loans accounted for 23.5 per cent of loans taken out in December, down from 24 per cent in November. Borrowers showed a preference for traditional lenders in December, with the number of loans financed by banks rising 0.8 per cent for the month, and non-bank loans falling 3 per cent. The country’s average loan size is $238,800. Homeowners in the Australian Capital Territory have the largest average home loans at $266,600, followed by New South Wales where the average home loan is $264,100, then Queensland at $239,600, Victoria at $232,800 and Western Australia at $232,400. Tasmanians have the lowest average home loans at $165,300

The weak housing market didn’t hurt earnings last year at a local bank aimed at providing capital for home loans. The home loans‘ 2007 earnings rose 6 percent to $269 million. But fourth-quarter profits dipped 4 percent to $66 million. The bank, owned by 725 member institution shareholders in Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, makes capital available to banks so they can then lend money for housing and economic development.

Disruptions in the credit and mortgage markets fuelled growth in the bank’s key business lines - credit services and mortgage purchasing - as member banks sought increased liquidity. Balances in those areas rose 21 percent to $68.8 billion. And the principal balance on its advances jumped 26 percent to $53 billion. The FHL Bank’s assets climbed 8 percent to $87.5 billion. Its return on equity for the year rose 0.17 percentage points to 6.87 percent.

Labour has again failed leaky home owners, with revelations that its loan scheme has cost $650,000 to administer and has resulted in only seven loans, says National’s Associate Building and Construction spokesman, Bob Clarkson.” It is a disgraceful waste of taxpayers’ money that $650,000 has been spent on administering a scheme that has helped only seven leaky home owners and without a dollar being spent on fixing the houses.” The financial assistance scheme was announced in the 2006 Budget, promising $7.1 million in loans over two years. The Minister at the time, Clayton Cosgrove, responded to concerns from industry that the scheme was a ‘sham’ by saying the loan scheme would open the way for thousands to have their homes repaired. The Department of Building and Housing has confirmed that $650,000 has been spent on developing, implementing, and administering the loan scheme but that only seven loans, to a value of $1.44 million, have been handed down.” This loan scheme was a cruel hoax that falsely raised the hopes of desperate leaky home owners.” This botch-up stands alongside the appalling failures of the Weather tight Homes Tribunal. Far from resolving all claims in two years, as promised by Labour in 2002, only 15% of the 5,500 claims have been resolved after six years.” The madness of Labour’s bureaucratic approach to leaky homes is that it’s costing an average of $116,000 to administer each claim resolution and $93,000 to administer each loan granted, despite the average repair costing $120,000.

The news on home foreclosures continues to be dim, with a recent report from RealtyTrac Inc. stating that foreclosures rose about 75 percent between 2006 and 2007.In response, the Bush administration and participating financial institutions this week announced plans that would help some people keep their homes. The initiative builds on one announced by the president last fall. Many Democrats say Bush’s plans don’t go far enough. They want the federal government to step in with more relief for homeowners. Many conservatives say the plans go too far. It’s a free market, they say, and people shouldn’t be protected from their own bad judgments.

The move announced this week allows homeowners who are behind 90 days or more in their mortgage payments to delay proceedings for 30 days — to allow for restructuring of their loans. The lenders have agreed to try to restructure loans. It’s a good move, but it will help only a limited number of homeowners. The problem with the housing credit crisis is that there is no way to make the pain go away for individuals without creating bigger federal deficits and more expensive credit, both of which would damage the economy as a whole.

FURTHER evidence of a slowdown in the housing market emerged yesterday after figures showed that the number of home loans slumped by more than 20 per cent in December. The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said there were 62,000 loans over the month – 22 per cent below November’s 78,000 – due to factors such as lenders tightening standards and the introduction of home information packs in England. And there was more bad news for first-time buyers, as affordability fell to a 16-year low.

First-time buyers typically paid 19.4 per cent of their income as mortgage interest in 2007, the highest level since 1991, when it was 21.8 per cent. The typical income multiples for first-time buyers – the amount borrowed relative to income to get into the housing market – hit 3.36 times income, the highest level since the survey began in 1974.

Just four in ten first-time buyer mortgages were for homes under the £125,000 stamp-duty threshold last year, compared with almost half in 2006.Michael Coogan, general director of CML, called for the threshold to be raised in the forthcoming Budget.

Home loan and consumer durables loan borrowers could look forward to softer interest rates. Following the reduction in the cost of funds, banks are reviewing the interest rate structure, according to the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA). Speaking to the media after the managing committee meeting on Friday, IBA CEO H N Sinor said, “Banks have seen an improvement in their spreads during the financial year.

This is because the incremental credit-deposit ratio this year has fallen to 49% from 130%, seen a year ago. Banks which were forced to raise a large chunk of funds a year ago through bulk deposits are able to renew liabilities at a lesser rate, with a clear differential of 200 basis points.” Mr Sinor pointed out this will clearly give banks the leeway to make fresh lending at lower rates. This follows a statement from the Union finance minister a few days ago, expressing concern on the slowdown in the growth in consumer durables and mortgage loans. The IBA managing committee meeting was attended by the heads of 18 banks, of the total 31 member banks.