China’s annual mass migration ahead of the Lunar New Year will peak with billions of trips anticipated during this year’s holiday, which begins Tuesday. An estimated 9 billion trips are expected. This year’s holiday lasts from Jan. 28 through Feb. 4 and marks the arrival of the Year of the Snake. Authorities in China extended […]
The MBA Opens Doors Foundation announced yesterday the launch of the MBA Opens Doors Disaster Relief Program, which aims to support children and families affected by the wildfires in the Southern California area. The foundation will provide an additional $100,000 to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). As one of Opens Doors’ 13 hospital partners through […]
In the Rocky Mountain state of Colorado, the National Western Stock Show hosts nearly 30 professional rodeo events. VOA Correspondent Scott Stearns takes us to a stock show competition for younger riders. And sheep. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
Hu Ge, a Chinese actor who is well-known in China for dramas including Flowers, was recently confirmed to serve as the deputy director of the Central Propaganda Committee of the China Democratic League. He was invited to Taiwan in June 2024 to participate in a film exchange activity. Click here for the full story in […]
Ginnie Mae’s complementary Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) program, dubbed “HMBS 2.0,” released a final term sheet in November which proved to be the final major policy work of former acting Ginnie Mae President Sam Valverde prior to his departure from the company. It has been roughly one year since Ginnie Mae announced […]
As older Americans run into more challenges with the cost of living on a fixed income, a coalition of advocacy groups in and around New York City are calling for action. Led by LiveOn NY, more than 50 organizations are rallying the city’s government for additional support for older residents as they navigate these challenges. […]
Thursday marks the third full day of the second Trump administration, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) still has a director that was nominated and confirmed under President Joe Biden. How long that will last is anyone’s guess, but for right now, Rohit Chopra is continuing to work until he is notified by the […]
Housing professionals have been waiting for a change of administration to see how mortgage rates will respond, but in the first week of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, things have been quiet when it comes to the long-term costs of a home loan. HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed that 30-year conforming rates […]
LOS ANGELES — Transgender cartel musical “Emilia Perez” topped this year’s Oscar nominations, earning 13 nods in an announcement on Thursday postponed by the devastating Los Angeles wildfires. French director Jacques Audiard’s Mexico-set musical, released by Netflix, shattered the record for the most Academy Award nominations for a non-English-language movie. It was followed by epic immigrant […]
What if the story of declining loan officer numbers is just that — a story? If you’ve been around the mortgage industry awhile, you’ve surely heard of a sharp decline in licensed loan officer (LOs) numbers. Some reference a 50% drop in the LO population. Worse yet, other believe that license renewals are down 60%. […]
Reverse mortgage lender and servicer Longbridge Financial, which offers both Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-backed Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) loans as well as proprietary reverse mortgage products, announced that it has lowered the minimum home value for its fixed-rate proprietary products. Previously, the proprietary product line — which Longbridge calls “Platinum” — had its minimum […]
Home renovation projects could bring a variety of safety and efficiency improvements to older construction, but anxiety is a key element keeping many homeowners from exploring renovation projects. This is according to a report conducted by Renewal by Andersen, a home improvement company. The study surveyed 2,500 homeowners across four generations: Gen Z, millennials, Gen […]
Online real estate marketplace Auction.com announced Wednesday that it is launching SmartSale, a technology-powered option to foreclosure that lets distressed homeowners list and sell their property. SmartSale allows homeowners to sell their homes through direct offers from buyers or an auction process. For those who are struggling to repay their mortgages, the process aims to […]
Mortgage escrow accounts are an important, yet widely misunderstood asset in the housing market. Although 80% of mortgage holders have escrow accounts, only 60% fully understand them, up from 52% in early 2024. And those who don’t understand are paying dearly. That finding comes from a survey released Tuesday by tax and flood services provider […]
Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending Jan. 17 show mortgage applications increased 0.1% from a week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. On an unadjusted basis, applications increased by 3% compared with the previous week. The refinance index decreased 3% from the previous week and was […]
The Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for Purchase (H4P) program has long been positioned by reverse mortgage professionals as a viable path for expanding the base of reverse mortgage business. It would allow older homeowners to use a reverse mortgage to purchase a new home. While the required down payment on a home purchased with […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s education division, MBA Education, recently launched its Mortgage Banking Bound (MBB) program at Cleveland State University. The program, which is led by adjunct professor Debbie Hoffman — a visiting assistant professor at the Cleveland State University College of Law — offers a three-credit undergraduate course on residential mortgage origination and […]
An Afghan author’s latest book is a generational call to remember the country’s recent violent past, he says. But Taliban rules mean publishers and bookstores are wary of stocking it. From Peshawar, Pakistan, Muska Safi has the story, narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. Roshan Noorzai contributed to this report. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content […]
As he has promised for months, President Donald Trump spent his first day back in the Oval Office signing a flurry of executive orders. These are designed to roll back Biden administration orders and policies, and to change the federal government’s stance on several overarching issues that reflect the priorities of the new administration. Two […]
President Donald Trump did not waste any time Monday after his inauguration as he signed dozens of executive orders tied to everything from immigration and energy policies to a temporary halt on a U.S. ban of TikTok. Trump also rolled back protections for transgender Americans and ended diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs within the […]
After years of high interest rates, and price spikes, mortgage lenders are optimistic heading into 2025. Fannie Mae predicts a 28% increase in mortgage originations to $2.1 trillion. The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) also predicts that total origination volume will increase by 28.5% to $2.3 trillion. Alongside that, Fitch expects mortgage servicing rights (MSR) amortization […]
Los Angeles — The U.S. film industry’s first big gathering since fires devastated Los Angeles will begin Thursday at the Sundance festival, where highlights include a glitzy new Jennifer Lopez musical and a dark Benedict Cumberbatch drama. Hollywood’s annual pilgrimage to the Rocky Mountains to premiere the coming year’s most-anticipated indie films is taking place in […]
In this week’s episode of the PowerHouse podcast, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez talks with Lower CEO Dan Snyder about the digital lender’s recent acquisition of Neat Labs, its in-house tech development efforts and coaching programs for top producers. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. To start the conversation, Sanchez asks a question […]
Inaction is easy. It’s quiet; unwritten; immune from critique. It sits undone; confidently static. But if buyers and sellers were compelled to transcribe their inaction, it would read like a sociopath’s diary entry: “We could have watched you grow up, but your grandpa and me weren’t willing to give up our 2.875% rate to move […]
WASHINGTON — The Keke Palmer buddy comedy “One of Them Days” opened in first place on the North American box office charts on a particularly slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. The R-rated Sony release earned $11.6 million from 2,675 theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, beating Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” by a hair. […]
It is one of the 20th century’s most memorable images: a naked girl, screaming, running from a napalm bombing during the Vietnam War. More than a half-century later, a new documentary is calling into question who took it — and the retired Associated Press photographer long credited for the photo insists it was his, while […]
As the dust settles from the confirmation hearing of Scott Turner to serve as the new secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are logging their reactions in official statements and social media posts ahead of an expected Senate vote. While reactions largely fall […]
A notice implemented into the reverse mortgage servicing process that is designed to flag potential foreclosures if they are in a federally declared disaster area could prove to be beneficial for any borrowers currently impacted by the Los Angeles-area wildfires, according to a servicing industry expert. Colorado fire and Ed Sharp After a reverse mortgage […]
Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist, highlighted a rise in government loan activity as a key factor behind new-home mortgage growth. “Applications for newly built homes increased 9 percent compared to a year ago in December, while the FHA share of applications reached its second highest level in the survey’s history at […]
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) this week published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2025-06, which codifies “updates to FHA’s permanent loss mitigation options based on learnings from its temporary COVID-19 policies and feedback received on the draft policies” from a proposal published this past November. Published on Thursday, the letter extends existing COVID-19 recovery options to February […]
Florida-based non-QM lender A&D Mortgage announced Friday that it has acquired the wholesale and nondelegated correspondent lending businesses of Mr. Cooper Group. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed but it is expected to close by the end of March 2025. A&D reported that the two entities being acquired funded more than $10 […]
In a changing real estate market, mortgage lenders face increasing demand. If high mortgage rates and increased liquidity management aren’t challenging, then regulatory changes, operation inefficiencies, and economic uncertainty are enough. With high mortgage rates and stagnated origination, many financiers are focusing on mitigating risk and boosting efficiency. This occurs while they manage the heavy […]
Attom‘s year-end 2024 foreclosure report revealed that 322,103 properties in the U.S. had some type of foreclosure filing — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — last year. The data solutions company also reported that in fourth-quarter 2024, one in every 1,671 properties had a foreclosure filing. Attom also noted that foreclosure filings were […]
Many housing insiders often characterize the topic of housing as a bipartisan one that is somewhat insulated from the acrimony of more divisive issues during a historically polarized political era. This was mostly on display during the Senate confirmation hearing for Scott Turner to be the next secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and […]
LOS ANGELES — David Lynch, the filmmaker celebrated for his uniquely dark vision in such movies as “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and the TV series “Twin Peaks,” has died just days before his 79th birthday. His family announced the death in a Facebook post on Thursday. The cause of death and location was not immediately […]
Bill Pulte, a private equity professional, philanthropist and grandson of the late homebuilding icon William Pulte, will be Donald Trump‘s nominee to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), according to reports from multiple outlets on Thursday. Trump confirmed the nomination on his Truth Social account. “I am pleased to announce that Bill Pulte will […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) this week warned consumers in all 50 states that fraudsters are posing as mortgage lenders by calling homeowners and asking them to pony up on payments. The scam, dubbed “Green Mirage,” involves callers contacting homeowners who oftentimes “have previously sought relief from their actual mortgage lender and may expect to […]
MUMBAI — Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was stabbed repeatedly by an intruder at his home in Mumbai on Thursday, but doctors treating him said he was out of danger after surgery. Khan, 54, was “on the path to complete recovery” after receiving stab wounds on his spine, neck and hand, the doctors told reporters. “He […]
“The standard of living of the average American has to decline,” he said. “I don’t think you can escape that.” These were the words of Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker as he testified before Congress in October 1979. Inflation was 13%. Volcker’s predecessors, Arthur Burns and William Miller, had failed to control prices. Stagflation gripped […]
Mutual of Omaha Mortgage, which rose to the No. 1 position on the reverse mortgage industry leaderboard for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements in 2024, has responded to a September legal complaint by competitor Longbridge Financial. Mutual is denying allegations that it misled potential customers and is demanding a jury trial and for litigation […]
An Elkhart, Indiana, resident who is a beneficiary of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) assistance is poised to lose his benefits on Jan. 31 after disclosing on a form that he had ingested marijuana a single time, according to local reporting by a South Bend-based NBC affiliate. This will cause him to […]
With an adjustment for the New Year’s holiday, mortgage applications increased 33.3% from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey, released today. This week’s reading, for the week ending Jan. 10, 2025, is a stark difference from last week’s applications, which reflected a seasonal lull following Christmas. While […]
The year 2025 will be transformative for real estate. Rising personal home insurance rates, fueled by escalating claims costs, increasing property values and the growing frequency of natural disasters, will all have a profound impact on market dynamics — and homeowner’s insurance costs. For real estate professionals and mortgage lenders, these shifts present both challenges and […]
At the tail end of 2024, mortgage borrowers shifted their attention away from conforming mortgages and toward refinance opportunities. A report released Tuesday by Optimal Blue found that the conforming loan share sank to historic lows in December. Optimal Blue’s December 2024 Market Advantage report is a monthly study that analyzes key indicators to provide […]
Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) volume took a hit in 2024 and the HECM-backed Securities (HMBS) issuance market also saw overall reductions in output for the year, giving further context to a challenging period for the reverse mortgage industry broadly. Once again, total issuance was down in 2024, and the top 10 issuers reshuffled slightly. […]