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Friday’s jobs report came in as a miss of estimates and wage growth came in lower than expected. The labor market isn’t tight anymore and that will eventually be good news for mortgage rates. After last month’s jobs report, I talked about the path the Federal Reserve could take to land the plane based on […]

A bill that will permanently allow for remote reverse mortgage counseling via telephone or video conferencing services in the state of Massachusetts has been signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey (D), doing away with a strict face-to-face requirement that has stretched the state’s counseling resources and, at times, halted reverse mortgage business within the […]

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Friday published Mortgagee Letter 2024-08, which extends a foreclosure moratorium on the Hawaiian island of Maui through Aug. 4, 2024, for FHA-insured forward mortgages and Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs). The moratorium, initially scheduled to expire on May 6 after a previous extension, has been pushed out 90 days […]

The dismal 2024 mortgage market has one very silver lining: $32 trillion in home equity. Jim Deitch, co-founder and CEO at Teraverde, sees a golden opportunity for lenders who are prepared to serve homeowners with innovative options. “The biggest year of mortgage production, from 2021-2022, generated $4.5 trillion. Compare that with $30 trillion in financeable […]

Rocket Companies, the parent of Rocket Mortgage, delivered a profit in the first quarter of 2024 through initiatives to reduce costs and increased investments in artificial intelligence (AI). In a contracting market, competitors exiting the space have allowed the company to improve market share and gain-on-sale margins. Ultimately, the Detroit-headquartered lender reported a GAAP net income […]

The number one rule of the marketplace is to understand your customer. Knowing what they need, what they want and what they fear is fundamental for success. The housing market has shifted. Today it’s dominated by baby boomers who make up 39% of all homebuyers and 52% of all home sellers. Known as “Peak 65”, in […]

Redlands, California-based mortgage lender Mountain West Financial has struck a deal to sell its retail assets to competitor ML Mortgage Corp., one of the latest M&A transactions amid a challenging landscape for home loan originators.  “We did transfer our branches and loan officers to ML Mortgage. We felt that ML was a good culture fit and would provide […]

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Thursday announced new guidelines that aim to apply the provisions of the Fair Housing Act to the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the realm of housing. HUD released separate pieces of guidance aimed at applying Fair Housing Act provisions to two key areas […]

The housing market has been on a topsy-turvy roller-coaster ride in recent years that has been particularly neck wrenching since this past fall, fueled by stubbornly high inflation and a still-strong jobs market. In early November, 30-year fixed mortgage rates began a nosedive, declining from near 8% to below 7% in a matter of months […]

Longtime reverse mortgage industry professional, advocate and leader Scott Norman has been appointed as the new CEO of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association (TMBA). Norman is currently serving his fifth consecutive term as co-chair of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA). He also works as vice president of field retail and director of government […]

Industry experts believe mortgage rates will remain higher for longer, attracting borrowers who face life events but not “economic gamers“ to the mortgage market. In turn, this will force some lenders to think out of the box to attain profitability. On Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Reserve announced its decision to maintain its short-term policy interest rate at a […]

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced a new policy on Wednesday that will enable mortgage borrowers to “request a re-assessment of the appraised value of their property if they believe that the appraisal was inaccurate or biased,” according to an announcement from HUD. “The Reconsideration […]

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are seeking to address the rising costs of living for U.S. seniors, primarily those living on fixed incomes, which would be accomplished by increasing monthly benefits and requiring the Social Security Administration (SSA) to use a different inflation-calculation formula. The bill, known as the Boosting […]

As more housing and mortgage authorities seek to expand the scope of homeownership to those who have never purchased a home before, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) are taking a step to more narrowly define the term “first-generation homebuyer mortgage,” according to a bulletin released on Wednesday by Freddie […]

In an update to its selling guide, Freddie Mac announced Wednesday that it is expanding the use of attorney opinion letters (AOLs) in lieu of title insurance. Under the new selling guidelines, Freddie Mac said it would allow AOLs to be used on “loans secured by a unit in a condo project,” on “loans secured by […]

As existing home sales dropped to the lowest level it has seen in nearly three decades in 2023, title insurance premium volume also took a hit. In 2023, the title insurance industry generated $15.1 billion in title insurance premiums, a 31% annual drop, according to the American Land Title Association’s  Market Share Analysis, released Tuesday. […]

After the release of proposed new rules for the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for Purchase (H4P) program late last year, the reverse mortgage industry expressed a lot of excitement. In the newly proposed rules handed down in October, the H4P program would, in certain circumstances, allow for inclusion of an interested party contribution of […]

After striking two M&A deals late last year, digital multichannel lender Lower plans to acquire at least one other business in 2024. If it finds “a good company,” the lender is willing to pay a premium to the owners, according to Dan Snyder, the fintech’s founder and investor. “I’d like to do another one [deal], […]

The Connecticut Legislature has approved a bill requiring the agencies that employ home health aides and other professionals to provide more well-rounded training and incident responses to issues like harassment as the state aims to ease the process for aging in place among its older residents. The passage of the law, first reported by regional […]

Despite the struggles of its independent mortgage bank counterparties, Fannie Mae delivered $4.3 billion in net income during the first quarter of the year, up from $3.9 billion in the prior quarter, the government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) reported Tuesday. The GSE’s net worth grew from $77.4 billion at the end of 2023 to $82 billion as […]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this week released its fair lending final rule, following up on a proposal made last year in alignment with plans first laid out in 2022 by the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The rule “addresses barriers to sustainable housing opportunities for underserved communities by codifying existing […]

HousingWire: Congratulations on your new role at The Money Store. Can you share with us some of the key initiatives or strategies you’ve implemented in your first three months as CMO? Coleen Bogle: I’m thrilled to be part of The Money Store team. In my first three months as CMO, my primary focus has been […]

Guild Mortgage CEO Terry Schmidt speaks last week at The Gathering by HousingWire in Scottsdale, Arizona. Photo credit: AJ Canaria Discussions about the reverse mortgage product category were not difficult to find this past week in Scottsdale, Arizona, during The Gathering by HousingWire, an event that combined both the real estate-focused RealTrends Gathering of Eagles […]

California-based mortgage tech firm Blend Labs, which has pursued non-GAAP profitability  since it went public in 2021, announced a $150 million investment on Monday from private equity firm Haveli Investments.  Blend will use $145 million of the proceeds to repay existing credit agreements. The remainder is for general corporate purposes, the company said in a prepared statement. Despite […]

Rising mortgage rates and a slower housing market than anticipated contributed to the weaker financial performance of the title segments of some of the nation’s largest title firms during the first quarter of 2024. Last week, big four members First American, Old Republic and Stewart all announced their earnings. Final big four title firm Fidelity […]

U.S. homeowners today are armed with a record amount of home equity ???? nearly $32 trillion, according to the latest data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve. Many of these homeowners are locked into historically low interest rates post-pandemic, which means they are unlikely to refinance. Indeed, amid the current high interest rates, they are […]

Pennsylvania-based Fulton Bank, National Association of Lancaster, has agreed to assume most of the deposits and assets of Republic First Bank, which state regulators seized on Friday to “protect depositors.”   Republic collapsed after it failed to raise $75 million in capital from investors and exited the mortgage lending space. It also comes after last year’s failures of First Republic Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature […]

Small-balance commercial lender Stronghill Capital shut down its nascent consumer and correspondent lending businesses late last week. The Austin, Texas-based lender will continue offering small-balance commercial and business purpose debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) loans to its clients, CEO John Eisinger told HousingWire Monday morning. He cited a difficult market and elevated rates as reasons […]