Last week was relatively calm for the housing market after the fiasco of the banking crisis. Housing demand grew and inventory levels fell again while mortgage rates rose. Here’s a quick rundown of the last week: The 10-year yield battle continues as bond yields rose early in the week only to close below 3.50% on Friday. […]
Rocket Mortgage is throwing a big incentive at spring homebuyers, offering them up to $10,000 in closing cost credits if they work with a real estate agent through its affiliate, Rocket Homes. Through Rocket’s new “BUY+” program, clients who obtain purchase financing from Rocket Mortgage and find a home with a Rocket Homes partner real […]
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) on Monday resolved investigation of a complaint regarding the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College’s failure to respond to antisemitic harassment. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: Website of U.S. Department of Education
SoFi Technologies announced Monday that it had acquired fellow digital lender Wyndham Capital Mortgage in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition will allow SoFi to broaden its suite of mortgage products available to members, enhance unit economics, and take ownership of a scalable digital mortgage platform, the company said in a statement. In doing so, SoFi […]
Profitability has been a sore spot for Robert Reffkin and his brokerage, Compass. In media interviews and on earnings calls, Reffkin is forced to defend Compass’s mounting losses and the underlying strength of its business – in 2022, Compass recorded a net loss of $601 million despite raking in revenue – up 6% to $6.02 billion. Reffkin […]
Mortgage lenders are fighting brutal market conditions, but lenders shouldn’t be pulling back on tech investments. That was the message mortgage and solutions executives emphasized on Sunday during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Technology Solutions Conference & Expo in San Jose, California. Consumers’ demand for a digitized mortgage experience that cuts time and costs is […]
Declining mortgage rates could have improved affordability for buyers in the housing market in February, but instead spurred a demand that, combined with a persistent lack of inventory across the U.S., put more pressure on home prices. According to the Black Knight’s mortgage monitor report, home prices rose 0.16% nationally in February compared to the month prior, marking the […]
Seymour Stein, the brash, prescient and highly successful founder of Sire Records who helped launched the careers of Madonna, Talking Heads and many others, died Sunday at age 80. Stein, who helped found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation and was himself inducted into the Rock Hall in 2005, died of cancer in […]
Riding terrific reviews and a strong word-of-mouth, the role-playing game adaptation “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” opened with $38.5 million in U.S. and Canadian movie theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, stealing the top box-office perch from “John Wick: Chapter 4.” The Paramount Pictures and eOne release appealed to more moviegoers […]
The use-cases for AI-powered chatbots just keep growing. Big Purple Dot (BPD), a mortgage and real estate customer relationship management (CRM) and recruiting solutions company in Irvine, California, announced this week the integration of ChatGPT into its CRM ecosystem. According to Big Purple Dot, it is one of the first CRM companies in the mortgage […]
A warrior-themed circus begins a tour of England on Friday with Ukrainian performers determined that the show should go on even though their hearts are very much still in their war-torn homeland. Although the warrior idea behind the show was conceived in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the theme has inspired its Ukrainian artists […]
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), the real estate finance industry’s standards organization, is currently seeking public comment on the latest version of the MISMO Servicing Transfer Catalog (MSTC), according to an announcement on Thursday. According to MISMO, the catalog, which was created through the collaboration of the MISMO Servicing Transfers Development Workgroup, will support the […]
U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten hosted a roundtable on Thursday with transgender students who shared their experiences, alongside their parents, all of whom are faith leaders advocating for their children and for their communities at large. Five parents and four students, participated in the event. Joining Deputy Secretary Marten from the Department were […]
French daredevil Philippe Petit showed off his gravity-defying skills at the National Building Museum in Washington. At 73, Petit still walks the wire without a safety net or harness. Maxim Moskalkov talked with the famous wire walker. Video: Artyom Kokhan, Aleksadr Bergan details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona issued the following statement on Transgender Day of Visibility: “On Transgender Day of Visibility and every day, we must show transgender students that we see them and that we support them. We know many transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students face challenges that can impact their mental health and […]
Donny Kirby, former vice president of national direct-to-consumer sales at Wyndham Capital Mortgage, spent more than 12 years at Charlotte, North Carolina-based company before leaving to start a mortgage broker shop, Cornerstone Home Loans. At Wyndham, Kirby led the expansion of the lender’s branches from Charlotte, North Carolina into Arizona, Texas, Utah and Missouri. When […]
Because the U.S. has no more exotic loan debt structures, we don’t have large-scale risk tied to homeowners and banks. Over time, the With the banking crisis spurring more talk of a recession, the question now is: What would housing credit look like in a recession? Many people predicted that the U.S. housing market would crash […]
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and 42 affiliated state banking associations are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to approve language that allows community banks to test out different consumer construction and construction-to-permanent loan disclosures, which the group describes as “a core offering of community banks in many local communities.” The […]
Your Excellency, President Hakainde Hichilema, Minister of Foreign Affairs Stanley Kakubo, Minister of Justice Mulambo Haimbe, Heads of Delegations from across the continent, distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen, all protocols observed … It’s an honor to represent the United States here at the Africa-regional event of the second Summit for Democracy. My heartfelt thanks to […]
Indonesia was stripped Wednesday of its hosting duties for the 2023 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, sending shock waves through the soccer world just weeks before the tournament was scheduled to begin. FIFA, the international soccer federation, did not spell out the reasons for its decision, saying only on its website that it decided, “due to […]
The demand for home-equity loans, particularly home-equity lines of credit (HELOCs) as well as shared-equity investment products, is now stronger than at any time since before the global financial crisis some 15 years ago. Securitization channels for those home-equity products, however, are only now starting to catch up to the growing demand for them. Homeowners […]
Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow borrowers facing financial hardships to defer up to six months of mortgage payments, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on Wednesday. The option was previously available for borrowers who fell behind on their mortgage payments due to the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the enterprises will start offering it […]
Cenlar FSB, the nation’s second-largest mortgage servicer and largest subservicer, has named Rene Gonzales as its new chief technology officer (CTO), according to an announcement on Tuesday. Gonzales initially joined Cenlar in 2018 as its SVP of infrastructure and engineering. The new CTO will utilize his prior experience with managing programs and projects, addressing operational […]
Rocket Companies has rolled out its first credit card in order to attract potential homebuyers and existing homeowners into its ecosystem amid one of the most challenging mortgage markets in decades. Those looking to buy a home can earn 5% back by using the Rocket Visa Signature Card for up to $8,000 that can be […]
Home prices continued to cool at the start of the year, falling to a 3.8% annual price growth rate in January, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, released Tuesday. The annual growth rate in December was 4.4%. The index came in at a reading of 292.71 in January. On a month-over-month basis, the U.S. […]
Protesters gathered underneath Rio de Janeiro’s famed Sugarloaf Mountain earlier this week to protest construction of four cable lines that will carry tourists over the surrounding forest. The cables, commonly known as zip lines, will carry individuals connected to them by safety harnesses at least 755 meters over the forest to the nearby peak of […]
Agile, a Philadelphia-based fintech company focused on mortgage-backed securities (MBS), announced on Monday the execution of the mortgage industry’s first fully-automated Assignment of Trade (AOT) transaction. AOT transactions involve three counterparties — a mortgage originator, a mortgage investor, and a broker dealer — and are designed to transfer loan collateral and hedge positions to a […]
Fannie Mae has projected that the recent bank failures may act as the catalyst that tips an already precarious economy into a recession — primarily due to the combination of tighter lending standards by small- and mid-sized regional banks. The ongoing banking instability may affect the availability of jumbo mortgages and residential construction loans due […]
Fannie Mae announced on Monday that it has executed two new Credit Insurance Risk Transfer (CIRT) deals: CIRT 2023-2 and CIRT 2023-3. The deals, which include over $31 billion in single-family mortgage loans, are designed to reduce risk to taxpayers by increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market. These are the second […]
At a time of high mortgage rates and inflation, the federal government — along with government-sponsored enterprises — is understandably under pressure to lower costs and make homeownership more accessible. We share the goal of improving housing affordability. However, any effort to lower housing costs should be responsibly examined for potential risks to consumers, lenders […]
Artist Danielle SeeWalker says she is attempting to paint an accurate and insightful representation of contemporary Native American life. Her work is on exhibit in the Western U.S. state of Colorado. VOA’s Scott Stearns gives us a look. Camera: Scott Stearns details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
When Morocco stunned Spain – and the world – with a dramatic penalty shootout victory in last year’s World Cup, authorities feared riots would break out. None did and Morocco made history by becoming the first African nation to reach the semi-finals in what is arguably the world’s biggest sporting event. Now, with the dust […]
The arrest of actor Jonathan Majors has upended the Army’s newly launched advertising campaign that was aimed at reviving the service’s struggling recruiting numbers. Majors, who authorities said was arrested Saturday in New York on charges of strangulation, assault and harassment, was the narrator of two ads at the heart of a broader media campaign […]
One piece of good news last week was that the new listing data, which saw a The financial and housing markets are still trying to sort out the banking crisis and whether we have seen the last Fed rate hike in this cycle. These events led to lower mortgage rates and increased purchase application data […]
“John Wick: Chapter 4,” the fourth installment in the Keanu Reeves assassin series, debuted with a franchise-best $73.5 million at the box office, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Lionsgate film, starring Reeves as the reluctant-but-not-that-reluctant killer John Wick, exceeded both expectations and previous opening weekends in the R-rated franchise. Since first launching in 2014 […]
Choirs from across the world joined their voices to sing for peace in Ukraine Sunday, with nearly 300 singers gathering in Madrid where the initiative began a year ago. Under cloudless blue skies, singers from 46 choirs in and around the Spanish capital gathered outside the Reina Sofia art museum and began singing at midday […]
A former Formula One champion has been fined nearly $1 million in damages for racist and homophobic remarks about Lewis Hamilton, the sport’s only Black driver. Nelson Piquet, 70, a three-time Formula One champion, used a Brazilian racial and homophobic slur in a 2021 television interview about a crash, involving Hamilton and Max Verstappen, who […]
Years ago, skateboarding was branded as a hobby for rebels or stoners in city streets, schoolyards and back alleys. Those days are long gone. Skateboarding, which has Native Hawaiian roots connected to surfing, no longer is on the fringes. It became an Olympic sport in 2020. There are numerous amateur and professional skateboarding competitions in […]
ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm over the past few months. It took Netflix 3.5 years to reach one million users, Facebook ten months and Spotify five months. ChatGPT got to the first million users in five days. In two months after that, ChatGPT reached 100 million active monthly users. But […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released on Thursday its Fourth Quarter 2022 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report, stating that government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 52,469 foreclosure prevention actions in Q4 2022. That figure increases the total number of GSE-assisted homeowners to 6,712,833 since the start of the conservatorship in September […]
A Hong Kong department store took down a digital artwork that contained hidden references to jailed dissidents, in an incident the artist says is evidence of erosion of free speech in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. It was unclear whether the government played a role in the decision to remove the artwork, it came just days […]
The ongoing tumult in the banking industry brought to light by the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — the second and third largest bank failures in U.S. history, respectively — also threatens liquidity channels for the independent mortgage banks (IMBs). Two banks that rank among the nation’s top warehouse lenders were recently singled out by Moody’s […]
The collapses of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the rescue of First Republic Bank and the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, brought turbulence to the financial markets that led to a decline in mortgage rates – despite the Federal Reserve hiking federal funds rate by 25 basis point on Wednesday. The […]
In Namibia, the German-supported Basketball Artists School (BAS) has been helping develop the sport while giving hope to at-risk youth. Beyond basketball, the program teaches life skills to disadvantaged youth and offers after-school meals. Vitalio Angula reports from Windhoek, Namibia. Camera: Dantagob Geingob details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: […]
New home sales continued to rise in February, jumping 1.1% from January to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 640,000 homes, according to data published on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). On a year-over-year basis, however, new home sales are still down 19.0%. “New home sales increased in February for the third […]