Chicago-based mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate launched a new program this week that will provide up to $8,000 in assistance to potential first-time homebuyers from underserved communities. The initiative, called the Special Purpose Credit Program, aims to help homebuyers with down payments, deposit minimums, and move-in repair and maintenance costs. “This program helps tear down these […]
Real estate valuation technology company Clear Capital has conducted a new round of layoffs as part of a company restructuring plan. The firm announced on Wednesday that it was eliminating about 24% of its workforce, or over 250 jobs, as it “folds up” departments and consolidates teams amid a tough housing market. Per the firm, […]
As mortgage rates continue to decline, Chad Earnest’s mantra with his referral partners in 2023 is “no buyer left behind.” The Montgomery, Texas-based area manager, who moved from AmeriSave Mortgage Corporation to Cardinal Financial Company in November, launched in mid-2022 a platform to help their referral partners succeed. He makes co-marketing investments and helps partners with their databases by […]
Embattled digital lender Better.com launched a program that will allow customers to apply for a mortgage, get pre-approved, lock their rate and receive a mortgage commitment letter within 24 hours. The official rollout of the program, dubbed “One Day Mortgage,” comes after Better.com launched it in beta to a small segment of its customers in […]
About 25 people from loanDepot’s top producing team have joined boutique lender Revolution Mortgage to reunite with their former team lead. Roughly half of the team led by Stacy Chevalier, former area manager covering parts of the states in Washington and Idaho at loanDepot, made the transition as of Tuesday, Chevalier said in an interview […]
Days after India blocked a BBC documentary that examines Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots and banned people from sharing it online, authorities are scrambling to halt screenings of the film at colleges and universities and restrict clips of it on social media. Critics decry the move by as an assault on […]
Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust,” saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church. “Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said during an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press. Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops […]
To root out racial bias in the U.S. appraisal system, some experts say there’s no point in nibbling at the edges. Instead, they suggest tearing the system down and starting fresh. “I think not many people understand how this byzantine system works,” Rohit Chopra, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director, said Tuesday. Chopra spoke […]
United Wholesale Mortgage‘s (UWM) aggressive moves to gain an edge on the competition tend to provoke controversy. The ‘ultimatum’ it imposed two years ago effectively prohibited broker partners from also doing business with two of UWM’s rivals. It quickly prompted antitrust lawsuits. The lender’s price reduction by 50 to 100 basis points across all its […]
In a major address, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona laid out his vision for the direction the agency will follow in 2023 to promote academic excellence, improve learning conditions, and prepare our students for a world where global engagement is critical to our nation’s standing. In his address Secretary Cardona remarked that “Raise the […]
Rocket Companies eliminated about 50 positions last week amid the industry rightsizing with layoffs in the higher-rate environment. “As is common practice in all companies, Rocket regularly looks at the priorities of the business and what roles are needed to achieve those goals,” Aaran Emerson, a Rocket spokesperson, said in a statement. The eliminated positions […]
Thank you to everyone, here and on the livestream, for joining us today for an important conversation on what it will take to Raise the Bar in education – and Lead the World – in three key areas: academic excellence, boldly improving learning conditions, and preparing our students for a world of global competitiveness. Achieving […]
The multiverse-skipping sci-fi indie hit “Everything Everywhere All at Once” led nominations to the 95th Academy Awards as Hollywood heaped honors on big-screen spectacles like “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” a year after a streaming service won best picture for the first time. Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s “Everything Everywhere All […]
California lender New American Funding has partnered with EasyKnock, a New York startup that buys homes and rents them back to sellers, allowing clients to access their home equity through non-traditional means. About a quarter of American homeowners are unable to access the equity in their homes because of strict lending standards, and EasyKnock said […]
Real estate technology company Doma Holdings, Inc. partnered with digital payment software-as-a-service platform paymints.io, the company announced last week. Title and closing firms use paymints.io to allow homebuyers deposit their earnest money digitally and directly from their checking account. The aim of the partnership is to reduce the risk of wire fraud by adding paymints.io […]
Here’s the housing market rundown for the last week: Purchase application data had a solid week-to-week gain of 25%. That’s a big jump, but context is critical. Housing inventory decreased by 566 units, which is not a significant decline. Mortgage rates fell, but the bond market didn’t break what I see as a critical level, […]
Hundreds of mourners gathered at Graceland on Sunday morning to pay their respects to singer Lisa Marie Presley in a memorial service at the mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, she inherited from her father, rock legend Elvis Presley. Presley died on Jan. 12 at the age of 54. Earlier that day, she had been rushed to […]
One of the world’s most prestigious and storied surfing contests is expected to be held Sunday in Hawaii for the first time in seven years. And this year female surfers will be competing alongside the men for the first time in the 39-year history of The Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational. The event — alternatively […]
As China gears up to welcome the Year of the Rabbit, Lunar New Year looks slightly different in Vietnam, where the Year of the Cat is about to begin. Across the country, streets are decked out with statues of felines and shops are stocked full of cat-themed decorations, popular gifts during Vietnamese New Year, known […]
Every Lunar New Year without fail, Kat Lieu’s mother would make her steamed nian gao, which is a sweet rice — or mochi — cake. It was a tasty tradition of having dessert for breakfast. The Seattle-based author of the “Modern Asian Baking at Home” cookbook and founder of the Subtle Asian Baking online group […]
On Friday NAR reported that total housing inventory levels broke under 1 million in December, dropping to 970,00 units for a population of 330 million people. And existing home sales crashed in 2022 from a peak of around 6.5 million in January down to about 4 million in December, We now have total inventory levels […]
Blank-check firm Aurora Acquisition Corp. wants to extend the deadline for completing its merger deal with struggling digital mortgage lender Better.com by six months for the third time, further dimming the prospects for the deal to go through. Novator Capital-sponsored Aurora shareholders will vote on an undisclosed date to extend the deadline by which the […]
The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2023 HW Finance Leaders are open now through Friday, January 27, 2023. Click here to nominate your organization. When it comes to the challenges faced by C-suite executives in housing, no one has had to bear the […]
Homebuilder confidence and demand for mortgages have increased recently, keeping hopes high for an improved housing market in 2023. But a modest recession is still expected this year, and elevated mortgage rates, coupled with high home prices, will limit housing activity, according to Fannie Mae. Fannie Mae expects total home sales in 2023 to be […]
The phrase “in like a lion, out like a lamb” is typically used to describe the month of March, but it is also applicable to existing home sales trends in 2022. After posting a 6.5% month-over-month increase in January, existing home sales trended downward throughout the rest of the year. In December, the seasonally adjusted […]
British actor Julian Sands, best known for his appearance in the film A Room with a View, has been missing for several days after hiking in a Southern California mountain range. Search and rescue teams have looked for him, but their efforts have been called off because a series of storms has created adverse trail […]
David Crosby, one of the most influential rock singers of the 1960s and ’70s with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died at age 81, Variety reported Thursday, citing a statement from Crosby’s wife. “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away,” […]
The Census Bureau‘s housing starts report for December shows that housing completions are still too slow, and we are running out of time this year as housing permits are set to fall until the homebuilders get rid of their excess supply. We had some good news this week for the housing market: purchase application data […]
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona today announced 38 awards totaling more than $30 million to colleges and universities from five competitive grant programs of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), which aims to improve higher education opportunities and outcomes for students from underrepresented communities. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content […]
Nonbank California lender loanDepot will start moving some of its backend operations to Black Knight‘s cloud-based version of the Empower loan origination system this year as the firm continues its efforts to cut costs. Black Knight’s loan origination system will complement and integrate with loanDepot’s proprietary technology system, mello, which rolled out in 2017, Black […]
Declining mortgage rates spurred the demand for home loans at the beginning of 2023, spreading optimism across the industry. But that’s not the only reason for the uptick. After months of a slowing housing market, sellers are offering more discounts to close deals and mortgage lenders are launching programs to protect their clients’ rates. “The […]
When industry veteran Michael Strauss abruptly shut down Long Island-based Sprout Mortgage in early July, there was uproar. Shocked employees didn’t receive their last paychecks. There were no severance packages, and even health insurance was canceled retroactive to May 2022, leaving some on the hook for huge medical bills. The lawsuits quickly came pouring in, […]
Tennessee-based mortgage lender Guaranty Home Mortgage Corporation hired Andy Voyles as executive vice president and director of retail lending. The mortgage lender hopes to boost volume in the channel. Voyles will be responsible for growing the retail division overseeing sales, operations and marketing as well as building on the existing framework, the company said Wednesday. […]
Today, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced new awards totaling more than $35 million for the Promise Neighborhoods and Project Prevent grant programs. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: Website of U.S. Department of Education
As the housing market slowed from its frenzied peak in 2022 due to soaring mortgage rates, homebuilders pulled back. An estimated of 1.533 million housing units were started in 2022, down 3.0% compared to 2021, according to a report released Thursday by U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Homebuilders closed out 2022 […]
Coldwell Banker franchise affiliate Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group acquired California lender Point Mortgage, the firms announced on Wednesday. Founded by Peter Mendiola and Johnny Margarini in 2000, Point Mortgage sponsors 126 MLOs and is licensed in 30 states with 27 branches across the country, according to the NMLS. “This new association brings our company […]
Builders feel more confident in the market, housing inventory data is positive and buyer demand for mortgages has increased — but don’t be fooled. The brutal low origination volume and industry consolidation that occurred for lenders in 2022 isn’t expected to turn around, at least not drastically, in 2023, according to Fitch Ratings. “Our outlook […]
Columbus, Ohio-headquartered lender Lower rolled out mortgage as a service platform that enables consumer finance, banking and real estate companies to offer its mortgage products. Lower’s platform is aimed to offer a “digital-first home financing experience quickly and easily” with white-label options available that can be embedded into the partner’s process through application programming interface […]
Like its competitors, Tennessee-based First Community Mortgage, Inc. (FCM) reduced the company’s size through 2022 amid a tough mortgage market. At the start of 2023, the company is investing in training the sales team on tactics to start growing the business again. Surprisingly, the landscape is helping. “There is certainly optimism in the air as mortgage applications have started […]
Today, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced $63 million in new five-year Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) grants to support 42 local educational agencies, non-profits, or other public or private organizations and institutions of higher education working to expand existing community schools or establish new programs in eight new states and territories, including Alabama, Alaska, […]
Pennymac, the country’s largest correspondent lender with about 14% market share, has its eyes fixed on absorbing origination volume that Wells Fargo is leaving behind in the correspondent channel. The California-based lender plans to increase its client base in the bank and credit union segment where Wells Fargo was most active, Abbie Tidmore, senior managing […]
The mortgage servicing rights (MSR) market has opened 2023 with a healthy volume of capital committed to purchasing the assets along with multiple sellers primed for deals — as evidenced by the $60 billion to $65 billion in MSR portfolio offerings currently out for bid, market experts say. That good news, however, is being overshadowed […]
Chantilly, Virginia-headquartered mortgage bank Prosperity Home Mortgage saw mortgage origination volume plummet by 40% last year — at a time when mortgage rates had more than doubled, home prices remained elevated and the market suffered from a shortage of inventory. Prosperity, a full-service mortgage banker operating in 49 jurisdictions in the U.S., plans to invest […]
San Diego, California-based startup Splitero, which is focused on home equity investments (HEI), has raised about $12 million in a Series A funding round to expand its operations. Fiat Ventures led the investment round of $11.7 million, the parties announced Tuesday. Gemini Ventures, Joint Effects, PBJ Capital, Permit Ventures, Dream Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Spark Growth Ventures, and Oyster Fund participated in the investment round. According to […]
The latest numbers have many in the industry starting the year on a hopeful note, with the possibility that we’ll see mortgage rates returning to the 5% range in 2023. “The 5% market’s a healthy market,” said Anna Ruotolo, branch manager and senior loan officer at Synergy One Lending. “A 5% market will be good. […]