If lenders’ losses come in as expected during fourth-quarter 2023 and first-quarter 2024, it will represent eight consecutive quarters of losses for more than 350 independent mortgage bankers, said Jim Cameron, senior partner at Stratmor. Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks have collectively been in the red for six consecutive quarters. […]
Washington, DC has turned the National Building Museum into a wonderland of children’s literature. Using children’s books, it’s an immersive journey into architecture, engineering and design. Maxim Adams has the story. Camera and edit: Andrey Degtyarev, Andrey Degtyarev, Anna Rice details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
MELBOURNE, Australia — Jannik Sinner has upset Novak Djokovic to reach the Australian Open men’s final, ending the 10-time champion’s career unbeaten streak in semifinals at Melbourne Park. The 22-year-old Italian broke Djokovic’s serve twice in each of the first two sets but missed a match point in the third set of a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 […]
LONDON — An American scientist has sparked a trans-Atlantic tempest in a teapot by offering Britain advice on its favorite hot beverage. Bryn Mawr College chemistry professor Michelle Francl says one of the keys to a perfect cup of tea is a pinch of salt. The tip is included in Francl’s book Steeped: The Chemistry of […]
Nonqualified mortgage (non-QM) wholesale lender A&D Mortgage has obtained licenses to originate loans in Arkansas and Mississippi, the company announced on Thursday. “This expansion is not only about growing our business; it’s about wholeheartedly bringing A&D Mortgage’s unwavering commitment to top-notch service, highly competitive rates, and tailored loan solutions to more Americans,” Max Slyusarchuk, CEO of […]
California-headquartered LoanSnap was hit with a temporary order to cease and desist from Connecticut’s Department of Banking for “systemic” unlicensed mortgage loan origination activity. Connecticut Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez alleged that LoanSnap violated the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). But the crux of the commissioner’s findings focuses on unlicensed […]
Mortgage rates stabilized in the past week but remain close to the narrow range observed since the start of this month. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.69% as of Jan. 25, an increase from last week’s figure of 6.60%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey released on Thursday. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed rate […]
Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Matt Van Fossen, CEO of Absolute Home Mortgage and Mortgage Automation Technologies, to talk about his unique view of the housing ecosystem and how it influences how he builds technology. Van Fossen not only heads a mortgage lender and a tech company, but is the president of […]
Safe storage of firearms is an important prevention tool that can be used to help keep schools, homes, and communities safe from gun violence. To build further awareness of this important strategy, today the Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) Technical Assistance (TA) Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Education (Department), is releasing […]
Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced this week the release of their “Mission Index,” updating or expanding their single-family social bond framework to better communicate the goals of the index to stakeholders and investors. The GSEs issued separate announcements and a joint statement. Freddie Mac updated its single-family social bond framework which […]
Fannie Mae has announced updates to its HomeReady product, including a temporary $2,500 credit for very low-income purchase borrowers to use for down payment and closing costs. Another step the government-sponsored enterprise took was to enhance the best efforts commitments on HomeReady loans. It allows lenders to lock in margins and reduce hedging costs. The enterprise […]
A cohort of former employees at now-defunct reverse mortgage lender Live Well Financial has been granted final settlement approval in a class action lawsuit brought against the company’s estate in May 2019. Monica Williams, a former loan account manager in Live Well’s Richmond, Va. headquarters, initially filed the suit days after Live Well had halted […]
San Diego-based reverse mortgage wholesale lender Smartfi Home Loans has forged a partnership with LoanPASS to use the technology company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) product and pricing engine in its reverse lending operations. Stating its desire to expand reverse mortgage wholesale lending through a series of inter-company partnerships, the new accord serves as an example of its […]
Delinquencies rose in December but the rise is mostly due to the calendar: December ended on a Sunday, so payments made on the last day of the month were credited to January. As a result, some loans appeared temporarily delinquent, ICE noted in its First Look Mortgage Performance report. The national delinquency rate rose to […]
Mortgage demand continued to increase last week, as seen in an uptick in purchase activity. Mortgage applications rose by 3.7% in the week ending Jan. 19 compared to one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, per the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey. “Conventional and FHA purchase applications drove most of the increase […]
Last month, DataDigest explored market experts’ expectations for 2024, with the consensus calling for a moderately better housing market than 2023. But a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee the following week set off a market frenzy over expectations of interest rate cuts, moving mortgage rates down well ahead of experts’ forecasts and prompting […]
San Francisco — Netflix added 13 million subscribers in the final three months of last year, the company said on Tuesday, despite price hikes at the leading streaming service. Netflix finished 2023 with slightly more than 260 million subscribers worldwide, with a profit of $938 million in the final quarter versus just $55 million in the […]
NEW YORK — Charles Osgood, a five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist who anchored “CBS Sunday Morning” for more than two decades, hosted the long-running radio program “The Osgood File” and was referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence, has died. He was 91. CBS reported that Osgood died Tuesday at his home in Saddle River, New Jersey, and […]
Financial services firm Consolidated Analytics acquired Real Info, Inc. — a provider of property data and valuation technology solutions. With the acquisition, Consolidated Analytics expands its valuation solutions, offering clients tools — from data and analytics to appraisals — to predict market value and access a more comprehensive selection of collateral assessment products, the company […]
Nairobi, Kenya — Being the preferred choice of footwear for many, flip-flops – typically made of plastic or rubber – break easily and often aren’t disposed of properly. Therefore, millions of them end up in oceans, waterways, dumpsites, and landfills all over the world. Ocean Sole, a Kenya-based company, has found creative and functional ways to […]
Fifty-five percent of surveyed baby boomers plan to remain in their existing homes as they age, but less than a quarter of those surveyed have any plans to renovate their homes to more safely and easily accommodate natural changes that come with aging. This is according to a new report from home improvement services company […]
Chicago, Illinois-based mortgage tech firm Gateless announced an integration of its Smart Underwrite solution product with The Work Number – a digital verification solution – from consumer credit reporting agency Equifax. Smart Underwrite allows lenders to digitally analyze and interpret all essential loan data and documentation the moment they are received. For instance, when a […]
NEW YORK — After a tumultuous movie year marred by strikes and work stoppages, the Academy Awards showered nominations Tuesday on Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster biopic, “Oppenheimer,” which came away with a leading 13 nominations. Nolan’s three-hour opus, viewed as the best picture frontrunner, received nods for best picture; Nolan’s direction; acting nominations for Cillian Murphy, Robert […]
Constellation Software’s Dark Matter Technologies rolled out an automated workflow in the Empower loan origination system (LOS) that makes it easier for lenders to identify and qualify loan applicants who could benefit from evaluation of their positive rent payment history. Developed in partnership with Informative Research – a technology services and consulting company – utilizing […]
Being the preferred choice of footwear for many, flip-flops — typically made of plastic or rubber — break easily and don’t get disposed of properly. Millions of them, therefore, end up in oceans, waterways, dumpsites and landfills all over the world. A Kenya-based company has found creative and functional ways to reuse them. VOA Nairobi […]
NEW YORK — Norman Jewison, the acclaimed and versatile Canadian-born director whose Hollywood films ranged from Doris Day comedies and “Moonstruck” to social dramas such as the Oscar-winning “In the Heat of the Night,” has died at age 97. Jewison, a three-time Oscar nominee who in 1999 received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, died “peacefully” […]
After a year of challenge in the reverse mortgage industry, the major lenders in the industry look a bit different for calendar year 2023 when compared with recent years past. Reduced volume, a challenging mortgage rate environment and industry consolidation has contributed to some of the broader changes. Here are the top 10 Federal Housing […]
He led Cenlar FSB’s digital transformation utilizing automation through chatbots as well as migrating its technology to the cloud. “The business of servicing has long since outgrown available technology which increases borrower dissatisfaction, exposure to risk, inefficiencies, and operating costs,” said Lewis Ranieri, founder and chairman of Ranieri Solutions. “Rob’s unique background in mortgage includes […]
Seniors largely want to remain in their own homes as they get older, and that preference could be remaking the housing market in the city of Chicago, according to a new report. Construction Coverage, a company that reviews construction software, insurance, and financial products in order to assist property builders, recently released a new report […]
Customer intelligence and mortgage tech firm Polly named Troy Coggiola as its chief operating officer amid the company’s effort to scale. Coggiola will be responsible for Polly’s product, implementation, support and design teams, working toward seamless cross-organization collaboration. He has more than 25 years of mortgage technology and enterprise software experience with his latest stint […]
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) today released the 2024 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP): A Call to Action for Closing the Digital Access, Design and Use Divides. First released in fulfillment of the 2000 Educate America Act, NETP has been updated multiple times since its original release, most recently in 2016. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com […]
New York — On a quiet weekend in movie theaters, “Mean Girls” repeated atop the box office with $11.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, while a handful of awards contenders sought to make an impact ahead of Oscar nominations Tuesday. With a dearth of new releases in cinemas, Paramount Pictures’ Tina Fey-scripted […]
details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
Housing inventory, new listing data and mortgage rates are all rising, but the price cut data percentages are falling. Traditionally at this time of year purchase apps rise and the number of price cuts fall. However, at the current trend, we will break below the lows in the price cut percentage data that we saw […]
SEOUL, South Korea — Video footage released by an organization that works with North Korean defectors shows North Korean authorities publicly sentencing two teenagers to 12 years’ hard labor for watching K-pop. The footage, which shows the two 16-year-olds in Pyongyang convicted of watching South Korean movies and music videos, was released by the South and […]
NEW YORK — New York prosecutors on Friday returned two pieces of art they say were stolen by Nazis from a Jewish performer and collector murdered in the Holocaust. The artworks were surrendered by museums in Pittsburgh and Ohio, but prosecutors are still fighting in court to recover third artwork by the same artist, Austrian expressionist […]
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO — A grand jury indicted Alec Baldwin on Friday on an involuntary manslaughter charge in a 2021 fatal shooting during a rehearsal on a movie set in New Mexico, reviving a dormant case against the actor. Special prosecutors brought the case before a grand jury in the city of Santa Fe in […]
Country Club Mortgage, a home lender based in California, has decided to lay off over 100 employees due to “facility closures,” documents sent to state regulators show. “This letter serves to give you an amended 60-day notice of permanent layoffs and facility closures effective Feb. 6, 2024,” Sherry Carson, human resources generalist at Country Club Mortgage, wrote in […]
Tennessee-based community bank Patriot Bank agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that it engaged in redlining discriminatory practices. The DOJ alleged that from 2015 through at least 2020, Patriot avoided providing mortgage services to majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee and discouraged people seeking credit in […]
No set path exists for any professional to enter the reverse mortgage industry. People often find themselves in the business from various other professions. It’s the case for Finance of America Companies (FOA) Chief Marketing Officer Chris Moschner. Arriving at FOA following its acquisition of American Advisors Group (AAG) last year, Moschner already had a […]
Courtesy: Fannie Mae Fannie Mae’s economic and strategic research (ESR) group expects home sales and mortgage origination activity to begin a gradual recovery in the presence of a slow-growing economy. “Inflation’s decline and the resultant Fed pivot to signaling future rate cuts rates lead us to believe that home sales and mortgage originations likely bottomed […]
The rash of recent mortgage and title industry data breaches serves as a sobering reminder of the paramount importance of cybersecurity. In this first installment of our reducing cyber risk series, let’s explore a crucial facet of cybersecurity: bolstering resilience in your critical systems and services. Just like a well-built castle can withstand attacks, having […]
Local community developers bidding on foreclosures in the second half of 2023 are signaling a slowdown in U.S. home price appreciation in the first half of 2024, with a rising risk that appreciation will dip back into negative territory. The risk of a double dip in home price appreciation varies substantially by market, even among […]
The Biden-Harris Administration announced today the approval of $4.9 billion in additional student loan debt relief for 73,600 borrowers. These discharges are the result of fixes made by the Administration to income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Today’s announcement brings the total loan forgiveness approved by the Biden-Harris Administration to $136.6 […]
Paris — The oldest person ever to win an Oscar, renowned director James Ivory, is still making films at 95, with a documentary about his formative trip to Afghanistan in 1960. Though American, Ivory is best-known for a string of costume dramas about the repressed emotions of Brits, including Remains of the Day and Howard’s End, […]