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360training.com, Inc. (360), an online regulated training provider, acquired Mortgage Educators and Compliance (MEC), a mortgage lending training company, both companies announced this week. Established in 1997, 360 specializes in comprehensive online training solutions for individuals and businesses across industries – including financial services, real estate, healthcare and environmental health and safety.  The acquisition represents […]

Home-equity lending overall found its wings in 2023 as a number of independent mortgage banks ramped up product lines over the course of the year — despite a bump in the road in the third quarter when mortgage rates surged past 7%. The popularity of home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) and closed-end second (CES) […]

Is 2023 a year to forget? That’s what we’re supposed to say after a tough year, right? In the case of the mortgage industry, 2023 was not a pretty one. According to the Thomvest U.S. Housing Report, purchase loans were down 22% and refinance loan volume was down 65%. Home affordability was at its lowest […]

The presiding judge in the ongoing bankruptcy case of Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF) has approved a stipulation that would resolve an administrative claim made against the company’s estate by reverse mortgage servicing company Celink, authorizing both companies to consummate the agreement. The new agreement The agreement, stemming from a proof of claim filed against RMF […]

ICE Mortgage Technology — part of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) – will be offering lenders access to investment advisory advice in its Encompass loan origination system (LOS) through a partnership with Halcyon, a tech firm specializing in advanced data integration. “In the current market where the refi boom has dried up and interest rates are sky […]

The mortgage market should improve in 2024 due to a combination of competitive pressures easing and mortgage demand picking up from historical lows last year, according to a note from Piper Sandler, a leading investment bank. But don’t expect profitability to be significant compared to long-term historical averages as home prices still remain high. Mortgage […]

Top-15 U.S. mortgage lender loanDepot confirmed Monday morning that it is the industry’s latest cyberattack victim. The incident has brought loanDepot’s systems down.  The California-based lender, which originated about $17 billion in mortgage loans from January to September 2023, said it launched an investigation with the support of cybersecurity experts and began notifying regulators after identifying an […]

Recently, new technologies have reduced costs associated with purchasing a home and provided more opportunities for first-time homebuyers to enter the market. To continue fostering innovation across the industry and better serve these homebuyers, regulators must take aim at one of the largest impediments to innovation: monopolies. The formation of a monopoly in the mortgage […]

Will the number of homes that take a price cut this year drop below 2023 levels? Yes! If the current trends continue into the strong seasonal pricing period, we will see fewer homes that are discounted before selling. I believe this was the most overlooked housing story of the last year because even as mortgage […]

Top-10 mortgage lender Guaranteed Rate has filed a lawsuit against retail rival New American Funding over poaching. But this isn’t your standard poaching lawsuit: G-Rate alleges that NAF has wooed at least 30 employees since early 2023 via illegal loan officer compensation practices.  Despite the rise in poaching lawsuits in a competitive market, it’s the […]

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) faces a potential loss of roughly $7 billion in receipts in 2024, and a failure by Congress to come to terms on certain spending agreements could force across-the-board cuts to non-defense spending of roughly 5-to-9%. This is according to a letter published this week by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), […]

California-based Pennymac Financial Services has hired Kristy Dickey, a former executive at Citizens Bank, as first vice president of TPO sales. Dickey will be responsible for growing the lender’s broker division and support its brokers and  non-delegated partners, the firm said. A total of five additional senior account executives joined Dickey. The new hires joined […]

Rocket Pro TPO – the wholesale arm of Rocket Mortgage – made updates to its existing products to court more brokers. Its ONE+ program – a conventional 1% down home loan program that launched in May – will include Freddie Mac‘s loan product advisor (LPA), which could translate to a 16% increase in client eligibility, […]

When assessing December’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) volume data for December 2023, Reverse Market Insight (RMI) used a choice word as the title for its commentary: “thud.” Amid an already challenging operating environment observed throughout 2023, both HECM endorsement volume and HECM-backed Securities (HMBS) issuance closed out the year on a low note, with […]

Detroit-based Rocket Companies, parent of Rocket Mortgage, has named Jonathan Mildenhall to its newly created chief marketing officer position, responsible for the marketing and communications teams for all the company’s brands. Mildenhall will create and unify a “compelling voice for all businesses under the Rocket Companies umbrella,” the company said in a statement. He will start on […]

In the first week of 2024, mortgage rates continued to stick around the mid 6% mark. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.62% as of Jan. 4, a slight increase from the 6.61% rate recorded on Dec. 28, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey released on Thursday. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.89% this […]

Mortgage tech firm Blend aims to court more lenders as it now supports Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter (DU) early assessment enhancement with a direct integration from Blend’s soft credit pull function. DU early assessment gives lenders more options for their pre-qualification process in DU.  Lenders can submit a single soft pull credit file and receive […]

William Erbey, the controversial founder of Ocwen Financial Corp., is back as chairman at Altisource Asset Management Corp. (AAMC). The company appointed Erbey to the role of CEO in late December and the board of directors also appointed him as its Chairman, a position he held from March 2012 to January 2015. This comes on […]

Nonbank mortgage lender and servicer Pennymac Financial Services issued pink slips to more than 80 employees in November as it faced tough headwinds in 2023.  A total of 84 staff were affected at five offices in Pasadena, Roseville, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Moorpark, California, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) alert […]

Deran Pennington, a former Movement Mortgage top sales executive sued for poaching by the lender, filed a counterclaim alleging that Movement breached the contract by failing and refusing to pay his due compensation. In total, he asks for about $13 million.  In July, HousingWire reported that Pennington and two other top sales executives – Matt Schoolfield and […]

Reverse mortgage servicing company Celink is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit alleging that it had added unlawful servicing fees to reverse mortgage loans alongside now-bankrupt lender Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF). In response to the recent recommendation by a magistrate judge against the dismissal of Dancy-Wilkins v. Compu-Link Corporation, the servicer said that the recommendation […]

Mortgage demand fell over the holidays despite declining mortgage rates. Mortgage applications decreased 9.4% for the week ending Dec. 29 compared to two weeks earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The 30-year fixed mortgage rate closed 2023 at 6.76%, more than one percentage point lower than its October peak of 7.9%, […]

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New York-based nonbank mortgage lender RealFi (formally known as Residential Home Funding Corp.) laid off employees in December and did not issue their last paychecks or provide a severance package, former workers told HousingWire.  The company’s executives held a conference call with employees on Dec. 15, notifying them about the job cuts because of a […]

2023 is in the rearview mirror — a year of tumult, reduced volume and a wave of industry exits and consolidations. While most have their eyes on the horizon, HousingWire’s dedicated reverse-centric publication, Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD), will look back one more time at a year of challenge. Here, RMD takes stock of three of […]

The “silver tsunami” — a colloquialism referring to aging Americans changing their housing arrangements to accommodate aging — could have more of an impact on the housing market this year, according to analyst Meredith Whitney in a conversation with Yahoo Finance. “[T]he other major demographic trend you see is the aging of America,” Whitney said. […]

When will the mortgage industry know it has reached the tipping point where innovation is no longer a competitive advantage but an existential need? Maybe when it consistently fails to attract viable, aspirational customers (in part because it is cycling through last year’s leads and legacy customers instead of innovating new pathways to reach underserved, […]