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Mortgage rates declined last week as headlines on the bank crisis slowed, which could have spurred borrowers’ demand for home loans. But that did not happen, as the affordability issues that remain on the horizon challenged mainly first-time homebuyers.   Overall, mortgage applications declined 4.1% last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, down from one week […]

The investment community is still trying to unpack what Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has in mind with the potential acquisition of Black Knight. Mortgage analysts expect to see consolidation if the deal were to go through, but also forecast that strong players in the servicing and loan origination system side will emerge. This, in turn, would […]

Add Moon Mortgage to the list of fintechs offering crypto-backed mortgages. Six months after raising $3.5 million in a seed round, the Miami-based cryptocurrency lending platform announced on Tuesday that it launched a product that allows investors in Bitcoin, Ethereum and USDC to use their assets to secure funding for real estate purchases.  “The use […]

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) present incredible opportunities to expand homeownership and housing in the U.S. But for potential homebuyers to benefit from new technology, the industry must figure out a way to keep bias out of decision-making models, experts said Monday. “The biggest opportunity in my mind in the near to medium […]

When prospective clients operate in highly regulated financial markets, enterprise sales don’t come easy. Blend co-founder and CEO Nima Ghamsari knows this perhaps better than anyone.  It wasn’t until 2014 – two years after his cloud banking platform launched – that Movement Mortgage took the leap and digitized its mortgage origination and underwriting process with Blend’s […]

The mortgage industry still faces the same cyber security threats as it did over the last 10 years. In turn, efforts to strengthen infrastructure and security are becoming even more important, experts emphasized on Monday at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Technology Solutions Conference Expo in San Jose, California.  Phishing — a form of social […]

The tumult in the banking industry set off by the failure of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) on March 10, followed two days later by the collapse of Signature Bank, has sparked fear in the markets over a potential broader contagion infecting the entire financial industry — and ultimately the U.S. economy. For independent mortgage banks [IMBs], the uncertainty […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]