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. […]
The latest viral video capturing the hearts of millions of users on social media is of a 10-year-old Jamaican boy singing about beauty and gratitude. The song, “Beautiful Day,” along with its myriad remixes, has been shared globally across Tik Tok, Instagram and YouTube. While the video has only recently gone viral, the story of […]
Each January, we have an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to advancing equality, as we honor the life and legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Education is one of the greatest levers to advance equality and empowerment. That’s because with great educators, high expectations, and an excellent, equitable education, all students, of all […]
Today we have some good news for the housing market! The weekly inventory data, which had fallen faster than I had anticipated the last few weeks, has now seen a slight uptick. With mortgage rates also falling, I am hopeful that more people will list their homes and buy another, so we can get back […]
Italian film star Gina Lollobrigida, who achieved international film stardom during the 1950s and was dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” after the title of one her movies, died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. She was 95. The agent, Paola Comin, didn’t provide details. But Lollobrigida had surgery in September to […]
R’Bonney Gabriel, a fashion designer, model and sewing instructor from Texas who competition officials said is the first Filipino American to win Miss USA, was crowned Miss Universe on Saturday night. Gabriel closed her eyes and clasped hands with runner-up Miss Venezuela, Amanda Dudamel, at the moment of the dramatic reveal of the winner, then […]
After COVID-19 restrictions had wiped out Vienna’s glamorous winter ball season for two years in a row, 50-year-old Wahyuni couldn’t wait any longer to get dolled up and put on her dazzling floral-patterned ballgown to once again waltz the night away. “We love to come here, because the very nice decorations are made out of […]
“Dominate The One’s” was born out my appreciation for a tactic that was taught to me some 32 years ago and my frustration with how we in sales try to overcomplicate the simplest tasks in business. The year was 1990. And in my sixth-grade English class, I learned one of the most important business lessons […]
Like its nonbank competitors, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America operated in a highly challenging mortgage market in 2022. But quarterly earnings released on Friday also revealed that the top depository lenders struggled more than the overall mortgage market in the final three months of the year, perhaps an omen of what’s to […]
Iranian chess referee Shohreh Bayat says a gesture of solidarity with female compatriots at a tournament in Iceland has caused a feud with the game’s global body and seen her kicked off a commission. Bayat wore a “Women, Life, Freedom” T-shirt at a prestigious tournament in October, soon after protests began in Iran over the […]
Going from a volatile rate environment in the latter half of 2022 to a market with lower, more stabilized rates, there’s optimism spreading across the industry that buyers will come back. Just two weeks into 2023, Guaranteed Rate‘s top LO and managing director Ben Cohen has also seen an increase in inbound calls from buyers […]
Wisconsin-based mortgage lender Waterstone Mortgage Corp. promoted Rico Garcia to vice president of enterprise risk from director of quality control, portfolio risk management and vendor management. In his new role, Garcia will supervise the quality control, title services, portfolio risk management and compliance teams at the company. In addition, he will work with other teams […]
The nation’s single-family investment-property sector and the lenders serving those borrowers face some major challenges in 2023 as rent growth is slipping, vacancy rates growing, home-value growth faltering, and a possible recession looms. For the non-QM lenders serving the single-family investment-property space who have managed interest-rates well to stay ahead of the market, however, there’s […]
After three years of isolation and financial struggles in Chinese soccer, the country is reopening its borders and economy to the outside world. With it, frustrated fans, financially challenged clubs and unpaid players in the Chinese Super League might receive some long-awaited good news. The 2022 season was unrecognizable from the 2019 edition, the last […]
Los Angeles-headquartered City National Bank agreed to pay $31 million in relief to impacted individuals and communities to settle a redlining case with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the parties announced Thursday. City National was accused of the illegal practice of avoiding the provision of mortgage services to majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. In this […]
Today’s inflation data has shown that the peak growth rate of inflation is behind us. This should also mean mortgage rates hit their highs. The key phrase I have stressed since I wrote about the case for mortgage rates to go lower on Oct. 27 is thinking 12 months out. The trend is your friend, […]
Mortgage industry watchers have started 2023 with optimism regarding the possibility of mortgage rates returning to the 5% range this year – but not without a dose of volatility on the way. “The mortgage market began 2023 on a positive note, with a decline in mortgage rates leading to an uptick in refinance applications. Purchase […]
Black Knight recently launched a web portal that enables clients, third-party providers and their developers to access the company’s application programming interfaces (APIs) across the mortgage life cycle. Dubbed the Developer Portal, clients can use Black Knight’s APIs to rapidly embed additional functionality within their applications, the company said in an announcement about the rollout. […]
A statue in Benin of one of the female warriors of Dahomey, which appeared in the Hollywood film ‘The Woman King,’ was likely built by a sanctioned North Korean company, according to evidence discovered by VOA’s Korean Service. In an exclusive interview with VOA, the Beninois government denies the statue was constructed by North Korea. […]
Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78. Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location […]
Chantilly, Virginia-headquartered mortgage bank Prosperity Home Mortgage, a subsidiary of HomeServices of America, promoted Justin Messer to president and CEO on January 1, 2023. Messer succeeds Tim Wilson, who has been in the position since 2014. Messer, who was the Prosperity COO for more than three years, will be responsible for leading the lender to […]
Michigan-based United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is taking another step to aggressively reduce its prices in order to gain market share in a shrinking mortgage market. The company announced on Wednesday that it is giving up to 125 basis points to brokers to use on any loans they lock with the lender, with a maximum of 40 basis […]
Nashville, Tennessee-headquartered Defy Mortgage is the latest player to join the non-QM (non-qualified mortgage) lending space, which targets entrepreneurs and gig workers who have various forms of collateral, including cryptocurrency. The company takes a “holistic approach” to evaluating a homebuyer’s entire asset portfolio, including cryptocurrency and bitcoin, Defy Mortgage said Tuesday in an announcement about […]
Loan officers saw an increase in mortgage demand during the first week of 2023 as mortgage rates ticked down. And to close deals, sellers are increasingly coming to the table with concessions and rate buydowns. “I’ve had five people contact me in the last week or so to talk about buying a new home, which […]
U.S. filmmaker Steven Spielberg was among the honorees at the annual Golden Globes awards ceremony Tuesday night. The director of such classics as “Jaws,” “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan” won the best director trophy for his autobiographical film “The Fabelmans,” which was named best movie drama. It was the third Golden Globes award for […]
American Pacific Mortgage (APM) has scooped up roughly 150 employees from 20 AmeriFirst Financial Inc. branches since December 2022, APM confirmed. APM learned the Arizona-based lender’s branches were ceasing originations last month, which led to an opportunity to recruit branch managers, loan originators and processors to make up for the lost production this year, APM’s […]
Well, here we are at the beginning of another year. For those of us in housing finance, the calendar year change really does mean something. There is a mix of hope and uncertainty as we anticipate the potential increase of post-holiday volume and the proven run up to the spring and summer buying season. However, […]
Wells Fargo, the largest depository mortgage lender in America, announced Tuesday that it is officially exiting the correspondent channel as well as reducing its servicing portfolio, the country’s largest. The market already expected the move. Bloomberg reported in August that Wells Fargo would likely shrink or eliminate the correspondent channel, with bank executives expressing concern about […]
A new Redfin report found a record 41.9% of home sellers gave concessions to homebuyers in Q4 of 2022, through money for repairs and mortgage-rate buydowns. This represents the highest increase of any three-month period since July 2020 when Redfin started tracking this data. In Q3 of 2022 and Q4 of 2021, sellers gave concessions […]
Potential homebuyers’ purchase sentiment improved slightly in December, but that still remains well below pre-pandemic highs, according to new data from Fannie Mae. Ongoing affordability challenges are expected to limit buyers from entering the market in 2023, according to Fannie Mae, which will result in continued decline in home sales in coming months. But despite […]
Kansas City, Missouri-based North American Savings Bank (NASB) will shut down its consumer direct mortgage division and lay off employees, business partners and former employees told HousingWire. The changes will be effective on March 7. The mortgage lender announced the decision to employees on Friday, citing market conditions. Shortly after, employees, including closers, processors and […]
Today, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) proposed regulations to reduce the cost of federal student loan payments, especially for low and middle-income borrowers. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: Website of U.S. Department of Education
Rocket Pro TPO, a wholesale arm of Rocket Mortgage, will be providing credit reports at no cost for brokers when closing loans through the Detroit lender. The strategy is expected to court more brokers in an industry facing higher credit report fees. Rocket Pro TPO’s executive vice president Mike Fawaz said in an interview with […]
The housing market saw inventory fall 4% last week from the week before. That’s a big one-week change. Does that mean we are heading back to all-time lows in inventory again for 2023? Traditionally, we do see housing inventory fall in the month of December, however, we clearly saw in the second half of 2022 […]
One slice of the single-family home market that has gained traction over the past year in a topsy-turvy housing landscape is the build-for-rent sector — or BFR. Construction starts in the BFR market are being propelled by the ongoing demand for single-family rental units as high mortgage rates and limited for-sale inventory push home-purchase prospects […]
The Federal Reserve‘s signals indicating further rate hikes for 2023 appear to have scared buyers away from the market in December. Last month tallied the fewest purchase lock counts in a single month since early 2014 as interest rates and affordability pressures challenged the market. Mortgage origination activity dropped 19.4% from November to December, marking […]
The Blumhouse evil-doll horror film “M3gan” got off to a killer start, debuting with $30.2 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates, while “Avatar: The Way of Water” continued its box-office reign in the top spot. Universal Pictures’ “M3gan,” about a robot companion built for a young girl after her parents are killed in […]
Nature photographers from around the world expressed their sentiments about an ever-changing planet in a contest sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, a U.S.-based environmental nonprofit. VOA’s Julie Taboh has more on the winning images. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
Can we have a soft landing in the economy? Friday’s job report shows there is a clear pathway to get there. Mortgage rates fell aggressively down to 6.20%, putting us at more than 1% below the highs of 2022. The bond market saw that wage growth was cooling down, leaving the Federal Reserve with few […]