The 72 artifacts that the Horniman museum agreed to return include 12 of the famous Benin Bronzes – symbolic of the ancient Benin Kingdom in southern Nigeria. The museum said in a statement Sunday it was moral and appropriate to return the artifacts, stating the objects were taken by force during the British military invasion […]
Lending standards tightened in July with the mortgage credit availability index (MCAI) dropping 9%, the largest monthly drop since April 2020, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The MCAI fell to 108.8 in July as lenders streamlined their loan offerings in a shrinking mortgage origination environment, said Joel Kan, associate vice president of economic […]
Serena Williams says she is ready to step away from tennis after winning 23 Grand Slam titles, turning her focus to having another child and her business interests. “I’m turning 41 this month, and something’s got to give,” Williams wrote in an essay released Tuesday by Vogue magazine. Williams said she does not like the […]
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the nation’s largest wholesale lender, posted a drop in origination volume and profits in the second quarter compared to the first three months of 2022, even after maintaining its gain-on-sale margins and increasing the fair value of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs). But the Pontiac, Michigan-based lender improved its performance compared to the […]
The latest non-QM player to feel the pain of the interest rate volatility afflicting the nation’s housing market this year is a Pasadena, California-based real estate investment trust called Western Asset Mortgage Capital Corp. The REIT, which is managed by investment advisor Western Asset Management Co. LLC, recently announced that it is exploring a potential company sale […]
Ginnie Mae, which guarantees loans to veterans and Federal Housing Administration borrowers, is changing its attitude toward credit unions. In a change to its capital requirements, which set minimum standards for its issuers, Ginnie Mae will treat credit unions more like banks. Representatives for credit unions have sought the change since July 2021, when Ginnie […]
Singer Olivia Newton-John, who gained worldwide fame as the high school sweetheart Sandy in the hit movie “Grease,” died Monday after a 30-year battle with cancer. She was 73. Newton-John “passed away peacefully at her ranch in Southern California this morning, surrounded by family and friends,” said a statement from her husband John Easterling posted […]
Please introduce us to the brave 17% of consumers who think now is a good time to buy a home. Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index fell two points in July to 62.8, its lowest reading since 2011. Year over year the index is down 13 points. Overall, just 17% of respondents said it was […]
Mortgage rates trended down in July from their peak above 6% in June, but that wasn’t enough to spur mortgage lending activity. Rate lock volume in July fell 14.4% from June, marking four straight months of decline, according to Black Knight‘s originations market monitor report. The decline was led by 16.9% drop in rate/term refinance […]
A London museum agreed Sunday to return a collection of Benin Bronzes looted in the late 19th century from what is now Nigeria as cultural institutions throughout Britain come under pressure to repatriate artifacts acquired during the colonial era. The Horniman Museum and Gardens in southeast London said that it would transfer a collection of […]
Stakeholders on all sides of the issues sounded off on the proposed changes to the federal redlining statute in comments to the banking agencies marshaling the changes. Some of the nearly 360 comments came in late on Thursday, a day before the deadline imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal […]
Guild Mortgage’s second-quarter earnings suggest that a high share of purchase loans won’t necessarily be enough to protect lenders from the most challenging and volatile mortgage market in years. They’ll have to cut costs and grab opportunities as they emerge. The nonbank lender reported a $58.3 million net income from April to June, a 72% decrease […]
In recent months, interest rates have risen to their highest level in years as the Federal Reserve has embarked on an aggressive tightening campaign in an effort to fight inflation. Despite rising rates, demand for home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) continues to surge with 2022 origination levels up more than 40% from a year […]
Today, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona issued the following statement on the confirmation of Nasser Paydar as assistant secretary for postsecondary education: details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: Website of U.S. Department of Education
During this period of rising rates and general rate volatility, having the cash and credit lines on hand to ride out the rough patches in the market — known as liquidity — can be what separates the winners from the losers in the mortgage industry. Rocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgage, despite a less-than-impressive second-quarter […]
Finance of America posted steep losses in the second quarter and has pledged to eliminate a significant percentage of its workforce to contain the financial fallout. As with other lenders seeing huge declines in mortgage origination volume, Finance of America’s traditional mortgage business took a hit due to tumbling refinance volumes and an increase in […]
Nigerian artist Isaac Ekele is part of an exhibition of portraiture in the Western U.S. state of Colorado. VOA’s Scott Stearns reports on his hyper-realistic drawings. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com
The current administration has been in office for over a year and a half, and with that tenure, a lot of the new housing officials have had time to create and announce their core initiatives. To help bring you the latest regulatory and government updates that you need to be aware of, we’re excited to […]
Rocket Companies, the parent of America’s top mortgage lender Rocket Mortgage, reported a $60 million profit in the second quarter, down from $1 billion in profits just the previous quarter. The stunning decline in profitability suggests Rocket has much work to do as higher mortgage rates wipe out refinancing opportunities and even depress purchase sales. […]
Fannie Mae will now buy mortgage loans with lender-funded grants, including down payment assistance, closing costs or financial reserves. The change could give nonbank lenders a way to guard against redlining accusations. The government-sponsored enterprise will start accepting such loans immediately. According to Fannie Mae’s guidance, “The lender must have a documented program that provides […]
Florida-based mortgage servicing company Ocwen Financial — the parent company of entities including PHH Mortgage Corp. and Liberty Reverse Mortgage — recorded a pre-tax loss of $26 million in Q2 2022 compared to income of $6 million one year prior. The company attributes those losses to higher mortgage interest rates and spreads as well as […]
Two years after acquiring RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing, Freedom Mortgage Corp. has inked a deal to sell the nonbank mortgage servicer to Matrix Financial Services Corp., another leading mortgage servicer and a wholly owned subsidiary of real estate investment trust Two Harbors Investment Corp. The acquisition is an all-stock deal, with Matrix agreeing to pay a preliminary price equal to the […]
Purchase mortgage rates dropped for the third consecutive week and are now below the 5% level, reflecting a Federal Reserve monetary policy that has led to a “technical recession” in the U.S. economy. According to the latest purchase mortgage survey from Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined this week to average 4.99%, down from last week’s 5.30%. […]
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona released the statement below following the release of the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) June 2022 data that highlights an improvement in student performance and three-quarters of public schools offering summer learning and enrichment programs to help students catch up. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from […]
Tech-focused real estate brokerage Radius, flush with $14 million in venture capital raised this past April, has launched a mortgage lending arm in California that it plans to roll out to additional markets sometime next year. The new venture, a mortgage brokerage operation, is focused on the California market to start, where Radius already has a strong […]
New American Funding has laid off hundreds of employees across multiple rounds of workforce reductions this year, multiple former employees told HousingWire. The most recent layoff came on Tuesday when the California-based lender eliminated several hundred positions, including loan officers, mortgage underwriters, processors and training specialists, multiple former employees said. The firm had 4,800 employees […]
Distressed mortgages dating back to the height of the pandemic are expected to fuel a jump in foreclosure activity over the next 12 months, although the foreclosure rate is still expected to remain below the pre-pandemic historical average, a new report from Auction.com contends. The prediction by one of the nation’s leading marketplaces for distressed assets, is […]
To say that mortgage rates have been on a wild Mr. Toad’s ride in 2022 is an understatement. In less than a year, we went from 2.78% on the 30-year fixed to as high as 6.28%, then recently got as low as 5% — only to have another move higher this week to 5.30%. People […]
Is there a new way to address the truth about staffing in the mortgage industry? When will we learn to be more transparent to our employees — people with families and bills — and stop the endless flow of layoffs? While taking with Clayton Collins, CEO of HWMedia, he used the term “elasticity” when describing […]
Home equity climbed to a historic high of $11.5 trillion in the second quarter, but it could be nearing its peak as major equity-rich markets on the West Coast begin to show signs of decline. Tappable equity, the amount available for homeowners to access while retaining at least 20% equity in their homes, rose again […]
On the strength of its servicing segment, California-based Pennymac Financial Services delivered a $129.2 million profit in the second quarter, which was down 25.6% quarter-over-quarter and 36.7% year-over-year, the company reported Tuesday. The nonbank lender’s top executives said the company reported a strong performance given the downturn in mortgage originations. “We improved margins across all three channels,” […]
Demand for mortgage loans increased last week as a troubling economic outlook led to a decline in rates, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The market composite index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 1.15% for the week ending July 29, after falling for four consecutive weeks to the lowest level in […]
The Department of Veterans’ Affairs announced last week that it would allow desktop and exterior-only appraisals for some transactions. The changes took effect July 27. In a department memo, the VA explained that the move was a response to “high demand for appraisal services and limited availability of appraisers in certain local market areas.” But the […]
Rocket Loans will be offering loans to customers who are installing solar panels, the lender announced Tuesday. The news comes exactly one year after its parent Rocket Companies announced it would enter the green energy game in 2022. Rocket Loans will provide financing to Rocket Solar customers who choose to have a solar electricity system […]
Foreclosures cost a lot of money. A conservative estimate of the financial toll on the borrower, the creditor, the guarantor and the surrounding community shows a foreclosure can cost upwards of $65,000. Letting borrowers skip monthly payments for a period, through a permanent forbearance option, could help avoid that financial loss. Researchers at the Urban […]
Rithm Capital, formerly known as New Residential Investment, lost $3.3 million in the second quarter of 2022, largely due to fees caused by its break from Fortress Investment Group and a decline in residential mortgage originations. In an earnings presentation Tuesday, executives at Rithm said the company paid approximately $325 million to break from an […]
Rocket Mortgage, the nation’s largest lender, is expanding its product portfolio to home equity loans amid a significant slowdown in mortgage origination volume. After getting an appraisal on the home, homeowners can access between $45,000 and $350,000 of their home’s equity in a 10- or 20-year, fixed-rate loan, while maintaining at least 10% equity in […]
June saw both record-low home price appreciation and the largest single-month increase of for-sale inventory in 12 years, resulting in a cool down in the housing market. And the housing market would likely slow further in the coming months if mortgage rates remain persistently high. The annual home price growth fell by nearly two percentage […]
Brena Nath, Director of HW+ and Events Over a year ago, Sarah Wheeler, who serves as our HW Media editor-in-chief, and I got to work on a passion podcast together: GirlFunds. These interviews with top female leaders were special since we were able to go to a deeper level with them as they opened up […]
The Spanish government maybe had a good idea, but the execution of the body positivity campaign has gone horribly wrong. The idea was to encourage women to come out and enjoy the beaches – without any worries about how they looked in their swimsuits. But three of the five women whose photographs were used in […]
Pat Carroll, a comedic television mainstay for decades, an Emmy-winner for “Caesar’s Hour” and the voice Ursula in “The Little Mermaid,” has died. She was 95. Her daughter Kerry Karsian, a casting agent, said Carroll died at her home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on Saturday. Her other daughter Tara Karsian wrote on Instagram that they […]
Nichelle Nichols, who broke barriers for Black women in Hollywood when she played communications officer Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek television series, has died at the age of 89. Her son Kyle Johnson said Nichols died Saturday in Silver City, New Mexico. “Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and […]
Izzy Short, 13, struggles to pick her favorite England player as she anticipates the team’s appearance in Sunday’s final of the European soccer championships. There’s forward Ellen White. Defender Lucy Bronze. Midfielder Georgia Stanway. Captain Leah Williamson. The whole team basically. “I just look up to them really,” the high school player from Manchester said, […]
Fannie Mae has unveiled its eighth Connecticut Avenue Series (CAS) credit-risk transfer deal of 2022, a $626.3 million note offering backed by a reference pool of single-family mortgages valued at $20.4 billion. The offering is slated to close Aug. 5, according to a presale review by the Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA). This latest CAS transaction, CAS 2022-R08, […]
Imagine getting a $1 billion, interest-only loan and later lying to your creditor. That’s what a congressional subcommittee said happened between Fannie Mae and Invitation Homes, the single-family rental landlord that in 2017 got a $1 billion interest-only 10-year loan from the government-sponsored enterprise. The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis found that from March […]