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Mr. Cooper cuts more jobs as origination outlook dims

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Top-10 residential lender and servicer Mr. Cooper has cut another 420 jobs, the second major layoff it has made this year. In a disclosure made public Thursday afternoon, the company said the cuts amounted to 5% of its employee base. Most of the job losses will hit the originations side of the business. About 16% […]

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Funding Available to Support Native Language Revitalization

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By: Julian Guerrero, Director, Office of Indian Education Office of Elementary and Secondary Education Haa Maruaweka (“Hello everyone,” in Comanche language) Advancing its commitment to maintaining, protecting, and revitalizing Native American languages – the U.S. Department of Education has announced approximately $1 million in grant funding available for Native American Language (NAL@ED) projects. Native American […]

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Residential construction jobs now 7.6% above pre-COVID level

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After a month of very little change in April, the construction sector had a solid month of job growth in May, according to the U.S. Jobs Report released on Friday. Construction gained 36,000 jobs in May, with residential building adding 5,000 jobs and residential specialty trade contractors gain 11,700 jobs. Employment in the construction sector […]

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Harini Logan Wins US Spelling Bee In 1st-Ever Tiebreaker

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Harini Logan was eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee once, then reinstated. She missed four words in a grueling standoff against Vikram Raju, including one that would have given her the title. In the first-ever lightning-round tiebreaker, Harini finally claimed the trophy. The 13-year-old eighth grade student from San Antonio, Texas, who competed in […]

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The looming non-QM commoditization question

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An LO with a client at the closing table ” data-medium-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?w=1024″ width=”1200″ height=”720″ src=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?w=1024″ alt=”HW-LO-mortgage” class=”wp-image-321719″ srcset=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png 1200w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?resize=150,90 150w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?resize=300,180 300w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?resize=768,461 768w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?resize=1024,614 1024w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/HW-LO-mortgage.png?resize=600,360 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”>An LO with a client at the closing table The question was on the minds of many at the Waldorf Astoria in Dana […]

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HUD dings Movement Mortgage for alleged fair housing violations

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Movement Mortgage will pay $75,000 to resolve allegations of racial discrimination, in violation of the Fair Housing Act, identified by undercover testers from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. The agreement resolves a complaint the NCRC filed in October 2021 with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. NCRC alleged the Fort Mill, South Carolina-based retail […]

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Tensions rise between CrossCountry and Guild

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CrossCountry Mortgage is suing Guild Mortgage for poaching a former Las Vegas branch manager and allegedly convincing her to steal proprietary information, the latest escalation in a brewing legal battle between the retail mortgage lenders. CrossCountry alleges that San Diego-based Guild Mortgage offered Mirajoy Casimiro, former branch manager and loan originator at CrossCountry, a lucrative […]

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Big non-agency players prepare for a blockchain future

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Even though J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon is famously no fan of crypto, the bank dove into the enigmatic world of blockchain-based finance in 2020 with the launch of Onyx, a business unit devoted to exploring and expanding the use of blockchain technologies.  Soon after Onyx was formed, the bank launched Onyx Digital Assets, a blockchain-based […]

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A Somali Search for Stardom

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In Mogadishu, a group of young filmmakers are hoping to take their vision to the world. VOA’s Abdulkadir Zubeyr reports. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: VOANews.Com

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Mortgage rates steady at 5% as housing supply increases

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Purchase mortgage rates this week averaged 5.09%, essentially flat from the prior week, according to the latest Freddie Mac PMMS. A year ago at this time, 30-year fixed rate purchase rates were at 2.99%. The government-sponsored enterprise index accounts solely for purchase mortgages reported by lenders during the past three days. “Mortgage rates continued to inch downward this […]

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Queen Elizabeth II to Salute Jubilee From Palace Balcony

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Queen Elizabeth II will make two appearances on the Buckingham Palace balcony on Thursday, kicking off four days of public events to mark her historic Platinum Jubilee. The extent of the 96-year-old monarch’s involvement in the celebrations for her record-breaking 70 years on the throne has been a source of speculation for months. She has […]

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Education Department Approves $5.8 Billion Group Discharge to Cancel all Remaining Loans for 560,000 Borrowers who Attended Corinthian

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Today, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced it will discharge all remaining federal student loans borrowed to attend any campus owned or operated by Corinthian Colleges Inc. (Corinthian) from its founding in 1995 through its closure in April 2015. This will result in 560,000 borrowers receiving $5.8 billion in full loan discharges. This includes […]

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UWM will pay $2.75M to settle unpaid overtime claims

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United Wholesale Mortgage will pay $2.75 million to settle claims, dating as far back as 2018, contending it didn’t compensate its account executives for working overtime. Former and current UWM account executives eligible for a portion of the settlement must have worked at the wholesale lender between Oct. 12, 2018, and Dec. 23, 2021. An […]

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Opinion: Why HELOC demand will surge

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Between February 2020 and January 2022, we witnessed something in the mortgage industry that we thought we’d never see — 30-year fixed-rate mortgages under 3.5%. These rates drew a record number of people refinancing their homes, with cash-out refinances reaching $1.2 trillion in 2021. Then, in what felt like an instant, in Q1 2022 mortgage […]

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Homepoint and UWM decry GSE fees on wholesale loans

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Two top wholesale lenders are up in arms as a result of charges on loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) arising from a recession-era idea that those loans are riskier. The lenders, Homepoint and United Wholesale Mortgage, say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started tacking on an extra charge for third-party originated, or wholesale, […]

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Paul Garrigues named CFO of Waterstone Mortgage

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Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based lender Waterstone Mortgage Corporation named Paul Garrigues as the company’s new chief financial officer. Garrigues will oversee all corporate accounting functions and provide financial direction for Waterstone Mortgage’s branches nationwide. The executive brings more than 40 years of accounting experience in the financial services, banking and mortgage industries. Before landing at Waterstone Mortgage, […]

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MBA: Mortgage apps decline 2.3% to four-year low

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Mortgage apps dropped 2.3% for the week ending May 27, decreasing to the lowest level since December 2018, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index.  “Mortgage rates fell for the fourth time in five weeks, as concerns of weaker economic growth and the recent stock market sell-off drove Treasury yields lower,” […]

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K-pop Supergroup BTS Shines Light on Anti-Asian Discrimination

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President Joe Biden hosted K-pop supergroup BTS Tuesday to raise awareness of anti-Asian discrimination. The septet is South Korea’s most prominent crossover act, bagging two Grammy nominations and an armful of American music awards and garnering widespread appeal among American teens. They’re also U.N. ambassadors. VOA White House Correspondent Anita Powell reports from the White […]

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Mortgage lenders expand footprint despite challenging conditions

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Mortgage lenders and real estate investment firms this month entered tight housing markets in the Midwest and the Northwest to better reach prospective homebuyers, despite a challenging mortgage market. While many lenders laid off some of their staff to cut costs, others continue opening offices to capitalize on demand from homebuyers. Among them are Geneva […]

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36 Years Later, ‘Top Gun’ Again Tops N America Box Office

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Much-anticipated action film “Top Gun: Maverick” was expected to have a big opening and it did not disappoint, taking in an estimated $151 million in North America for the four-day Memorial Day weekend, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported.  Viewers had to wait 36 years to see the sequel to the original “Top Gun,” but critics […]

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Eurovision Winners Auction Trophy for Army

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Ukraine’s Kalush Orchestra, which won the Eurovision this year, has auctioned its trophy for a $900,000 donation to a foundation that helps the Ukrainian army. The trophy — a large crystal microphone with the song contest’s logo — was put up for auction on Facebook. The bidding ended Saturday night and was won by WhiteBIT, […]

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‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Wins Tom Cruise 1st $100 Million Opening

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Forget breaking the sound barrier: Tom Cruise just soared past a major career milestone. The 59-year-old superstar just got his first $100 million opening weekend with “Top Gun: Maverick.” In its first three days in North American theaters, the long-in-the-works sequel earned an estimated $124 million in ticket sales, Paramount Pictures said Sunday. Including international […]

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‘Triangle of Sadness’ Wins Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Fest

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Swedish director Ruben Ostlund’s class warfare comedy “Triangle of Sadness” won the Palme d’Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, giving Ostlund one of cinema’s most prestigious prizes for the second time.  Ostlund, whose art-world send-up “The Square” took the Palme in 2017, pulled off the rare feat of winning Cannes’ top award […]

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Insecurity Puts Mali’s Historic Djenné Mosque at Risk

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Experts say Mali’s struggle against Islamist militants is putting its World Heritage sites at risk. For the first time in modern history, officials say, the annual replastering of the mud mosque in the town of Djenné in central Mali will likely be canceled because of security concerns. The concerns cast doubt onto the government’s claim […]

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Opinion: A unified approach for reducing appraisal bias

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There is no single silver bullet that will rectify the pernicious impact of bias in residential real estate valuations — it is a complex problem that requires a multifaceted solution. But there is the promise of a better future on the horizon. The housing industry and Biden administration have begun a full throttled effort to […]

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Freddie Mac single-family division chief announces resignation

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Donna Corley, head of the single-family division at Freddie Mac, is stepping down from her post at the government-sponsored enterprise. Corley will stay on until Nov. 25 as executive vice president and special advisor, reporting to Michael Hutchins, president of Freddie Mac. Hutchins will take over active management responsibilities for the single-family division until the […]

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Racism In The Ranks: Dutch Police Film Spurs Conversation

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A documentary about discrimination within the ranks of Dutch police has sparked a national conversation in the Netherlands about racism, with many officers and others hoping it will finally bring about change. The Blue Family, or De Blauwe Familie in Dutch, discusses a culture of bullying and fear in the national police force. It premiered […]

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Louvre Ex-Director Charged in Art Trafficking Case

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A former director of the Louvre Museum in Paris has been charged with conspiring to hide the origin of archaeological treasures that investigators suspect were smuggled out of Egypt in the chaos of the Arab Spring, a French judicial source said Thursday. Jean-Luc Martinez was charged Wednesday after being taken in for questioning along with […]

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Indian Novel ‘Tomb of Sand’ Wins International Booker Prize

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Indian writer Geetanjali Shree and American translator Daisy Rockwell won the International Booker Prize on Thursday for Tomb of Sand, a vibrant novel with a boundary-crossing 80-year-old heroine. Originally written in Hindi, it’s the first book in any Indian language to win the high-profile award, which recognizes fiction from around the world that has been […]

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Financial institutions jump into ARMs amid high rates

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At least two financial institutions brought back adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) products this week amid surging mortgage rates and double-digit home price growth. Michigan-based wholesale lender Homepoint rolled out a jumbo ARM product offering a maximum loan amount as much as $2.5 million, with a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 80%. Homepoint’s jumbo ARMs have a seven- […]

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Freddie Mac automates pre-closing income verification

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Freddie Mac will now automatically verify borrower employment 10 days ahead of closing, which it says is more efficient than obtaining that information through oral or written verification. The option will be available starting June 1. To verify the borrower’s employment, Freddie Mac’s asset and income modeler will draw data from bank accounts for direct […]

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Florida-based LO accused of falsifying documents

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A Florida-based loan officer faces more than 30 years in federal prison if convicted on charges alleging she falsified divorce papers and child support payment information to help unqualified borrowers secure a loan, according to a Department of Justice indictment.   Evelisse Hernandez is charged with four counts of bank fraud and four counts of […]

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Actor Kevin Spacey Charged in UK with 4 Counts of Sexual Assault

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British prosecutors said Thursday they have charged actor Kevin Spacey with four counts of sexual assault against three men.  The Crown Prosecution Service said Spacey “has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.”  The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and […]

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Purchase mortgage rates average 5.10% continuing two-week slide

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Purchase mortgage rates this week averaged 5.10% continuing a decline from last week amid a housing market slowdown, according to the latest Freddie Mac PMMS.  A year ago at this time, 30-year fixed rate purchase rates were at  2.95%. The government-sponsored enterprise index accounts solely for purchase mortgages reported by lenders during the past three […]