On Wednesdy Citi launched mortgage.com, a new platform that creates a brand-endorsed, consumer-focused channel to leverage Citi’s brand authority and encourage mortgage or refinance applications for the bank. The company has an aggressive marketing goal to reach the No. 1 spot in organic home-buying search within six months, which is why Citi used its partnership […]
DOHA, QATAR — It could only have been her. Marta won the inaugural FIFA award for the best goal in women’s soccer — named after the Brazil great. The 38-year-old was given the Marta Award at FIFA’s “The Best” awards on Tuesday for her goal for Brazil in an international friendly against Jamaica in June. Prior […]
The report on the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) book of business inside the Mutual Mortgage Insurance (MMI) Fund served as another positive development for the program. The estimated economic net worth of the HECM MMI stood at $17.4 million, up from $15.4 million last year, according to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)’s Annual Report […]
The reverse mortgage division of Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. has honored a longtime professional in its ranks with a lifetime achievement award, in recognition of his 40-year career in the mortgage banking, real estate, homebuilding and title insurance industries. Pete Stebbins, 90, initially joined Fairway in 2012 and currently works as director of business development […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Tuesday released an update about the sales of non-performing loans (NPLs) through the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), saying the data has shown a steady drop in mortgage delinquencies since the start of COVID-19 pandemic. “The [NPL] sales program reduces the number of deeply delinquent loans in the Enterprises’ portfolios […]
MBA estimates from the builder application survey show that sales of new single-family homes were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 713,000 units in November 2024. That estimate is down 4.6% from the October pace of 747,000 units. “The decline in applications from the previous month was roughly in-line with typical seasonal patterns […]
Andrew Bon Salle Bon Salle’s three decades of experience spans “capital markets, risk management securitization and mortgage policy leadership,” according to Mr. Cooper. Before joining Home Point, the Mr. Cooper Group on Monday announced the addition of Andrew Bon Salle to its board of directors. Bon Salle will officially join the board Jan. 1. Bon […]
There have been countless press releases and news articles about how AI is changing the mortgage industry. The industry fears AI will ultimately replace everyone, from operations to loan officers. As a loan officer, I am not losing any sleep, and here is why you should not, either. Recently, I was online researching a very […]
As the reverse mortgage industry prepares to say goodbye to the tumultuous year that is 2024, positive news for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) program — which backs most of the country’s reverse mortgages — helps give a sense of overall health for the program despite some of the business […]
Older homeowners have an overwhelming preference to age in place, but these circumstances can also come with unique challenges. Feelings of isolation and loneliness rank highly among these issues, but a recent study suggests that aging in place with a pet can make a big difference. The study, highlighted in Psychology Today, also noted that […]
President-elect Donald Trump announced a flurry of nominees to his new administration leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, but notably absent from these announcements were picks to lead various financial regulators, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). This is according to reporting from the Financial Times and from The Wall Street Journal. As incoming […]
In an evolving mortgage market, mergers and acquisitions could give mortgage company owners opportunities to achieve growth and avoid challenges. In a three-part podcast series, Dan Hanson, the executive director of enterprise partnerships and acquisitions at loanDepot, answers three key questions for owners: When is a good time to sell my company? How do you […]
Ben Carson, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the first Trump administration, wrote an editorial in the Washington Examiner that praises the pick of Scott Turner to succeed him in the role for the incoming Trump administration. Carson, who was rumored as a candidate to reassume the […]
The new year will hold special significance for the many users of ICE Mortgage Technology’s iconic Encompass loan origination system (LOS): The company will begin sunsetting its long-standing software development kit (SDK) in 2025, prodding the majority of the mortgage industry to transition to the more efficient and accurate Encompass Partner Connect (EPC) ecosystem that […]
Denver, Colorado — Dozens of kids cheered on a festively decked-out plane in Denver on Saturday when the pilot announced their destination for the day: the North Pole. More than 100 children, some of whom have serious health issues, were then taken on a roughly 45-minute flight near the city before landing back at Denver International […]
The Spider-Man spinoff “Kraven the Hunter” got off to a disastrous start in North American theaters this weekend. The movie starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson earned only $11 million, according to studio estimates Sunday, making it one of the worst openings for a Marvel-adjacent property. Its box office take was even less than the film “Madame Web.” […]
ATHENS, GREECE — Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, a smile spreads across the little girl’s face. Blinking behind her glasses, she inches her wheelchair forward and gently reaches out to stroke the tiny gray horse. Soon, 9-year-old Josifina Topa Mazuch is beaming as she leads Ivi, a specially trained miniature horse, standing no taller than her […]
In this week’s episode of the Power House podcast, HousingWire President Diego Sanchez sits down with Terry Schmidt, CEO of San Diego-based Guild Mortgage, to discuss the company’s recent acquisitions, reverse mortgages and the use of artificial intelligence for mortgage originators. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. To start the conversation, the duo […]
WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND — A New Zealand man playing his first-ever competitive Scrabble game in Spanish, a language he doesn’t speak, has won the board game’s Spanish-language world title. Nigel Richards, a professional player who holds five English-language world titles, won the Spanish world Scrabble championships in Granada, Spain, in November, losing one game out of […]
ZURICH — Saudi Arabia scored a major win in its campaign to attract major sports events to the kingdom when it was formally appointed as the 2034 World Cup host on Wednesday. Still, many questions remain about the tournament as well as the 2030 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco, with […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) this week published a proposal for Ginnie Mae to develop a new mortgage securitization product that could boost the availability of private capital liquidity sources into the market, particularly in periods of stress for the U.S. economy. Importantly, the association said that the recent development of Ginnie Mae’s new, complementary […]
While the mortgage industry debates the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the incoming Trump administration, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a study on Friday suggesting that a recapitalization of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) could benefit the U.S. Department of the Treasury in most scenarios. This follows a separate CBO study from […]
A reauthorized version of the Older Americans Act (OAA), originally passed by Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, has passed the Senate and is now making its way to the House of Representatives. This is according to announcements by Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chair Bernie Sanders […]
Planet Financial Group, the parent company of Planet Home Lending, completed the issuance of $475 million in senior unsecured notes this week, the latest mortgage company to raise debt in an oversubscribed transaction. The company’s initial target for the offering was $400 million. The notes, which carry a 10.5% interest rate, are due in December […]
The Republican steering committee in the U.S. House of Representatives has selected Rep. French Hill to chair the powerful House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the entirety of the U.S. financial services industry including the housing, insurance, securities and banking sectors. The committee routinely examines issues and proposed legislation relevant to these businesses, and it […]
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is reportedly considering sweeping structural changes to bank watchdogs, which have the potential to impact the mortgage market. Analysts anticipated a shift toward a more lenient regulatory environment for the financial sector under the new Trump administration, but recent discussions suggest even more drastic measures are on the table. The […]
The U.S. mid-Atlantic state of Maryland may seem like an odd place for hula dancing. Yet every weekend, dancers gather in downtown Silver Spring to practice the ancient form of storytelling, despite the thousands of miles between them and Hawaii, the tropical island state where hula was born. VOA’s Keith Lane has the story. details […]
While buyback volumes remain well below their 2022 peak, they are still elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. The added cost pours salt in the wound for credit unions, banks, and independent mortgage bankers, who are already recording average pre-tax losses of $534 per loan origination. This challenging environment, marked by high operating costs and low […]
BEIJING — The former coach of the Chinese men’s national football team has received a 20-year-prison sentence for bribery, Chinese state media reported Friday. Liu Tie, who once played in the English Premier League as a midfielder for Everton, was found guilty of “leveraging his positions” as head coach of the national football and national selection […]
SAN FRANCISCO — A photojournalist who captured one of the most enduring images of World War II — the U.S. Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima — had a block in downtown San Francisco named for him Thursday. Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94, was working for The […]
September signified a steady decline in mortgage performance since the end of third-quarter 2023. About 3% of all mortgages were in some form of delinquency in September 2024 — up 20 basis points year over year, according to a CoreLogic report released this week. This is the fourth consecutive month that the national delinquency increased […]
Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Jeff Bell, president of both UpWell Mortgage and software company Uplist, to talk about how he thinks about technology, and the good news that the industry is turning a corner after two rough years. Bell was in tech in the late 1990s, then got into the mortgage […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has been something of a political lightning rod ever since it began operations in 2011 under the Obama administration. But with the incoming Trump administration showing signs of fierce opposition to the agency, some of its biggest defenders are coming to its defense ahead of a period of uncertainty. […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Thursday published a proposal for Ginnie Mae to develop a new mortgage securitization product. The association said it would boost the availability of private capital liquidity sources into the market, particularly in periods of stress for the U.S. economy. The proposal is presented by the trade group in the […]
Institutional sellers at distressed property auctions have gradually lowered pricing over the last six months as rising retail inventory and stubbornly high mortgage rates act as twin headwinds for buyers purchasing at these auctions. This downward pricing trend at distressed property auctions, combined with affordability constraints for retail buyers and rising rates of serious delinquency, […]
Rovaniemi, Finland — Shuffling across icy ground on a cold December afternoon, lots of tourist groups poured into Santa Claus Village, a winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle. They frolic in the snow, take a reindeer sleigh ride, sip a cocktail in an ice bar or even meet Saint Nick himself […]
MONTREAL — Powered by TikTok, the song Je te laisseai des mots by Quebecer Patrick Watson has become the first French-language song to surpass 1 billion listens on Spotify, the streaming platform announced Tuesday. “It’s a dizzying number,” Canadian singer-songwriter Patrick Watson posted on Facebook on Wednesday. “It’s a huge number, almost impossible to comprehend.” “I […]
Leading U.S. mortgage lenders United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) and Better have joined Fannie Mae’s pilot program that waives lender title insurance requirements for certain refinance transactions, HousingWire has learned. The initiative, announced by President Joe Biden during his March 2024 State of the Union address, seeks to reduce closing costs as part of his broader […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Office of Policy Development and Research recently published a report that more closely examines the housing needs of older Americans and the pain points that have exacerbated their needs stemming from a national housing crisis. The material featured came from a workshop hosted by Fannie Mae […]
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) on Wednesday published a final rule in the Federal Register, establishing a permanent program to sell seriously delinquent, FHA-insured single-family mortgages following the release of a proposal over the summer. A public inspection version of the rule was released on Tuesday prior to its final publication. “This rule amends the […]
Mortgage applications increased 5.4% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending Dec. 6, stemming from a 27% jump in refinance activity, according to a report released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). This is the latest weekly increase in mortgage applications, following a trend of steady demand increases over the past several […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) this week sent a letter to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), urging action on mortgage trigger leads after an amendment to address them was removed from a must-pass spending bill. CHLA is effectively asking the CFPB to adopt the provisions of the amendment to the National Defense […]
ZURICH — FIFA has confirmed Saudi Arabia as host of the 2034 World Cup in men’s soccer. The Saudi bid was the only candidate and was acclaimed by the applause of more than 200 FIFA member federations. They took part remotely in an online meeting hosted in Zurich on Wednesday by the soccer body’s president, Gianni […]
San Francisco-based mortgage software development company Blend Labs announced Tuesday that it’s hiring Srini Venkatramani as head of product, technology and customer operations. Venkatramani joins Blend after the company’s profitable third-quarter 2024 performance. The technology leader brings 23 years of experience, including a recent role as chief product and technology officer at PlanSource. He will […]
Sierra Pacific Mortgage has hired Suzy Lindblom as its new Chief Operating Officer, the company announced in a LinkedIn post. Lindblom confirmed the move in her own post, adding that she has been working with Sierra Pacific as a consultant for the last six months. With more than 40 years of experience in the mortgage […]