“Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” — the unlikely pair of films that dominated the box office and spawned countless internet memes this summer — are expected to lead the newly revamped Golden Globes when nominations are unveiled Monday. Collectively dubbed “Barbenheimer” after their theatrical releases happened to fall on the same date, both movies are likely to […]
For the first time in Hayao Miyazaki’s decades-spanning career, the 82-year-old Japanese anime master is No. 1 at the North American box office. Miyazaki’s latest enchantment, “The Boy and the Heron,” debuted with $12.8 million, according to studio estimates. “The Boy and the Heron,” the long-awaited animated fantasy from the director of “Spirited Away,” “My […]
The Paris 2024 organizing committee president said Thursday that he still wanted the surfing competition at next year’s Olympics to take place in Tahiti, despite the controversy surrounding the construction of the judging tower at the site, where coral has been damaged. Speaking to media company Polynesie La Premiere, Tony Estanguet said he was going […]
The most underreported housing story I’ve seen this year is that even with mortgage rates rising to 8%, the number of homes that took price cuts before they sold was 4% below 2022 levels. This happened even with higher home prices and higher mortgage rates in 2023. Weekly housing inventory data We will start with […]
Ryan O’Neal, the heartthrob actor who went from a TV soap opera to an Oscar-nominated role in Love Story and delivered a wry performance opposite his charismatic 9-year-old daughter, Tatum, in Paper Moon, died Friday, his son said. “My dad passed away peacefully today, with his loving team by his side supporting him and loving […]
A former mortgage consultant who worked for Wells Fargo and ultimately brought a case against the company in a Southern California court over allegedly being fired for complaining about discriminatory lending practices has settled with the company, according to reporting from Los Angeles-based radio outlet KNX News. Attorneys for both parties jointly filed papers in […]
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the first tour to cross the billion-dollar mark, according to Pollstar’s 2023 year-end charts. Not only was Swift’s landmark Eras Tour the No. 1 tour both worldwide and in North America, but she also brought in a whopping $1.04 billion with 4.35 million tickets sold across 60 tour dates, the […]
Incenter Mortgage Advisors (IMA) has rebranded and changed its leadership to reflect the offering of a broader set of capital markets services. The company, which helped organize over $2 trillion in mortgage-servicing rights (MSRs), changed its brand name to Incenter Capital Advisors. It will emphasize corporate strategy and capital markets activities in different asset classes, institutions and balance sheet types. […]
The Senate has confirmed Danté Quintin Allen as commissioner of the Rehabilitation Services Administration at the U.S. Department of Education. Secretary Cardona issued the following statement: details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: Website of U.S. Department of Education
Mortgage rates continued their downward trajectory this week as the 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 4.2% for the first time since September, according to new data from Freddie Mac. The 30-year, fixed mortgage rate averaged 7.03% for the week ending Dec. 7, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That’s down significantly from last […]
Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Tom Cronkright, co-founder and executive chairman of CertifID and CEO of Sun Title, to talk about battling the latest frauds and scams as bad actors leverage a new arsenal of tech tools to wreak havoc on buyers and sellers of real estate. Sarah Wheeler: Can you give […]
California-based Pennymac Financial Services raised $750 million in unsecured debt with qualified institutional investors, 15% more than it initially expected, the company announced Thursday. Pennymac will use the proceeds of the offering to repay $650 million in debt due in October 2025. The remainder will be used for “other general corporate purposes,” the company said in an […]
Since the 2008 housing crisis, there have been significant changes that prompted the Treasury to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under conservatorship. While the conservatorship has allowed for the mortgage market to be restored to its pre-crisis state and strengthened these two government-sponsored entities (GSEs), there are significant downsides to maintaining the status quo […]
Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) Freddie Mac on Wednesday announced further enhancements to its Condo Project Advisor tool that are designed to “streamline” such loan originations and to offer lenders “greater security” through a new designation, according to an announcement. “This designation, known as ‘project certified’ status for Project Assessment Requests (PAR), confirms that condo properties meet […]
CBC Mortgage Agency – a federally chartered housing finance agency – will offer two temporary rate buydown features for its down payment assistance (DPA) program for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans. The agency is the first to provide either a 2-1 rate buydown or a 1-0 rate buydown on a DPA program. “The addition of […]
The Biden-Harris Administration announced today the approval of an additional $4.8 billion in student loan debt relief for 80,300 borrowers. These discharges stem from fixes made by the U.S. Department of Education to income-driven repayment (IDR) forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). Today’s announcement brings the total approved debt cancellation by the Biden-Harris Administration […]
Is the year of Taylor Swift over now? Not yet. Time magazine named Swift its person of the year on Wednesday, a week after Spotify announced she was the most-played artist on the streaming platform. Swift was picked from a group of nine finalists that included Barbie, King Charles III and OpenAI chief executive Sam […]
Television producer-writer Norman Lear, whose ground-breaking hit comedy shows such as “All in the Family” and “Maude” addressed social issues such as race and abortion that had rarely been seen on U.S. television, died on Tuesday at the age of 101, according to media reports. Lear, one of the most influential people in television, died […]
Pennymac Financial Services is the latest mortgage company to issue debt in a challenging housing market. The California-based company announced on Wednesday it intends to offer a $650 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due in 2029. “Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay a portion of the Company’s secured term notes due […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) submitted a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) expressing its support for the use of attorney opinion letters (AOLs) on Wednesday. In the letter addressed to FHFA Director Sandra Thompson, the CHLA says that it supports the use of AOLs in lieu of title insurance, “in conjunction […]
As a debate over loans and trade relations with China heats up in Kenya, the Chinese embassy in Nairobi is looking to boost cultural ties with Kenyans by launching food extravaganzas. Victoria Amunga has more from Nairobi. (Camera and Produced by: Jimmy Makhulo) details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: […]
The plight of fugitives and refugees has been part of the artist Dima Alekseevs’ work since he left Russia in 2016. He now lives in the U.S. Nina Vishneva visited the artist and has this report narrated by Anna Rice. (Camera: Vladimir Badikov, Elena Matusovsky; Produced by Elena Matusovsky, Anna Rice) details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: […]
The now defunct First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation (FGMC) and former employees – who sued the mortgage lender in a class-action suit after an abrupt layoff – are seeking a Delaware bankruptcy judge to settle a Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) Act lawsuit for $1.75 million. In June 2022, laid off employees filed two separate district […]
Millions around the world turn to Wikipedia when they want to better understand the world around them, and that apparently includes artificial intelligence — the most searched topic on the online encyclopedia in 2023. “ChatGPT is one of the generative AI tools that is trained on Wikipedia data, pulling large amounts of content from Wikipedia […]
Industry veteran Adam O’Daniel is transitioning to Guild Mortgage as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, a newly created role, after about two years at Open Mortgage, the company announced on Tuesday. “We’re going to expand Guild’s brand presence nationally, deliver best-in-class marketing tools, technology and support for our sales teams, and infuse a culture of creativity and collaboration […]
An arbitrator conclusion issued last week caps a four-year legal battle over allegations of trade secret theft involving two of the biggest companies in the housing industry, Black Knight Servicing Technologies and PennyMac Financial Services. In a 2019 lawsuit, Black Knight accused Pennymac of copying its mortgage servicing platform, MSP, to create its Servicing Systems Environment (SSE) platform. […]
As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing work to address academic recovery, including supporting student success in math and reading, the U.S. details ⇒ BusinessMediaguide.Com portal received this content from this noted web source: Website of U.S. Department of Education
When individual mortgages are originated by lenders like banks or credit unions, they maybundle groups of these mortgages together into financial vehicles called mortgage-backedsecurities (MBS) that are then sold to investors on a secondary market. This allows investors to gain exposure and returns from the mortgage market, while the lenders gain immediate capital to issue […]
The Netherlands returned six artefacts including a cannon, a ceremonial sword and two guns taken from Sri Lanka more than 250 years ago on Tuesday, as part of efforts by the former colonial power to redress historical wrongs, officials said. Sri Lanka asked the Netherlands to return the artefacts after the Dutch government approved the […]
FirstHome IQ, a nonprofit focused on homeownership and financial literacy education, has expanded its ambassador program and now has 60 mortgage and real estate professionals who donate a portion of every loan to further this mission. The nonprofit, founded by industry leaders Kristin Messerli, Dave Savage and Todd Bookspan, launched the beta version of its ambassador program in […]
Freddie Mac rolled out standardized subordinate lien documents for subordinate mortgages offered by down payment assistance (DPA) providers to facilitate easier and greater use of DPA program Historically, subordinate-lien documents for various DPA programs have been housing finance agency (HFA)-specific and worded differently, leaving room for confusion when interpreting terms and payment plans. “Saving for […]
The Biden-Harris Administration today took another step in its continued efforts to provide financial relief to significant numbers of student loan borrowers with the release of an updated copy of proposed regulatory text. The proposals build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s actions to date to provide student loan borrowers with much-needed breathing room. Already the Administration […]
Digital mortgage automation solution provider Floify launched a lending platform for mortgage brokers built on the foundation of the Floify point-of-sale (POS) platform. Florfy Broker Edition is designed to provide an intuitive loan management portal for borrowers and make managing loans simpler at an accessible price point while boosting operational efficiency, the company said. The […]
We’re writing today to address the unintended consequences that may result from the real estate agent commission dilemma stemming from recent lawsuits. As leaders of a non-profit, the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME), we advocate for over 65,000 wholesale mortgage brokers and homebuyers nationwide. There are multiple lawsuits challenging the prevailing structure of real […]
Rising home prices have pushed the third quarter’s tappable home equity amount near its 2022 peak, but interest rates are making homeowners reluctant to extract that wealth. Mortgage holders withdrew a mere 0.41% of tappable equity in Q3, about 55% below the average withdrawal rate seen in the 12 years leading up to the Federal […]
The newest group of Kennedy Center honorees, including comedian Billy Crystal and actor Queen Latifah, are being feted Sunday night at a star-studded event marking their lifetime achievement in arts and entertainment. Opera singer Renee Fleming, music star Barry Gibb and prolific hitmaker Dionne Warwick also are being honored at the black-tie gala. Each will […]
Beyoncé ruled the box office this weekend. Her concert picture, “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé,” opened in first place with $21 million in North American ticket sales, according to estimates from AMC Theatres Sunday. The post-Thanksgiving, early December box office is notoriously slow, but “Renaissance” defied the odds. Not accounting for inflation, it’s the first […]
On Saturday night, Kiss closed out the final performance of their “The End of the Road” farewell tour at New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden. But as dedicated fans surely know — they were never going to call it quits. Not really. During their encore, the band’s current lineup — founders Paul […]
What a week! Mortgage rates almost fell below 7%, the 10-year yield is below 4.25% again, and people are seriously talking about Fed rate cuts in 2024. Times can change quickly, which is why we created the weekly tracker so you have the information you need in real-time. Purchase application data Hello, early Christmas present! […]
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra has made the rounds this week on Capitol Hill, providing testimony to Congress in their semi-annual reviews of the CFPB. On Thursday, Chopra took questions from members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, including one on the controversial topic of mortgage trigger […]
The latest baseline increase in conforming loan limits has enabled loan originator Dave Krichmar’s client to make a 5% down payment instead of 10%. The self-employed homebuyer found an $800,000 home in Texas, but with the conforming loan limit for 2023 being $726,200, the buyer needed a jumbo loan or a bank statement loan. Those […]
Thank you, John Wood, for that kind introduction. John is a senior in high school. He’s going to be studying music, economics, and public relations. If anyone has any questions about whether our public schools are hitting it out of the park, I’d like to introduce you to John Wood. I’m honored to have been […]
As the housing market continues to undergo a seismic shift, technology leaders like this year’s Tech Trendsetters stand as beacons, guiding the industry toward a future where innovation is not an option but an imperative for success. From cutting-edge fintech solutions to revolutionary proptech platforms, these leaders have demonstrated the ability to harness technology in […]
The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced today that Gladeo, a minority- and women-owned public benefit corporation based in Los Angeles, California, has been selected as the grand-prize winner of the Future Finder Challenge, a $1 million challenge to reimagine career navigation for adult learners. Workbay, a woman-owned business based in Franklin, Tennessee, has been selected as the […]
Mortgage originators will pay more to access consumer credit reports in 2024, reigniting complaints from mortgage lenders and trade associations. In 2024, Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), the company that retains the rights to the market’s adopted methodology to measure consumer credit risk, will charge one price – higher than the current price – to all mortgage […]