Summary List Placement President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that he will invest $1.6 billion to expand the availability of testing in K-8 schools and underserved areas, intended to serve as a “bridge” until Congress approves more funding. During his first presidential town hall in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Biden said that by the end of […]
Overall household debt increased by $206 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 to $14.56 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The Fed said that increase was primarily driven by a dramatic increase in mortgage originations. Mortgage debt balances broached the $10 trillion mark in the fourth quarter, increasing by $182 […]
First American Mortgage Solutions, a subsidiary of “Big Four” title insurer First American Financial, has executed a strategic tech integration with default and loss mitigation workflow provider BackInTheBlack. The integration allows First American Mortgage Solutions to automate loss mitigation title reports, uninsured property reports, loan modification and partial claim documents and lien priority insurance directly […]
Summary List Placement Several top Democrats pushed back on Wednesday against President Joe Biden’s dismissal on Tuesday night of their proposal to forgive up to $50,000 in student loan debt. Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a joint statement defending their plan, and said student-loan forgiveness was a step that […]
Summary List Placement Every elected Democratic state treasurer is calling on Congress to approve the American Rescue Plan, including the provision with $350 billion in state and local aid. The 17 treasurers signed on to a letter organized by Invest in America Action calling for the necessity of that full relief. States received $150 billion of […]
Summary List Placement Some top UK firms plan to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for staff through “no jab, no job” employment contracts, The Financial Times reported. Law firms that declined to be named told the FT that businesses, ranging from care-home operators to big multinationals, were considering contracts that require new and current employees to […]
As mortgage rates come off of their historic lows, mortgage applications dropped for the second week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage applications dropped 5.1% for the week ending Feb. 12, after falling 4.1% the week prior. Notably, the refinance share of activity dropped to 69.3%, the first time it’s been below […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden effectively rejected on Tuesday evening a Democratic plan put forward by Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer to wipe out up to $50,000 in student loan debt per borrower. Instead, he said he backed a measure to provide up to $10,000 in forgiveness. “I will not make that happen,” […]
Depository bank Western Alliance has reached a deal to acquire correspondent lender AmeriHome for $1 billion in cash, the firms announced late Tuesday afternoon. With the acquisition, Western Alliance will grab full control of America’s third-largest correspondent lender from an affiliate of financial giant Apollo Global. AmeriHome purchased approximately $65 billion in conventional conforming and […]
Summary List Placement Democrats in Congress are ramping up their efforts to enact President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue package before federal unemployment benefits start expiring on March 14. Congressional Democrats are doubling down on an aggressive timeline now that former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is behind them. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on […]
Summary List Placement Now that the second impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump has ended with an acquittal, Democrats are turning their attention to handing President Joe Biden his first major legislative victory. Democrats are racing to enact Biden’s $1.9 trillion federal rescue package and kickstart the flow of aid before federal unemployment benefits start lapsing for millions of […]
The total number of mortgages in forbearance declined six basis points to 5.29% in the week ending Feb. 7, according to the latest estimate from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group said 2.6 million homeowners are currently in forbearance plans. “The share of loans in forbearance declined to the lowest level since April 5th […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on Tuesday extended COVID-19 foreclosure and forbearance moratoriums for FHA and USDA loans to June 30, 2021. It also extended the deadline for the first legal action and the reasonable diligence time frame to 180 days. This announcement follows FHFA action last week to extend moratoriums for […]
Summary List Placement The federal government kicked in a lot more money to people on unemployment from April through July of last year, and again starting last September, and now the experts are starting to pick over the findings. They’re surprised. A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago and the JPMorgan […]
Writing about digital mortgage in 2021, I am reminded of a cartoon in the New Yorker, in which two cavemen were starting a fire and one said “Stop saying everything is ‘unprecedented.’” After a year of unprecedented everything, including mortgage volume, it’s hard to fathom the level of fintech disruption that is approaching financial services […]
Summary List Placement The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) — the government’s official budget scorekeeper — has said that the Raise the Wage Act of 2021 would have a sizeable impact on the budget. That means it may be able to clear the hurdle of the Byrd Rule and be passed through reconciliation. The letter came […]
Summary List Placement On President’s Day, just over 10 million homeowners got an extra benefit when President Joe Biden extended the moratorium on home foreclosures through June 30, intended to address the housing affordability crisis and aid homeowners struggling during COVID-19. The moratorium on foreclosures, in place since last March under President Donald Trump, was […]
Summary List Placement Fast-food, home-care, and nursing-home workers will strike on Tuesday for a $15 minimum wage, more training, and better COVID-19 safety measures. Some workers from fast-food chains including McDonald’s, Burger King, Domino’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s would strike in 15 cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, and Houston, according to Fight for $15, a […]
The years 2020-2024 will have the best housing demographics ever recorded in U.S. history, with the lowest mortgage rates recorded in history. When you have these two titans acting in unison, it can potentially accelerate real home prices in an unhealthy way. In 2020, the year of COVID-19, existing home sales ended at a respectable […]
Summary List Placement A new survey from Pew Research Center finds only 51% of unemployed Americans are optimistic about finding a job soon. Even though a recent global survey from Monster found 82% of employers plan to hire in 2021, some Americans are not feeling too hopeful about their job prospects in a slowly recovering […]
Summary List Placement This week the Congressional Budget Office released an analysis of the Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. The report found raising the wage would have many positive effects, but the email notifications that landed in my inbox focused on the same […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden pressed ahead with his $1.9 trillion emergency spending package throughout the week even as the second impeachment trial for former President Donald Trump got underway. A split-screen appeared on Friday. As the trial started reaching its end, Biden continued attempting to muster support for his stimulus package. He met […]
Summary List Placement A second Democratic senator came out in opposition to including a $15 minimum wage in President Joe Biden’s relief package, possibly dealing a major blow to the proposed wage hike. “What’s important is whether or not it’s directly related to short-term Covid relief. And if it’s not, then I am not going […]
Summary List Placement A $1,400 stimulus checks by March 1, would help 22.6 million Americans to pay their bills in full through mid-July without going into debt, according to a report released by Morning Consult on Friday. The House Committee on Ways and Means included $1,400 stimulus checks with a $75,000 income threshold for individuals […]
United Wholesale Mortgage has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three independent mortgage brokers last year whom the lender accused of “churning.” The Pontiac, Michigan-based wholesale mortgage lender filed a motion this week saying that the three named brokers – Rishi Bhasin, Anne James and Nelson Otero – were among the 75 brokers it […]
Summary List Placement More than 60 economists urged President Joe Biden’s economic leaders to include a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in Biden’s infrastructure plan in a letter on Thursday, saying that doing so will stimulate economic growth. In a letter addressed to Neera Tanden, designate-director of the Office of Management and Budget, Brian […]
Fannie Mae, the largest mortgage financier in the U.S., said Friday that its net income in the fourth quarter of 2020 checked in at $4.6 billion – up 8% from the third quarter. The government-sponsored entity’s total net income for the full year was $11.8 billion, and executives on Friday’s earnings call spoke enthusiastically about […]
Summary List Placement A Tuesday note from Bank of America Research predicts a correction for the stock market — and also showcases the disconnect between Wall Street and the rest of the economy. In a chart, BofA researchers show how as the S&P 500 has climbed to record highs, Main Street indicators have in most […]
It wasn’t long ago that scribes were writing the obituary of the mortgage underwriter. And yet, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the underwriter has become the most sought-after professional in the mortgage industry. Some underwriters were commanding five-figure bonuses on top of six-figure salaries. The problem is, there just aren’t enough of them. That didn’t change […]
Tai Christensen, CBC Mortgage Agency’s director of government affairs, will join other housing luminaries to discuss how lenders can increase their diversity to impact minority homeownership at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. The homeownership gap between white and Black Americans is larger than in the 1960s, and both real estate and mortgage lenders are looking for […]
Summary List Placement Total US public debt is set to overtake the size of the national economy in 2021 even without the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan sought by President Joe Biden, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Federal debt is projected to reach 102% of US gross domestic product through the end of the year, […]
Summary List Placement Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said during a press conference on Thursday that a federal $15 minimum wage increase will be included in the stimulus package that will go to the Senate. “Yes it will,” Pelosi said in response to whether the provision would be included. “And we’re very proud of […]
Summary List Placement Democrats are attempting to stick to a swift timeline for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue package, which they hope to have passed by early March to head off a lapse of federal benefits for unemployed Americans. But it’s one that leaves a very slim margin of error. Speaker Nancy Pelosi doubled […]
Online retail lender loanDepot raised just $54 million by offering 3.9 million shares at $14 on Thursday, far below the range of $19 to $21 it initially had sought. The downsized offering follows a theme that’s afflicted almost all of the nonbank mortgage originators that have gone public in the last year. LoanDepot, the second-largest […]
Summary List Placement Back in September, Sandra Kwan left San Francisco dreaming of the perfect Hawaiian life. The past five months haven’t disappointed. A senior program manager at LinkedIn, Kwan works 7 to 3 from her apartment, which overlooks Waikiki’s surf breaks. In the late afternoons, she catches a few waves or goes scuba-diving or […]
Summary List Placement 34% of Americans said they will save the next round of $1,400 stimulus checks that President Joe Biden is pushing Congress to pass, which will lower household debt and stimulate the economy. In a survey conducted by Morning Consult, which was commissioned by Bloomberg, it found that compared to the first round […]
Freddie Mac, the second-largest mortgage financier in the U.S., said Thursday that its net income in the fourth quarter rose 18% from the prior quarter to $2.9 billion as low rates continues to boost originations. In total, the company’s net income at the end of 2020 was $7.3 billion, a 2% increase from 2019. Its […]
For the third week in a row, the average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan remained unchanged at 2.73%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Even though rates remained at their record low levels, mortgage applications dipped, with some economists pointing to the overheated home prices and lack of supply for applications seesawing. “The […]
Summary List Placement To kick off the new year, 20 states raised their minimum wages around the start of 2021. A few more are set to raise theirs throughout the year. In fact, according to a report from the National Employment Law Project (NELP), a record-breaking number of jurisdictions are set to raise their wages […]
Summary List Placement Departing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would pay almost $2 billion a year under Washington state’s wealth tax proposal. State legislators have proposed a 1% tax on people who have more than $1 billion in wealth. The tax would only apply to nontangible financial assets, such as publicly traded options, futures contracts, and […]
A new presidential administration and a clarion call from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has transformed fair servicing from a seemingly remote risk into a front and center mandate. After the 2008 financial crisis, regulators enhanced long-standing fair lending examination guidelines to incorporate the concept of fair servicing. They began to scrutinize potential discriminatory loss […]
Summary List Placement Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday that US unemployment is about 10% — or nearly twice the officially recorded rate. That roughly equal to Great Recession levels more than a decade ago. The Fed chair made the remarks in a speech on strengthening a battered labor market at the Economic […]
Brian “Woody” White, Homebridge‘s chief diversity officer, will join other housing luminaries to discuss how lenders can increase their diversity strategy to impact minority homeownership at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. The homeownership gap between white and Black Americans is larger than in the 1960s, and both real estate and mortgage lenders are looking for solutions. […]
Summary List Placement Unemployment benefits will expire in mid-March if Congress does not pass a stimulus package before then, putting 11.4 million Americans at risk of losing needed aid. As part of his $2 trillion stimulus proposal, President Joe Biden called on Congress to extend unemployment benefits through the end of September and provide $400 […]
Summary List Placement Black, low-wage, and female workers bore the brunt of the pandemic’s hit to employment last spring, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York study published Tuesday. Low-wage workers and minorities suffered the most acute economic pain at the start of the COVID-19 recession, the Fed researchers said. Indicators including the unemployment […]