While the reverse mortgage industry has seen strong business numbers for most of the past year with endorsements largely staying above 4,000 loans a month, the amount of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-to-HECM refinance transactions being done alongside other market factors frankly outside of the reverse mortgage industry’s control are doing very little to commensurately […]
Summary List Placement Democrats in Congress are starting to ramp up pressure on the Biden administration to extend an eviction moratorium that ends in three days, given that only a small fraction of rental aid has flowed out from a stimulus program. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranked Senate Democrat, said the Biden administration […]
Summary List Placement In January of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the beginning of our country’s “War on Poverty” by saying, in part: “Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it.” President Johnson’s war on poverty was ambitious, radical, and intensely optimistic […]
Mortgage applications increased 5.7% for the week ending July 23, mostly on the back of fast-falling mortgage rates. The 10-year Treasury yield went into free fall last week, as investors grew concerned about the rise in COVID-19 variant cases and the potential economic fallout, according to Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and […]
Loan officers’ wallets slightly deflated in the second quarter, with commissions earned per LO decreasing by 6% year-over-year, according to LBA Ware’s quarterly loan compensation report. Loan volume per LO also took a dive of 4%. The reason? Lenders have more LOs these days. “That meant that LOs had to share the loans a little […]
Ginnie Mae’s recent proposal to impose liquidity and risk-based capital requirements on their single-family issuers is the right approach for ensuring the long-term financial stability of this segment of the housing finance system. Unlike lenders or servicers for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae issuers are responsible for passing along payments to investors after […]
Summary List Placement The labor market has a big puzzle at its center: Millions of Americans are unemployed, so why are so many workers not returning to work — or just quitting their jobs altogether? More than half of the governors in America are blaming one thing: Enhanced unemployment benefits. “Alabama is giving the federal […]
Summary List Placement Over the span of just two weeks this July, two different student loan companies shut down their services. Good, says Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who is holding a Senate hearing on Tuesday to discuss how to best protect borrowers as they transition to new servicers. She told Insider that other companies should consider it a warning. “The world has changed for student loan […]
Summary List Placement Millions of Americans are still drawing federal unemployment insurance, but the end of those programs loom. That would be one thing if the economy were recovered or if the pandemic were over, but neither is the case. Over 20 million Americans are poised to lose all jobless aid on Labor Day, per […]
Summary List Placement With the school year just two months away for most of the US, some students may be eager to return to the classroom after a year of learning online and over Zoom. But some districts facing a teacher shortage are struggling to fill open positions. That shortage isn’t a new issue, but […]
Summary List Placement The population of the United States could shrink for the first time on record due to a combination of COVID-19 deaths, low birth rates, and immigration restrictions, experts told The Wall Street Journal. Early estimates from demographers show that the US population grew by just 0.35% in the year that ended on […]
Summary List Placement Teen employment rates soared in May as businesses hired young workers in a tight labor market. But new research from Gusto, commissioned by The Washington Post, shows that teen hiring is slowing in states that have scrapped unemployment benefits, as older workers take on available jobs. While some states have opted to […]
Summary List Placement One restaurant worker says the labor crunch is killing tips for servers. In an interview with CNN, 58-year-old server Karen McLaughlin, who works at Provino’s Italian restaurant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, said that the lack of staff meant servers were stretched, which means customers get worse service and therefore pay lower tips. On […]
Summary List Placement Ten Florida residents have sued Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for ending the $300 supplemental unemployment benefits more than two months early. The plaintiffs demanded that DeSantis reinstate the benefits, which he stopped in June, and send retroactive payments for the benefits they missed. Without the benefits, they couldn’t afford housing, utilities, food, […]
The housing market is red hot. The Federal Housing Finance Agency house-price index rose 12% last yeardue to low inventories and high demand. Redfin, the popular real estate website, reports that nearly40% of homes in the past month have sold above asking price. And the National Association of Realtorsreported that, for the first time in […]
Summary List Placement The pandemic revealed just how thin the line between work and life is for American parents. Without adequate childcare, women in particular were forced to make some tough decisions this year that could harm their careers for years to come, according to new data out from the New York Times. Throughout the […]
Another week, another drop in forbearance volume. Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume fell two basis points to 3.48% from 3.50% last week, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Approximately 1.74 million homeowners are in forbearance plans, the MBA reported. The share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans in forbearance also decreased two basis points to 1.81%, and Ginnie Mae loans decreased one basis […]
Summary List Placement Economist Mohamed El-Erian in an interview Monday took aim at assessments of inflation that describe rising prices as “transitory”, stating that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what inflation is and how it is already spreading throughout the economy. “I always laugh when people say, oh, it’s isolated, it’s transitory,” the Allianz’s […]
Summary List Placement A 20 day strike by 600 Frito-Lay workers in Topeka, Kansas has come to an end after workers negotiated a wage increase, a day off every week, and the end of what workers called “suicide shifts,” where employees get only an eight hour break between shifts. The New York Times first reported […]
New home sales continued to slip in June, falling 6.6% from May to a pace of only 676,000, according to a recent study from the U.S. Census. It’s the third straight month of decreases and the first annual decline since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. June’s pace is also 19.4% below June 2020’s pace […]
Summary List Placement If you’re one of the millions of lucky Americans who recently won the privilege to permanently work from home, you’re probably overwhelmingly grateful for the flexibility you now enjoy. I certainly am. Because I’m no longer tethered to an office, my wife and I were able to move away from San Francisco, […]
Summary List Placement SmartAsset compared the 100 largest US cities. The financial-advice company analyzed the cities based on five metrics: the percentage of housing units with fewer than two bedrooms and the average price of these, median earnings for full-time workers, unemployment rate, and cost of living. It then ranked 10 most affordable cities for […]
Summary List Placement On Sunday in separate appearances on ABC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ohio Senator Rob Portman offered up opposing viewpoints on the timeline of passing a bipartisan infrastructure package. Pelosi reinforced her stance to hold up the $1 trillion agreement as Democrats work to finalize a separate $3.5 trillion spending package, in […]
Summary List Placement For millions of Americans, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything. Unemployment spiked from a near-record low of 3.5% to a whopping 14.8% virtually overnight, and the prospect of finding work remained dim for over a year. As highly effective vaccines and declining infection rates have taken hold this summer, once-shuttered businesses are reopening […]
Summary List Placement Ruby Reid and her fiancé fell in love with Oregon in 2015. Soon after, they purchased a property in Talent, a small city five hours south of Portland, near the California border. A home with room for greenhouses, vegetables, and bees, it seemed like the perfect place for their family farm and […]
Summary List Placement Jason Cabrera became a manager of a Texas fast-food restaurant just one week after his 19th birthday. He started out buttering toast and washing dishes for $9.25 per hour, and now earns $50,000 a year in his senior role. Cabrera, who joined the Allen branch of Layne’s Chicken Fingers in late 2018, […]
Summary List Placement For millions of workers across the country, it’s been 12 years without a raise in the minimum wage. 12 years is a long time. In the past 12 years, we’ve had three different presidents, six Olympics, and seven Fast & Furious movies. But in all that time, the federal minimum wage has […]
Summary List Placement Markets plunged earlier this week as concerns about the outlook swelled. The fear is in many ways understandable. COVID conditions, at least as proxied by cases, are deteriorating. At the same time, worrying economic trends have popped up in the form of a potentially more aggressive Federal Reserve and the market reflecting […]
Summary List Placement When we think of combating climate change, our minds tend to turn to green energy like solar or wind power. But the world of finance has a tremendous impact on the environment, and we’ll never be able to steer away from impending climate calamities until big business takes action. Remarkably, Sarah Bloom […]
Summary List Placement An employee at a chain restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, told CNN Business that fellow staffers were sometimes “just walking out in the middle of their shifts” amid the US labor shortage. “[Hostesses who] seat the tables, the dishwashers, the bussers … they’ll walk out,” a server at Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen told the […]
With the foreclosure moratorium for federally backed mortgages set to expire next week, the Biden administration is giving borrowers additional options to reduce their mortgage payments. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will give homeowners options to reduce their monthly principal and interest […]
Summary List Placement Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex of New York urged President Joe Biden to not allow a federal eviction moratorium to end in eight days, calling it a “reckless” move that would jeopardize the wellbeing of millions of Americans. “I urge the Biden Administration to extend the CDC’s eviction moratorium,” she wrote on Twitter. “It […]
Summary List Placement The labor shortage is tough on the economic recovery. Consumers are spending and employers want to hire, but jobs can’t get filled fast enough right now. There’s several signs that suggest the labor shortage will end soon, according to a Thursday note by the UBS Evidence Lab. But there’s one big reason […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to renew the federal government’s ability to pay off its debt ahead of a major deadline, warning that failing to do so in a timely manner risks major damage for average people and the economic recovery. Republicans led by Senate Minority […]
Summary List Placement On July 31, a set of pandemic-relief measures for renters and homeowners enacted under President Trump will end — and the Biden administration doesn’t appear interested in renewing them. A federal eviction ban is ending on July 31 after an extension last month. It’s the same for a moratorium on foreclosures. But […]
Summary List Placement Something may be changing in the American economy for the worse, and it’s because of the Delta Covid variant. At least that’s what Bank of America research thinks. The stock market had a major wobble on Monday, July 19, as data on the variant — and how many Americans it’s rapidly infecting […]
The following Q&A comes from the HW+ exclusive Slack channel, where HousingWire Senior Real Estate Reporter Matthew Blake answered questions about his latest coverage on the impact of the DOJ’s decision and how the industry is gearing up to respond. During the Q&A, Blake discussed the ramifications of previous DOJ investigations into NAR and conversations he has had […]
Summary List Placement Some jobs don’t need a college degree, and they can make it possible for Americans to be part of the middle-class and enjoy financial security. Insider’s previous reporting on wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that some jobs that don’t require a bachelor’s degree pay pretty well, such as air traffic […]
Summary List Placement A federal rule that went into effect in 2020 is taking commercial drivers off our highways if they test positive for illegal drugs. While the idea to crack down on drivers taking dangerous substances is commendable, the majority of those who have lost their licenses thanks to the new law tested positive […]
Summary List Placement People did not immediately return to work in some states that cut federal unemployment insurance (UI) early, a new analysis found. In the 12 states that cut the benefit on either June 12 or 19, employment was largely flat in the weeks after, Arindrajit Dube, an economics professor at University of Massachusetts […]
Summary List Placement Another 2.2. million Americans will start receiving $1400 stimulus checks this week. The third round of stimulus payments, meant to help people who lost income or work during the coronavirus pandemic, is worth over $4 billion, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The latest disbursement brings the total number of payments to 171 […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats are pressing the Treasury Department and the IRS to ensure that the poorest families can access what they’re already calling “Social Security for kids.” The first child tax credit payments from President Joe Biden’s stimulus law hit the bank accounts of millions of families last week. But experts and community […]
Summary List Placement The Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program forgives the student debt of public servants after 120 qualifying payments. But while full-time teachers qualify for this relief, adjunct professors don’t. Four Democrats want to change that. On Thursday, Illinois Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, along with Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono and New […]
Summary List Placement If your shopping trips seem to be a bit more expensive lately, it’s likely that your receipt shows something missing: discounts. Likewise, if your visit to any store typically includes a lap past the clearance shelves, you may have noticed the pickings getting slim. “Retailers facing tight inventories are having a tough […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina has an idea to help Republicans who are strongly determined to oppose a multi-trillion Democratic spending package this summer: The GOP should skip town. The Wall Street Journal reported that Graham is pressing other GOP senators to leave Washington D.C. in a bid to deny Democrats […]