Summary List Placement Homeowners, rejoice. Potential buyers, lament. US home prices surged 12.2% year-over-year in February, up 0.9 points from the previous month’s reading, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Tuesday. That’s the fastest price appreciation on record and an increase of $35,000 to the median selling price for homes just a year ago. […]
The controversial ultimatum United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) issued to brokers in March constituted a violation of the Sherman Act and a series of anti-competition laws in the state of Florida, a St. Augustine-based mortgage broker alleges in a new lawsuit that seeks class-action status. Dan O’Kavage, president and founder of the O’Kavage Group, is the […]
Summary List Placement A Biden tax proposal sent a jolt through markets last week — and through wealthy Americans. The White House is on the case, addressing the tax’s impact in a briefing yesterday. National Economic Council Director Brian Deese insisted in the briefing that it will touch very few Americans, and that the market […]
Wholesale lender Kind Lending has brought on mortgage veteran Suzy Lindblom as its chief operating officer, the company said Tuesday. Lindblom has 40 years of experience in the mortgage space, most recently serving as the COO of Planet Home Lending for three and half years. Prior to that, Lindblom served as the managing director of […]
Better, faster, cheaper has long been the promise of technology in the mortgage industry. Some may argue whether today’s technology is that much better than the tools we used in the past, particularly in the servicing business where many still use platforms designed and first built decades ago. Likewise, others will argue over whether today’s […]
Summary List Placement Ahead of President Joe Biden’s second infrastructure proposal unveiling on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a plan on Tuesday to help families get quality, affordable child care in the US. CBS News first reported that Warren, alongside Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York, reintroduced a $700 billion Universal Child Care […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden is hopes to boost funding at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by $80 billion as part of an ambitious plan to increase tax revenue from rich individuals and corporations, sources told The New York Times. According to The Times the 10-year funding boost will be accompanied by new powers […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden will issue an executive order on Monday to enact a $15 an hour minimum wage for federal contractors. The order is set to increase the hourly minimum wage for workers on federal contracts no later than March 30, 2022, almost a year from now. Biden administration officials estimate the […]
Summary List Placement Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced a plan for universal paid sick and medical leave on Tuesday. The proposal would set up 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for every worker in the US, calculating benefits based on average monthly earnings. The […]
Summary List Placement House Democrats unveiled a bill on Monday to keep the one-year child tax credit expansion, an anti-poverty initiative which formed a major part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan approved a month ago. The plan was introduced by a trio of Democrats including Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House […]
The total number of servicers’ loans in forbearance has dropped for two months, however, forbearance portfolio volume fell just one basis point last week to an average of 4.49%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Last week’s drop paled in comparison to the 40 basis point decline the previous two weeks had seen, and was likely […]
Summary List Placement Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said in a White House briefing on Monday that proposed increases to capital gains taxes will only affect taxpayers making over $1 million every year. “This change will affect taxpayers making more than $1 million a year,” Deese said. “In 2018, three-tenths of 1% […]
Summary List Placement As calls increase for President Joe Biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt per person, lawmakers are also keeping an eye on student loan servicers, which process loan payments and collections. The problem is they’ve been accused of failing to provide borrowers with all the necessary information. The big player in student […]
Cloudstar, a technology company serving title and mortgage origination companies, has shaken up its current executive team with the recent promotion of Christopher Cury to president. It’s the third major personnel move by Cloudstar this year, which named Nancy Allen as director of title services back in January and Roland DuBeau as president of MortgagePhish, […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Josh Hawley introduced a plan for a “Parent Tax Credit” on Monday aimed at offsetting the high cost of raising a child. It reflects a push among some conservatives to increase federal spending on families. The proposal would establish a new, fully refundable tax credit of $6,000 for singles and $12,000 […]
New York Community Bank, one of New York City’s largest multifamily lenders, is set to diversify its business strategy with the acquisition of Michigan-based retail bank Flagstar Bancorp. in an all-stock merger valued at $2.6 billion, the companies said Monday. The announcement comes just a few months after Thomas Cangemi took over as CEO at […]
Summary List Placement A White House official has defended plans to propose a sharp rise in the top capital gains tax rate to 39.6%, saying the changes would only hit the richest 0.3% of Americans, according to a report. A senior official in President Joe Biden’s White House told the Financial Times the wealthiest Americans had […]
Summary List Placement For the first time since 2005, previously owned homes are fetching higher sale prices than newly built houses. The housing market remains red hot even as soaring prices and supply shortages cut into homebuying activity. Low borrowing costs sparked a buying spree earlier in the pandemic and demand has remained historically strong […]
Summary List Placement Uber and Lyft have some good news ahead: Riders in the United States are expected to flock back to the ride-hailing apps soon as COVID-19 cases wane due to increased vaccinations. The bad news is there doesn’t seem to be enough drivers yet to pick them up. In recent weeks, the app […]
Summary List Placement America is currently in the midst of a millennial vs. boomer showdown — and a “gray champion” is arriving to usher in the “Next New Deal.” So says an eerie generational theory known as the Fourth Turning, which was coined in 1997 by Neil Howe and William Strauss in an eponymous book. […]
Summary List Placement The co-founder of Wolf’s Ridge Brewing in Columbus, Ohio, is tired. More than a year ago, Bob Szuter laid off most of his 80-person staff, leaving just 15 core workers to continue operating the restaurant and brewery. He wasn’t sure if his business would survive, and he had two young girls at […]
Summary List Placement At the end of his time in office, Barack Obama famously compared the presidency to an ocean liner. “Sometimes the task of government is to make incremental improvements or try to steer the ocean liner two degrees north or south so that, ten years from now, suddenly we’re in a very different […]
Summary List Placement Senate Republicans are expressing renewed alarm over the nation’s rising federal debt, as President Joe Biden is about to cross the 100-day mark of his administration. GOP senators huddled together on Wednesday and adopted numerous symbolic resolutions meant to govern their party in the upper chamber. They moved closer this week to […]
Summary List Placement They call economics the dismal science, and Diane Swonk normally exemplifies her profession’s penchant for gloominess. “People say, ‘You’re always talking about the downside,’” Swonk, the chief economist at the tax firm Grant Thornton, told me one recent afternoon. “Well, it’s my job to hedge the downside.” But as the economy emerges […]
Summary List Placement Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Friday said President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office have exceeded the expectations of progressive lawmakers. She particularly lauded the “vision” of Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion infrastructure package, the American Rescue Plan, although she said it was too small. “However, my concern is that the actual plan, […]
Today the Census Bureau reported that in March 2021, new home sales were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,021,000. This number beats estimates. Additionally, major positive revisions were made to the sales number of the previous months. I expect this month’s headline to be revised lower a tad next month, but even considering that, […]
Texas Capital Bank is selling its entire $14 billion book of mortgage servicing rights to PHH Mortgage, a subsidiary of Ocwen Financial Corp, for a “modest profit.” The Dallas-based bank, one of the country’s largest correspondent lenders, also announced that the deal would represent an exit from the correspondent lending sector. According to a news […]
Summary List Placement A group of Democratic lawmakers is calling on President Joe Biden to incorporate wider-reaching and permanent unemployment measures in the next economic package he’s set to unveil next week. In a letter sent on Friday, the lawmakers called on Biden to increase both the amount of unemployment benefits and their duration as […]
Summary List Placement A McDonald’s paying people to interview for jobs. Uber drivers holding off on rides in hopes of higher pay. Millions of payrolls possibly vanishing altogether. The US economy is still down roughly 8.4 million jobs since the pandemic first fueled massive layoffs. That suggests hiring would quickly bounce back as the country […]
Summary List Placement The pandemic changed the American social safety net in dramatic but temporary ways. On top of expanded unemployment insurance, Americans have received three stimulus checks, an amount of aid that comes to nearly $850 billion so far. But what if it was permanent? Some Democrats and economists want this to be the new […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden is preparing to unveil a new set of tax hikes on the richest Americans to fund a collection of new education and childcare programs. The New York Times and Bloomberg reported on Thursday these tax increases will be central to financing Biden’s latest infrastructure plan, in line with the […]
Summary List Placement The US economy’s March rebound may have only been a warm-up. Two popular gauges of business activity swung even higher in preliminary April readings, according to analytics firm IHS Markit. The services activity index leaped to 63.1 from 60.4, indicating the fastest level of expansion since data collection began in 2009. The […]
If recently-introduced first-time homebuyer legislation were to be enacted as written, about 4.37 million people – roughly 10% of the nation’s renters – could be eligible for up to $25,000 in downpayment assistance. Advocates of the policy say the program’s thoughtful targeting would allow it to reach those who need it the most, while industry […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden extended the pause on student loan payments through September 30, and while the inclusion of the 0% interest rate on those payments provided financial relief, it didn’t add up to much for the average individual. A report released on April 5 by Upgraded Points — a travel research group […]
While 2021 likely won’t approach the record breaking tizzy of 2020, the housing market will continue to flourish on the strength of the purchase market, according to economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association. After last year’s record $3.83 trillion in mortgage originations, the MBA forecasts volume to fall 14% this year to $3.28 trillion, which […]
Summary List Placement NFTs are a pillar of the digital economy and could fundamentally impact our society, a report published by online broker eToro and The Tie earlier this week says. At the same time, bitcoin has the potential to destabilize the bullion market and become “digital gold” over the next ten years. The report […]
A year after issuing its first Single-Family Green Mortgage Backed Security on Earth Day 2020, Fannie Mae has now completed 25 transactions for the program, totaling $167 million in bonds backed by mortgages on newly constructed, energy-efficient homes. Most of the issuances have included 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, but recent offerings have pooled 15-year fixed-rate mortgages. […]
Summary List Placement Democrats had scathing assessments for the two-page Republican infrastructure outline released on Thursday, a sign that a bipartisan deal was not immediately in sight on one of President Joe Biden’s top economic priorities. A group of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia had unveiled the $568 billion […]
Summary List Placement After billionaire Leon Cooperman rejected Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s invitation to testify on her proposed wealth tax, philanthropist Abigail Disney accepted the opportunity to speak about the tax system. Warren is holding a hearing next week, called “Creating Opportunity Through a Fairer Tax System,” where she will discuss her wealth tax proposal, which […]
Summary List Placement The headline mortgage rate’s plunge below 3% last year was a big deal. It added fuel to a housing market boom that continues to this day. The rate climbed back above 3% earlier this year, but now it’s sinking once again as the buying spree hits new snags. That could give potential […]
Mortgage executives have a hard time forgetting 2018. The market was coming off a refi boom, competition was fierce, and the profit margins were slim (if there were any at all). In a bid to gain market share, some of the biggest mortgage originators priced loans aggressively to keep production up and attract loan originators. […]
Summary List Placement Luxury home sales are soaring. They increased by 41.6% in the first three months of 2021 over the first three of 2020, according to a recent Redfin report that defined luxury homes as those selling for an average of $975,000. It’s a sharp contrast from sales for what Redfin deems “affordable” homes […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden told lawmakers that he will put forward a plan to temporarily extend the expanded child tax credit, but he stopped short of proposing to permanently install it, according to The Wall Street Journal. An expanded child tax credit was included in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package signed in […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden is planning to raise taxes on millionaire investors to fund child care and education programs, according to a report from The New York Times. Biden is set to reveal the American Family Plan — part of Biden’s $4 trillion overhaul on the US economy — before addressing Congress next […]
For the first time in nearly two months, mortgage rates dropped below 3% last week, down seven basis points to 2.97%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. “The drop in mortgage rates is good news for homeowners who are still looking to take advantage of the very low-rate environment,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s […]