Mortgage applications recovered slightly from last week, increasing 0.5% for the week ending Feb. 26, 2021 according to the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. A giant dip in applications was reported following the devastating winter storms in Texas the week of Feb. 8, but a week of normalized weather brought numbers back up, […]
Summary List Placement US billionaires would have paid $114 billion between them in 2020 under an “ultra-millionaire” tax proposed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Monday, according to two tax groups. The bill, called the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act, would apply an annual 2% tax on individuals with net worths between $50 million and $1 […]
Summary List Placement More wealthy Americans should be audited on a regular basis, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Tuesday, telling Bloomberg she wants to double the IRS budget to do just that. “The audit rate of the top one-tenth of 1% — the 100,000 families that would be affected — the audit rate will be 30%,” […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden was hit with his first cabinet defeat on Tuesday as his pick to oversee the White House budget office withdrew from consideration after generating resistance from a key conservative Democrat and a group of moderate Republican senators. “I have accepted Neera Tanden’s request to withdraw her name from nomination […]
Summary List Placement For now, Democrats are not going to pass a minimum wage increase over Republican objections. The path towards a minimum wage hike as part of the COVID relief package was always narrow. Democrats hold 50 seats in the Senate — a bare-minimum majority when you count the vice president’s tie-breaking vote — […]
Fannie Mae announced today the appointment of Simon Johnson and Christopher Brummer to its board of directors, as well as the extension of Robert Hertz’s board term for another three years. Fannie CEO Hugh Frater said Johnson and Brummer bring “deep economic, regulatory, and business expertise,” and Board Chairwoman Sheila Bair said the duo are […]
Alex Kutsishin, CEO & co-founder of Sales Boomerang, will speak at HousingWire’s virtual Spring Summit on March 4, diving into what a two-year study reveals about the importance of borrower retention. To protect business in a competitive market, industry leaders need a 360-degree, real-time view of customers’ changing circumstances, so lenders can identify opportunities the […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats are up against a narrow timeline to approve a $1.9 trillion stimulus package and get it to President Joe Biden’s desk. But some Democratic senators are eyeing changes to key components of the legislation, particularly unemployment insurance and stimulus checks. The jockeying among Democrats to amend provisions for direct aid […]
Rocket Companies Chairman Dan Gilbert may want to gift some karma to users of the infamous subreddit Wall Street Bets. His company’s stock soared nearly 100% on Tuesday after the day traders at the subreddit took interest in the mortgage lender’s stock, which had been hovering around the $20 mark for much of the past […]
Summary List Placement The US is currently administering, on average, 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccines per day. But budget experts say that is not enough to prompt the economic recovery the country truly needs. In a report released on Monday by Penn Wharton Budget Model — a nonpartisan economic research organization at the University of Pennsylvania […]
Summary List Placement The US economic recovery hinges a great deal on how the rest of the world rebounds, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. For the moment, the US is expected to fully recover from its virus-induced downturn by the end of the year. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects […]
Rocket Mortgage is making a big play for the legion of self-employed borrowers who have been frustrated by a lack of mortgage options and overwhelming red tape: a new jumbo mortgage product offered through its Rocket Pro TPO channel. The new product launch comes just a few months after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau retired […]
Summary List Placement Fiscal relief saved European governments from an even worse COVID-19 recession, but failure to approve additional support could plunge the continent into new economic pain, the International Monetary Fund said Tuesday. The IMF projects that Europe stands to lose 15 million jobs unless authorities roll out new equity support. Liquidity bolstered by […]
Summary List Placement A group of senior Democrats are calling for President Joe Biden to support regular direct payments to low-income Americans while the US economy recovers from the pandemic. Insider obtained a copy of the letter that’s being sent to the White House, led by Democrats chairing key economic committees in the Senate. In […]
Summary List Placement A new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau highlighted that 11 million American families are at risk of eviction or foreclosure due to financial strain from the coronavirus pandemic. That means that almost 10% of American households are at risk, according to the report. In its analysis of the housing market […]
Fred Bolstad, executive vice president of retail lending at U.S. Bank Home Mortgage, will speak on a panel titled What Mortgage Tech is Solving Now at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Bolstad will be joined on the panel by Dave Vermillion, founder and CEO of Mortgage Champions, and Lisa Patterson, chief originations officer at Homepoint. At U.S. Bank Home Mortgage, […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats are preparing to advance the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill this week as efforts to push through a $15-per-hour minimum wage with a new tax penalty for large corporations crumbled over the weekend. “The Senate will take up the American Rescue Plan this week,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on […]
After one month of steady declines, servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume rose one basis point last week to 5.23%, according to data released Monday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group pointed to a slowdown in exits coupled with an uptick in requests for last week’s increase. Once again, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac boasted the […]
Summary List Placement In an effort to combat wealth inequality, Democrats on Monday unveiled a bill that would impose a 2% wealth tax on American households with net worths over $50 million. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has long been a proponent of the wealth tax, introduced the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act with Rep. Pramila […]
Summary List Placement Are millennials finally catching up to previous generations? A new report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College indicates that the answer is yes — at least, in some regards. The report compared findings from the Center’s 2016 generational study and the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances. The […]
In this HousingWire Daily episode, HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath covers the recent COVID-19 forbearance extensions. In February, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it had extended COVID-19 foreclosure and forbearance moratoriums for FHA and USDA loans to June 30, 2021. For the episode, Greg McBride, senior vice president and chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com, joins the […]
Summary List Placement In order to aid essential workers during COVID-19, Democrats introduced a bill on Friday to provide undocumented immigrants who have worked on the frontlines during the pandemic an expedited pathway to citizenship. Led by Sen. Alex Padilla of California, his first bill in Congress — the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act — […]
Summary List Placement A group of House progressives are urging the Biden administration in a new letter to overrule the Senate parliamentarian and keep the $15 per hour minimum wage in the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. The effort to ramp up pressure on President Joe Biden is made up of 23 progressive lawmakers led by […]
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mark Calabria announced on Monday that he has authorized the disbursement of $1.09 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac‘s affordable housing allocations. This is the largest amount ever disbursed by the government sponsored enterprises, and more than double what was provided the prior year. Of the GSEs’ provided […]
Summary List Placement After earmarks were banned in 2011 due to corruption scandals in that late 2000s, the House Appropriations Committee on Friday unveiled its new reforms that accounted for transparency and accountability in community funding. Earmarks, which Democrats have switched to calling community project funding, are congressional provisions that direct funds toward a specific […]
At this point, you’re probably used to seeing Kelsey Ramírez’s name in this spot. As the HousingWire magazine editor, she not only profiled and covered the top leaders and stories in the housing industry, but she also spearheaded the redesign of this magazine, taking the content and creative to a whole new level. For that, […]
By late spring of 2020, the loan pipeline at Princeton Mortgage was full. And CEO Rich Weidel’s staff was absolutely slammed. He needed to scale up — and quickly — to manage record origination volume. Like most other lenders, Princeton, which operates in retail, wholesale and correspondent channels, fell back on the familiar strategy of […]
Summary List Placement Senior Democrats are abandoning their backdoor $15 minimum wage proposal, leaving a wage hike in doubt as they scramble to enact a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan within two weeks. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) were in the midst of drafting a plan to levy a 5% tax on the […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has indicated that a wealth tax is off the table, but she is looking at other potentially significant measures. In an interview with The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin, Yellen said she wasn’t planning a wealth tax like Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposal because it’s “something that has very […]
Summary List Placement The Treasury market has made it clear: the Federal Reserve is a downer. Optimism toward the US economic recovery flourished over the past week. Daily COVID-19 case counts fell further from their January peak. Vaccinations continued across the country, hinting the pandemic could fade in just a few months. Economic data beat […]
Summary List Placement House Democrats approved President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion emergency spending package in a 219-212 vote early on Saturday morning, sending the legislation to the Senate as lawmakers rushed to head off the expiration of enhanced unemployment insurance in mid-March. The stimulus plan cleared the chamber with Republicans unified in their resistance. Two […]
Thasunda Brown Duckett With the hire, TIAA is now the first Fortune 500 company to have TIAA Bank has tapped JPMorgan Chase‘s head of consumer banking, Thasunda Brown Duckett, to succeed longtime president and CEO, Roger Ferguson, Jr. Thasunda Brown Duckett With the hire, TIAA is now the first Fortune 500 company to have two Black […]
HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami joins the HousingWire Daily podcast to talk about why low mortgage rates need to end. During the interview, HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath interviews Mohtashami on his most recent article, “We need higher mortgage rates to cool the housing market.” In his opinion piece, Mohtashami states, “For 2021, we need to […]
L Summary List Placement House Democrats were on course to vote on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package later on Friday as lawmakers rushed to rescue a key progressive priority from being left out of the legislation. The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Thursday evening that the $15 minimum wage should be removed from the […]
Lisa Patterson, chief originations officer at Homepoint, will speak on a panel titled Operational Strategies in the Current Market at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Patterson will be joined on the panel by Dave Vermillion, founder and CEO of Mortgage Champions, and Fred Bolstad, executive vice president of retail lending at U.S. Bank Home Mortgage. Patterson […]
In Mississippi, single women on average paid 3.47% on a 30-year, conventional fixed-rate mortgage in 2019. But single men on average paid 3.37%, according to the latest HMDA data available. Over the lifespan of the mortgage, the single woman in this instance will have roughly $7,000 more in mortgage payments than the single man. Patrick […]
Summary List Placement As passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus approaches, the federal agency that is focused on housing is urging Congress to pass its measures for struggling homeowners. The US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, expressed support on Thursday for the package’s funding for emergency rental assistance and homelessness […]
Summary List Placement The US economy’s rebound from the coronavirus slump could fuel some of the strongest growth in recent memory, John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said. With the pandemic’s winter resurgence fading, economists are looking ahead and gauging how fresh stimulus, falling case counts, and continued vaccination will […]
Summary List Placement Economists from the University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, and Zhejiang University found that American poverty rates dropped when the most recent stimulus payments and unemployment benefits were enacted. From December 2020 to January 2021, the poverty rate fell from 11.8% to 11.5%, in contrast with an increase from 9.3% last […]
Summary List Placement Bitcoin’s surge shows that lawmakers should view its technology more seriously, Mohamed El-Erian wrote in an op-ed. Adoption by major players indicates the potential of a growing migration away from traditional money, he said. “Too many officials are inclined to look at the cryptocurrency in a rather narrow way. They shouldn’t.” Sign […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Bernie Sanders said Democrats would try to devise a backdoor to implement a $15 minimum wage after a pay hike was struck from the $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Thursday evening — a major setback for progressives. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough ruled that a $15 minimum wage violated the strict guidelines […]
Summary List Placement The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Thursday evening that a $15 minimum wage provision cannot stay in the President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, according to a Senate Democratic aide familiar with the decision. The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, said the provision’s effect on the federal budget was “merely incidental,” the aide said. […]
Rocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgage, cleared another $2.48 billion in profits during the fourth quarter, giving the nation’s biggest mortgage lender a total of $9.5 billion in profits for 2020. Rocket originated $107.2 billion in mortgages, with net rate lock volume of $96 billion in the fourth quarter, the company disclosed in […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats said on Thursday they would seek later this year to turn a proposed emergency federal check program for parents into a permanent piece of the American social safety net. “As soon as we pass the Recovery Act, we will fight to make it permanent and to make sure they can […]
Summary List Placement American billionaires have added $1.3 trillion to their collective net worths since March 2020, according to a new report from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF). Using data from Forbes, the report finds that billionaires have seen a 44% increase in wealth since March 18, 2020. […]