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 […]
Summary List Placement The poorest 20% of Americans can expect to see a nearly 33% boost to their incomes with key Democratic stimulus provisions of $1,400 stimulus checks, and the expansion of child tax credits and the Earned Income Tax Credit. In a report released on Tuesday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy […]
Freddie Mac announced Wednesday the creation of new leadership roles in order to address housing equality in single- and multifamily housing businesses. Pamela Perry Freddie Mac appointed Pamela Perry as vice president of single-family equitable housing, and Amanda Nunnink as vice president of equity in multifamily housing. Perry will lead a newly formed team responsible […]
The seesaw nature of mortgage applications continued for the week ending Feb. 5, as applications decreased 4.1% from the prior week, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Applications were up 8.5% the week ending Jan. 29 – breaking a two-week stretch of decreases – before falling again last week. Mortgage rates […]
Borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be eligible for an additional forbearance extension of up to three months, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday. FHFA forbearance plans initially had a 12 month expiration date, however, the government entity is now allowing borrowers up to 15 months of coverage. According to the agency, eligibility for […]
The post Mortgage credit is still the tightest it has been in more than six years, but steady loosening in January revealed lenders are preparing for a rebounding economy, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a report on Tuesday. The group’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index rose 2% to 124.6 last month, still hovering near levels previously seen […]
Summary List Placement Democrats in Congress are racing to approve President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue package within weeks. But the final threshold for stimulus checks has divided Democrats as they scramble to get federal aid out the door by early March. Some Democrats are pushing to restrict the payments to lower-income households. The plan […]
Summary List Placement GOP Sen. Mitt Romney has made an ambitious proposal to offer a near-universal annual child allowance of $4,200 for children under age 6, and $3,000 for children aged 6 through 17. Currently, the federal government offers tax credits to parents with children, but they are smaller than this and, crucially, you have […]
Mega Capital Funding just became the latest company to re-enter the non-Qualified Mortgage space with the launch of several new product lines. Its new “Mega Elite” non-QM and debt service coverage ratio product lineup includes alternative income documentation products such as its three- and 12-month bank statement products, CPA and borrower prepared P&L and asset […]
Summary List Placement A new analysis from the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) found that 275,000 more women left the workforce in January, meaning they are no longer working or looking for work. The analysis comes from January’s jobs report, released on Friday. As Insider’s Ben Winck reported, nonfarm payrolls added 49,000 jobs in January […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia indicated during an interview on Capitol Hill that he favors keeping the same income thresholds for a wave of $1,4o0 stimulus checks and not tightening eligibility around them. “I think people making $75,000 in Georgia are struggling in many instances,” he told Insider. “I am committed to […]
Summary List Placement Congressional Democrats are starting to encourage people to file their taxes early this year so they qualify for more generous federal relief under President Joe Biden’s stimulus package. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, tweeted that tax-filing season starts this week on February 12. He encouraged people […]
Summary List Placement The House Committee on Education and Labor released a draft of its budget bill on Monday, detailing key components of the pandemic relief package. It includes a gradual federal minimum wage increase, funding for reopening K-12 schools, and additional pandemic benefits. Led by Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott, the draft bill […]
The U.S forbearance rate is falling, though not as quickly as it once was. Data released on Monday by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the share of servicers’ portfolio volume in forbearance fell 3 basis points to 5.35% last week. For the third month in a row, the MBA estimated 2.7 million homeowners are […]
Summary List Placement Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 will lift 900,000 people out of poverty, while increasing the country’s budget deficit by $54 billion over the 2021-2031 time period, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. Introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other top Democrats […]
Roughly 5 million households did not make their rent or mortgage payments in December, and 3.5 million renters and homeowners feel at risk of losing their home, according to new research from the Mortgage Bankers Association. There are some bright spots, however. The 5 million households who missed a payment in December was down from […]
In 2021, a lingering symptom of the economic sickness we suffered in 2020 is forbearance. Not the forbearance plans themselves, which allowed mortgage holders to delay their payments for many months, but the fact that 2.72 million homes remain in forbearance and can therefore be considered at risk. Forbearance will have to end at some […]
Summary List Placement The $15-per-hour minimum wage sought by Democrats may be too lofty a goal, economists at Goldman Sachs said Monday. President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats are pushing to gradually lift the federal minimum wage over the next four years. The nominal wage was last increased in 2007 to its current level of […]
Summary List Placement Over 50 House Democrats sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Friday requesting that the income threshold for the next round of stimulus payments remain at $75,000, ensuring families who need the payments are not left out. When Congress approved the $600 stimulus payments in December, the payments began to phase […]
Weeks before United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) went public in a SPAC deal that valued the lender at $16.1 billion, its president and CEO Mat Ishbia said observers shouldn’t expect a different United Wholesale Mortgage or a different Mat. He proved it in his first earnings call. On Thursday morning, Ishbia, in his characteristic fast-talking bravado, […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said US workers earning up to $60,000 should get direct payments. The question of who should receive payments under Biden’s relief package is a key debate in Congress. If Biden’s $1.9 trillion package is passed, the US would return to full employment by 2022, Yellen said. Sign up […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday regulators are still examining whether new policies are needed to address recent market volatility spurred by retail investors in forums like Reddit’s Wall Street Bets. The crowd of casual investors took the stock market by storm in January by bidding up highly shorted stocks like […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday said it would be “inappropriate” if Congress passed another stimulus package because the US economy is bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic. “The economy has come roaring back. Disposable income is at record high levels,” Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said in an interview on CNN’s “State […]
Summary List Placement Democrats are currently trying to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. While it’s a measure that’s facing an uphill battle, some Democrats — including President Joe Biden — have continued to emphasize its importance. That increase would more than double the current federal minimum wage of $7.25. It […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden gave one of the strongest indications yet on Friday that he is prepared to pass his $1.9 trillion emergency spending package with only Democratic votes. While delivering remarks at the White House, Biden said he wanted to “act fast” and emphasized his large plan was designed to address the […]
Summary List Placement The latest job report showed little improvement to job gains as the pandemic continues. Only 49,000 jobs were added last month, much lower than the 105,000 economists expected to see in the report. Last month’s gains were also much smaller than in several previous months, and come after December had a revised […]
This HousingWire Daily interview transcription features an interview with Housing Policy Council President and former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Ed DeMarco. In this episode, DeMarco talks about the Biden administration’s plans for homeowners coming out of forbearance and its focus moving forward. Listen to the full episode here and make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Below is the transcription […]
Summary List Placement Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Republican Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia introduced legislation on Friday that provides $1,400 stimulus checks to Americans while maintaining the $75,000 income threshold from the previous stimulus payments. In his $2 trillion stimulus plan, President Joe Biden called for $1,400 stimulus payments following […]
Mortgage Champions founder and CEO Dave Vermillion will be speaking on a panel covering operational strategies in the current market at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Vermillion is a trainer, speaker, consultant, author, consumer advocate, and philanthropist. He and his team have trained over 1 million lending professionals and worked with over 600 financial organizations and […]
Fresh off its acquisition of Stearns, Guaranteed Rate has picked up Owning Corporation, a direct-to-consumer mortgage lender. The acquisition gives Guaranteed Rate, best known for its retail prowess, another engine to boost its growth in the direct-to-consumer channel. Terms of the deal with Orange, California-based Owning were not disclosed. According to Guaranteed Rate, Owning’s direct-to-consumer […]
Summary List Placement A group of Republican senators questioned the size of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion stimulus plan in a letter sent on Thursday, noting that there is still emergency COVID-19 funding to be spent. On Monday, 1o Republican senators, led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, met with Biden to discuss their counter-proposal […]
Summary List Placement Workers who earned less than the median hourly wage saw greater job losses when the pandemic started and have seen a slower recovery, according to a new BofA Global Research report. BofA calculates the median average hourly wage as $15.30, using Current Population Survey (CPS) data. That equates to a salary of […]
Summary List Placement The US labor market improved slightly last month as daily COVID-19 cases crested and new stimulus hit households, but job-addition figures still fell short of expectations. American businesses added 49,000 nonfarm payrolls in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The report misses the consensus economist estimate of 105,000 job additions, […]
Summary List Placement The Senate unanimously passed a Republican amendment on Thursday that seeks to prevent Democrats from doing something they never wanted to do: double the minimum wage to $15 an hour during the pandemic. In effect, Democrats, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, joined with Republicans to drive the fact home. […]
Summary List Placement More than a decade since the last federal minimum wage increase, the country could be on track to see more than a doubling of the current rate by the year 2025, but only if Democrats can get the measure passed. As part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, he included […]
PennyMac, the nation’s largest mortgage aggregator, posted net profits of $452.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. In all, the nonbank brought in $1 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2020, its latest earnings report showed. The gains were driven by “core production and servicing results partially offset by fair value losses […]
Like many players in the non-Qualified Mortgage space, Deephaven Mortgage was forced to halt operations in 2020 when liquidity dried up. That was then, this is now. Deephaven is now set to issue a $146.2 million security backed by non-QM mortgages that have seasoned for an average of nine months, a presale report from S&P […]
Summary List Placement One of President Joe Biden’s earliest campaign pledges to increase the pay for millions of workers is on thin ice. And it’s not just because of Republican opposition. Biden’s proposal to raise the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 is so far one of the most controversial parts of his $1.9 […]
Lisa Haynes, the Mortgage Banker Association‘s senior vice president, chief financial officer and chief diversity and inclusion officer, will 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 […]