Three years into its controversial ultimatum, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) continues to engage in legal battles with its broker partners selling loans to rivals Rocket Mortgage and Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. UWM’s latest move was on Thursday when it filed a lawsuit in a U.S. district court in Michigan against Atlantic Trust Mortgage Corporation, a Florida-based broker shop with 18 loan officers, per […]
The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) announced that it will return to the Western U.S. for its 2024 annual meeting, which will take place slightly earlier in the year than usual, according to a member alert. The 2024 NRMLA Annual Meeting and Expo will be held Sept. 24-26 at the Hard Rock Hotel in […]
Housing demand is up and it’s time to track the spring housing data and see what the selling season will bring. As I always stress, we are working from the lowest bar ever with demand, so let’s add historical context to the data. But, even with mortgage rates higher this year than last year, demand […]
There were a total of 361 consumer complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) related to the reverse mortgage industry during the calendar year 2023, according to a consumer complaint database maintained by the Bureau. Of those complaints, 167 had to do with “trouble during the payment process,” while other topics included payment […]
If lenders’ losses come in as expected during fourth-quarter 2023 and first-quarter 2024, it will represent eight consecutive quarters of losses for more than 350 independent mortgage bankers, said Jim Cameron, senior partner at Stratmor. Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks have collectively been in the red for six consecutive quarters. […]
Nonqualified mortgage (non-QM) wholesale lender A&D Mortgage has obtained licenses to originate loans in Arkansas and Mississippi, the company announced on Thursday. “This expansion is not only about growing our business; it’s about wholeheartedly bringing A&D Mortgage’s unwavering commitment to top-notch service, highly competitive rates, and tailored loan solutions to more Americans,” Max Slyusarchuk, CEO of […]
California-headquartered LoanSnap was hit with a temporary order to cease and desist from Connecticut’s Department of Banking for “systemic” unlicensed mortgage loan origination activity. Connecticut Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez alleged that LoanSnap violated the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). But the crux of the commissioner’s findings focuses on unlicensed […]
Mortgage rates stabilized in the past week but remain close to the narrow range observed since the start of this month. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.69% as of Jan. 25, an increase from last week’s figure of 6.60%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey released on Thursday. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed rate […]
Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Matt Van Fossen, CEO of Absolute Home Mortgage and Mortgage Automation Technologies, to talk about his unique view of the housing ecosystem and how it influences how he builds technology. Van Fossen not only heads a mortgage lender and a tech company, but is the president of […]
Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced this week the release of their “Mission Index,” updating or expanding their single-family social bond framework to better communicate the goals of the index to stakeholders and investors. The GSEs issued separate announcements and a joint statement. Freddie Mac updated its single-family social bond framework which […]
Fannie Mae has announced updates to its HomeReady product, including a temporary $2,500 credit for very low-income purchase borrowers to use for down payment and closing costs. Another step the government-sponsored enterprise took was to enhance the best efforts commitments on HomeReady loans. It allows lenders to lock in margins and reduce hedging costs. The enterprise […]
A cohort of former employees at now-defunct reverse mortgage lender Live Well Financial has been granted final settlement approval in a class action lawsuit brought against the company’s estate in May 2019. Monica Williams, a former loan account manager in Live Well’s Richmond, Va. headquarters, initially filed the suit days after Live Well had halted […]
San Diego-based reverse mortgage wholesale lender Smartfi Home Loans has forged a partnership with LoanPASS to use the technology company’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) product and pricing engine in its reverse lending operations. Stating its desire to expand reverse mortgage wholesale lending through a series of inter-company partnerships, the new accord serves as an example of its […]
Delinquencies rose in December but the rise is mostly due to the calendar: December ended on a Sunday, so payments made on the last day of the month were credited to January. As a result, some loans appeared temporarily delinquent, ICE noted in its First Look Mortgage Performance report. The national delinquency rate rose to […]
Mortgage demand continued to increase last week, as seen in an uptick in purchase activity. Mortgage applications rose by 3.7% in the week ending Jan. 19 compared to one week earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, per the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey. “Conventional and FHA purchase applications drove most of the increase […]
Last month, DataDigest explored market experts’ expectations for 2024, with the consensus calling for a moderately better housing market than 2023. But a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee the following week set off a market frenzy over expectations of interest rate cuts, moving mortgage rates down well ahead of experts’ forecasts and prompting […]
Financial services firm Consolidated Analytics acquired Real Info, Inc. — a provider of property data and valuation technology solutions. With the acquisition, Consolidated Analytics expands its valuation solutions, offering clients tools — from data and analytics to appraisals — to predict market value and access a more comprehensive selection of collateral assessment products, the company […]
Fifty-five percent of surveyed baby boomers plan to remain in their existing homes as they age, but less than a quarter of those surveyed have any plans to renovate their homes to more safely and easily accommodate natural changes that come with aging. This is according to a new report from home improvement services company […]
Chicago, Illinois-based mortgage tech firm Gateless announced an integration of its Smart Underwrite solution product with The Work Number – a digital verification solution – from consumer credit reporting agency Equifax. Smart Underwrite allows lenders to digitally analyze and interpret all essential loan data and documentation the moment they are received. For instance, when a […]
Constellation Software’s Dark Matter Technologies rolled out an automated workflow in the Empower loan origination system (LOS) that makes it easier for lenders to identify and qualify loan applicants who could benefit from evaluation of their positive rent payment history. Developed in partnership with Informative Research – a technology services and consulting company – utilizing […]
After a year of challenge in the reverse mortgage industry, the major lenders in the industry look a bit different for calendar year 2023 when compared with recent years past. Reduced volume, a challenging mortgage rate environment and industry consolidation has contributed to some of the broader changes. Here are the top 10 Federal Housing […]
He led Cenlar FSB’s digital transformation utilizing automation through chatbots as well as migrating its technology to the cloud. “The business of servicing has long since outgrown available technology which increases borrower dissatisfaction, exposure to risk, inefficiencies, and operating costs,” said Lewis Ranieri, founder and chairman of Ranieri Solutions. “Rob’s unique background in mortgage includes […]
Seniors largely want to remain in their own homes as they get older, and that preference could be remaking the housing market in the city of Chicago, according to a new report. Construction Coverage, a company that reviews construction software, insurance, and financial products in order to assist property builders, recently released a new report […]
Customer intelligence and mortgage tech firm Polly named Troy Coggiola as its chief operating officer amid the company’s effort to scale. Coggiola will be responsible for Polly’s product, implementation, support and design teams, working toward seamless cross-organization collaboration. He has more than 25 years of mortgage technology and enterprise software experience with his latest stint […]
Housing inventory, new listing data and mortgage rates are all rising, but the price cut data percentages are falling. Traditionally at this time of year purchase apps rise and the number of price cuts fall. However, at the current trend, we will break below the lows in the price cut percentage data that we saw […]
Country Club Mortgage, a home lender based in California, has decided to lay off over 100 employees due to “facility closures,” documents sent to state regulators show. “This letter serves to give you an amended 60-day notice of permanent layoffs and facility closures effective Feb. 6, 2024,” Sherry Carson, human resources generalist at Country Club Mortgage, wrote in […]
Tennessee-based community bank Patriot Bank agreed to pay $1.9 million to resolve allegations from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that it engaged in redlining discriminatory practices. The DOJ alleged that from 2015 through at least 2020, Patriot avoided providing mortgage services to majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee and discouraged people seeking credit in […]
No set path exists for any professional to enter the reverse mortgage industry. People often find themselves in the business from various other professions. It’s the case for Finance of America Companies (FOA) Chief Marketing Officer Chris Moschner. Arriving at FOA following its acquisition of American Advisors Group (AAG) last year, Moschner already had a […]
Courtesy: Fannie Mae Fannie Mae’s economic and strategic research (ESR) group expects home sales and mortgage origination activity to begin a gradual recovery in the presence of a slow-growing economy. “Inflation’s decline and the resultant Fed pivot to signaling future rate cuts rates lead us to believe that home sales and mortgage originations likely bottomed […]
The rash of recent mortgage and title industry data breaches serves as a sobering reminder of the paramount importance of cybersecurity. In this first installment of our reducing cyber risk series, let’s explore a crucial facet of cybersecurity: bolstering resilience in your critical systems and services. Just like a well-built castle can withstand attacks, having […]
Local community developers bidding on foreclosures in the second half of 2023 are signaling a slowdown in U.S. home price appreciation in the first half of 2024, with a rising risk that appreciation will dip back into negative territory. The risk of a double dip in home price appreciation varies substantially by market, even among […]
The city of Laguna Beach, Calif. recently offered details of its city-sponsored aging-in-place program, dubbed “Lifelong Laguna,” in a profile published by CNBC. It provides new insight into the measures cities can explore to more easily facilitate aging-in-place goals for older residents. 2021 research from AARP indicates that 77% of adults at or over the […]
Ted Tozer, former president of Ginnie Mae during the Obama administration and current president Alanna McCargo’s most recent Senate-confirmed predecessor, applauded the news that the company is looking into the development of a new Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Security (HMBS) product. Announced earlier this week as a part of a broader effort to introduce […]
HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Jim Butler, chief technology officer at Stavvy, to talk about moving real estate from paper to a digital transaction, how the company is using AI, and the vibe you get working with industry experts. Previously, Butler served as CTO of HqO, an employee experience platform for […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is sounding the alarm about an accelerating rate of scams that most commonly target older Americans, where a bad actor will pose as an official representative of the Bureau or another federal agency. The CFPB published a blog post on Tuesday describing details of the scam, including the lengths […]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in the spotlight again over the role some housing-industry experts say they could play in reducing mortgage rates if they resumed a more active investor role in the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market. That’s a role those government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) have not played since prior to entering into conservatorship in the wake of […]
Mortgage rates at their lowest level in three weeks led to an increase in borrowers’ demand for home loans last week, spreading some optimism in the industry in the first few weeks of 2024. To prove it, analysts are already discussing a potential refi recovery. Overall, mortgage applications rose by 10.4% in the week ending Jan. […]
David Stevens, a legend of the mortgage banking industry who helmed the Federal Housing Agency and the Mortgage Bankers Association in a career that spanned four decades, has died. “The real estate finance community mourns the loss today of one of its great leaders and fiercest advocates,” current MBA President Bob Broeksmit said in a […]
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Marcia Fudge suggested to a congressional committee that the department could consider eliminating life-of-loan premium requirements for mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), but did not offer any indication about the issue’s priority level at HUD. Sitting for a HUD oversight hearing […]
California-based fix-and-flip lender Anchor Loans launched a third-party originator (TPO) channel to serve mortgage brokers, banks, private and non-qualified mortgage (non-QM) lenders and other referral partners whose clients are home builders, developers and investors. Anchor Loans’ TPO channel will provide residential business purpose loan products – including bridge, fix and flip, ground-up construction and rental […]
A reverse mortgage may be a viable financial instrument to help pay for older Americans’ long-term care priorities, but they — and their implications on entitlement eligibility — need to be fully considered. This is according to a new column at MarketWatch, comparing reverse mortgage product features to other potential options and enlisting commentary from […]
Ginnie Mae intends to develop a new reverse mortgage-backed security product enabling the acquisition of loans from an HMBS pool above the existing 98% maximum claim amount (MCA) requirement, according to a new announcement. Released on Tuesday morning, the move is a further attempt to address the well-documented liquidity challenges that have been plaguing the […]
Last week, housing inventory grew and the number of price cuts fell, which is expected at this time of the year. I hope the next thing we see is housing inventory grow at the level it typically does in January or February instead of being delayed until March or April. Last year at this time, […]
With much of the U.S. retirement conversation often focused on the increasing challenges of maintaining a quality of living into older age, a law passed by Congress in 2022 could be a positive sign. The Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2022, known by its moniker “SECURE 2.0,” includes provisions including automatic enrollment of more […]
Mortgage businesses at Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are now only a fraction of what they were in 2022. As a group, the trio originated about $80 billion in mortgages in 2023, down from nearly $218 billion the prior year – a $138 billion decline (63%). The downsized volume reflects two equally important […]