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California-based nonbank lender loanDepot is suing former chief operations officer Tammy Richards for breach of contract and fiduciary duty, accusing her of stealing confidential information concerning the lender’s customers.  The move is part of a legal battle that started in September 2021 when Richards filed a lawsuit alleging the lender closed thousands of loans without proper documentation to boost its performance […]

New York-based digital lender Better Home & Finance Holding Company launched Better Insurance to allow customers to shop for homeowners insurance through a fully digital platform. Better Insurance is the latest innovation available through the company’s insurance arm, Better Cover, which partners with more than 20 different insurance providers, according to the firm. The white-label […]

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell left the door open to a future interest rate hike on Wednesday, but most housing professionals are hopeful that the Fed may be done hiking interest rates for 2023. Tight financial and credit conditions, slowing inflation and high 10-year Treasury yields – the primary driver in the rise of longer-term […]

The newly-updated Fannie Mae November Selling Guide now bars job offers or contracts for future employment from family members or interested parties involved in a transaction. “We revised our policy to make it clear that when a borrower is scheduled to begin new employment under the terms of an employment offer or contract, the offer […]

Michael Gifford and David Zvaifler‘s home equity investment company, Splitero, lost its main investor, Redwood Trust, HousingWire has learned. According to an internal presentation deck, the startup had secured more than $1 billion in committed capital. Out of that figure, $750 million was supposed to come from Redwood, representing 75% of the total capital. Atalaya […]

The coming winter is expected to be an existential test of survival for many independent mortgage banks (IMBs), according to leaders of several mortgage advisory firms. It’s expected to be dark, difficult doldrums ahead, one marked by unyieldingly high mortgage rates — now hovering near 8% — and a dearth of mortgage-origination opportunities. “We’re really […]

Zillow Group has entered into an agreement to acquire CRM system, Follow Up Boss, according to an announcement on Wednesday. The acquisition purchase price includes $400 million of initial cash consideration and up to $100 million in potential cash earnout. “Follow Up Boss is beloved by agents across the industry, including many Zillow Premier Agent […]

Rates for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage are the highest in over 20 years and may stay elevated for some time. As borrowers reel from the sticker shock of conventional mortgages, lenders could see a surge of demand for alternative lending products, such as adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), for the first time since the financial crisis. Most […]

Mortgage applications fell for the third week in a row as mortgage rates surged toward 8%. For the week ending Oct. 27, total home loan applications fell 2.1% compared to the week prior, according to weekly mortgage application data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). “The impact of higher rates continued to be felt across […]

The finances at nonbank mortgage companies will remain under pressure in 2024, despite some relief in mortgage rates, according to a new Fitch Ratings report. But the credit ratings agency has a “moderately deteriorating” outlook for the sector because earnings – along with origination volumes – “have likely reached trough levels.” In addition, companies should see modest […]

loanDepot has rolled out a new down payment assistance program for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loan borrowers that enables them to put zero money down upfront. In loanDepot’s program, dubbed AccessZERO, the down payment assistance is structured as a 10-year fully amortized repayable second mortgage. Borrowers must have a minimum credit score of 600 to qualify for […]

If I had told you on Dec. 31, 2022, that mortgage rates would hit 8% in 2023, you would reasonably assume housing inventory would sky rocket higher, home prices would fall noticeably, and the number of price cuts would be higher year over year. Instead, the opposite has happened: home prices nationally hit an all-time […]

The servicing segment drove most of Pennymac Financial Services’s earnings in the third quarter of 2023, just like its peers, Mr. Cooper and Rithm Capital.  Profits at the California-based lender increased by 60% from July to September, compared to the prior quarter, with originations also boosting performance.  Pennymac announced on Thursday a $92.87 million net income in Q3 2023, […]

Average mortgage rates on 30-year fixed home loans continued their march towards 8% this week as the Treasury yield surpassed 5%. Rates have been steadily climbing for seven straight weeks, the longest consecutive increase since Spring 2022, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The average 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 7.79% as of […]

While existing homebuyers have been battling high mortgage rates for months — which are now at 8% — the builders are wooing buyers with lower rates and incentives. Today, the new home sales data beat expectations and surprised people. However, sales have been rising slowly for some time.  Using a low bar of sales from […]

A brewing crisis is emerging around homeowners insurance and thus far the finance and insurance community has not offered any viable solutions. The annual number of weather/climate-related disasters exceeding $1 billion per event has more than doubled over the last five years from historical averages. Homeowners in affected markets have experienced increases in premiums that threaten their […]

A combination of mortgage volatility and extreme margin compression forced Homestar Financial Corp. to suspend retail operations.  The Gainesville, Georgia-based lender announced plans to cease retail operations while accepting mortgage locks through Oct. 31, 2023. The decision to shut down retail operations comes on the heels of additional mortgage volatility driven by the macro economy, […]

Mr. Cooper Group improved its profitability in the third quarter of 2023 mainly due to the performance of its servicing portfolio, which benefited from high rates and low delinquency. However, the company still faces challenges on the origination side of the business, resulting in lower earnings and origination in the period.  On Wednesday, top executives at […]

With mortgage rates still hovering around 8%, mortgage applications decreased 1% for the week ending Oct. 20 compared to the week prior, according to weekly mortgage application data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Mortgage activity continued to stall, with applications dipping to the slowest weekly pace since 1995,” Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy […]

For nearly 30 years, Deion Sanders has been a recognizable name in the sports world. He’s made headlines again this summer after being named the new head football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder and subsequently undergoing a roster overhaul that resulted in the departure of 81% of last year’s roster. A majority of […]

Insellerate, a CRM provider serving banks, lenders and credit unions, announced an integration with Finastra’s MortgagebotLOS and Originate solutions on Tuesday. Thanks to this latest collaboration, lenders who use Finastra’s software will benefit from a seamless, fully integrated CRM as well as a marketing automation solution.  “Finastra has a long history of delivering innovative solutions to […]

CEDAR CREEK, Texas — loanDepot is “fully committed” to return to profitability and “aggressively manage the cost structure” while investing in “automation and process improvement,” CEO Frank Martell said in an exclusive sit-down interview during HousingWire Annual earlier this month.  “We want to be in a leadership position coming out of this cycle, which I […]

While the mortgage delinquency rate remains low compared to pre-pandemic levels, the number of delinquent loans ticked up in September, according to the ICE Mortgage Monitor report. The national delinquency rate climbed to 3.29% in September, which is up 12 basis points from August and up 13 basis points from September 2022. This makes it […]

The haunted house ride with the bond market and mortgage rates continued this week, but one housing data line hasn’t been spooked. New listing data appears unafraid of the mortgage rate ghost story over the last few months. Unlike last year, when new listings data had a noticeable move lower once mortgage rates reached 6%, […]

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that it has secured $107 million in judgments and enforcement actions against banks and mortgage lenders to combat the practice of lenders’ avoidance of providing credit services to people living or seeking to live in communities of color because of race, color or national origin, otherwise […]

Scott Smith, interim CEO of Optimal Blue, co-president of Romulus portfolio at Perseus Group of Constellation Software Scott Smith: We provide a ton of data and being a new owner, I probably won’t even do it justice how much we actually provide. The monthly originations market report uses rate lock data from the Optimal Blue […]

Rates on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage eclipsed 8% this week as the Treasury yield surpassed 4.9% for the first time since 2007, according to one index. Per Mortgage News Daily, mortgage rates touched 8.03% on Wednesday, up from 7.69% the previous week. HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed Optimal Blue’s average 30-year fixed rate for conventional […]

In late August, when mortgage rates were well over 7% and beginning their climb toward 8%, Jeff Anderson had a client do what few other homeowners are willing to do: She gave up her 4% mortgage rate. You’re probably thinking, “Uh, why on earth would she do that?”  The client wanted to pay off $30,000 […]

Soaring interest rates and a higher-for-longer policy will take its toll on the economy, according to Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) group. “The cause of the recent run-up in long-term rates is multifactorial and likely includes some expectation of more resilient economic growth coupled with a higher-for-longer monetary policy stance from the Federal […]

Top-20 U.S. mortgage lender Bank of America (BofA) reported declining mortgage and home equity production in the third quarter of 2023, compared to the previous quarter. And more declines are yet to come if regulators’ proposed capital rules are applied to banks, according to BofA’s executives. On July 27, the Federal Reserve, Federal Depository Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of […]

For years broker channel evangelists told me that a down market would give them an edge on their retail brethren. Well, it’s certainly been a down market. How has the broker channel fared in the wake of the Fed rate hikes? I asked the good folks at mortgage data technology firm InGenius to run the […]

As the 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased for the sixth consecutive week to 7.70%, mortgage applications slumped, hitting their lowest level since 1995. Last Monday, in an attempt to calm the markets, a coalition of housing trade groups — including the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), National Association of Realtors (NAR) and National Association of Home […]

The single-family rental (SFR) sector and its close cousin, the fix-and-flip market, are now essentially treading water in an environment of high interest rates, approaching 8%; high home prices; and a dearth of home-purchase inventory. Still, even in this difficult-to-agonizing supply-challenged housing market, SFR and fix-and-flip investors, which both target existing-home inventory, are still finding […]

Mortgage tech firm Blend has launched a lower-cost version of its mortgage suite for retail independent mortgage banks, the company announced this week. This offering, called Blend IMB Essentials, includes many of the same features of its standard offering for mortgage lenders. Blend IMB Essentials will streamline the application process, will facilitate pulling soft credits […]

Verifications provider Argyle announced its integration with Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter (DU) program on Monday, becoming the first DU-authorized report supplier to offer automated income and employment verification reports based on consumer-permissioned, direct-source data. The integration enables mortgage lenders to use Argyle’s income and employment verification solution to get Day 1 Certainty and relief from […]

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has tremendous potential to cut costs and improve customer experience, but regulation has not caught up to develop a governance program, industry pros said of AI’s implementation in mortgage lending. Bias, discrimination, privacy and security concerns related to consumer information are some of the biggest risks in implementing generative AI, noted […]

The market is rocky, margins are tight. And the grind may not end anytime soon, Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO Bob Broeksmit told attendees in a fiery speech at the trade group’s annual conference this week in Philadelphia. “Normally, I talk about the remarkable work you did over the previous year. Then I look […]

Regarding lenders’ vociferous complaints about increased loan buybacks from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, FHFA Director Sandra Thompson said the regulator expects originators to deliver loans consistent with the guidelines. But, she added, the Enterprises must implement a fair, consistent, and predictable process for identifying loan defects and the appropriate remedies. “After multiple years of record-high loan volume, […]

Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker advocated for stopping interest rate hikes, noting that disinflation is under way. “I believe that we are at the point where we can hold rates where they are,” Harker said at the 2023 Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention & Expo in Philadelphia on Monday. “Disinflation is under way, labor […]

The trough for the mortgage origination market is nearing an end point and 2024 is shaping up to be a better year for the industry, economists of the the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said at the 2023 Annual Convention & Expo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The MBA doesn’t expect the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates […]

Two top-20 mortgage lenders in the United States may combine forces amid the most challenging market in decades. CrossCountry Mortgage is in talks to acquire Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp., nine industry sources told HousingWire.  The talks remain ongoing and are not believed to be in the late stages, sources said.  If the deal is completed, […]

Investing in tech to save costs and get business in the door has become ever more important in an origination market facing extended headwinds. Recognizing the opportunities in the mortgage space, Grant Moon, former CEO and founder of fintech platform Home Captain, is gearing up to launch his new firm – BlueForceX. As a mortgage […]

At two top-five depository mortgage lenders, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, the third quarter of 2023 earnings reflected different strategies in the mortgage space. During Q3, Wells Fargo faced the consequences of exiting the correspondent lending channel in January, which resulted in reduced revenues from mortgage origination and servicing compared to the previous quarter. Meanwhile, JPMorgan, which […]

Customer engagement platform Total Expert‘s customer intelligence and mortgage tech firm Polly‘s product and pricing engine (PPE) will help California-based lender Mountain West Financial identify lending opportunities from its existing database. By deploying customer intelligence from Total Expert — a customer engagement platform for financial institutions — Mountain West Financial will provide automated alerts that notify […]

A coalition of trade associations — including the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA), National Association of Realtors (NAR), and Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) — on Thursday called on the Biden administration to reduce the historically large spread between the 30-year mortgage rates and 10-year Treasuries. The trade groups noted that the spread […]