Austin fintech startup Hitch has rolled out a HELOC platform to help homeowners tap into more than $100 billion in government grants available for home renovation. Established at the start of 2022, Hitch will give qualified owners access to up to 90% of the equity locked in their homes, the company said Thursday. One of […]
Credit reports are getting a lot pricier, and some mortgage lenders are none too pleased about it. In a letter dated Nov. 22, the National Consumer Reporting Agency told its members that the “vast majority” of mortgage lenders would see price increases between 10% and 400% from Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO). The letter, signed by […]
Relief from the rate-driven volume reduction afflicting both the primary and secondary mortgage markets is expected to be elusive for some time to come, at least in terms of any renewed refinancing boost. That’s according to David Petrosinelli, a New York-based senior trader with InsphereX, a tech-driven underwriter and distributor of securities that operates multiple trading […]
A recent lawsuit filed by Banc of California is claiming that mortgage lenders and servicers Sprout Mortgage (now defunct) and Planet Home Lending owe $1.5 million related to the proceeds of two notes it owned and funded. In addition, the bank alleges that Sprout’s transactions with its warehouse lines have resulted in a deficiency of […]
The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s TECH100 award are now open through Friday, December 23, 2022. Click here to nominate your organization. Each year, the TECH100 awards recognize the 200 most influential tech companies in mortgage and real estate […]
The National Association of Mortgage Brokers (NAMB) announced a series of roadshows in partnership with Freddie Mac and Rocket Pro TPO, starting Dec. 8 in St. Louis, Missouri. The events will feature speakers focused on professional development for loan originators to grow their business and what is likely to happen in the next Congress that […]
Mortgage rates dropped last week, but it wasn’t enough to spur mortgage demand. The market composite index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, declined 0.8% for the week ending November 25 after rising 2.2% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The index fell by a whopping 67.8% compared to the […]
Given the market contraction and numerous layoffs in the industry, it may be surprising to think that loan officer recruitment and retention could be a focus for some lenders and independent mortgage banks right now. But due to the reduction of volume, it’s extremely important for lenders and IMBs to be able to replace that […]
Mortgage fairness for Black and Native Americans is no better today than it was 30 years ago, according to a new mortgage fairness report. The report, issued by “fairness-as-a-service” solution firm FairPlay AI, was based on a study of more than 350 million mortgage applications from 1990 to 2021. The applications were obtained from public […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Tuesday announced that the baseline conforming loan limit for 2023 will be $726,200, an increase of 12.21%, or $79,000, compared to 2022. The federal government, through government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will now back mortgage loans north of $1 million, with the new ceiling loan […]
Economic reports over the Thanksgiving holiday paint a complicated picture of what’s happening, and where we are on recession watch. The big economic surprise was the strength of Black Friday sales, where consumers spent a record $9.12 billion online. Another surprise was the Atlanta Fed’s forecast of 4.3% GDP growth in the fourth quarter, since […]
Pure wholesale lender Homepoint will provide a $500 credit on appraisal costs for borrowers buying primary homes that are designated as Fannie Mae HomePath properties, the company announced on Monday. This is the second initiative to be launched by Homepoint this year to reduce costs for borrowers who use the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company. In […]
Last week the Wall Street Journal published a story by Andrew Ackerman stating that the Biden administration wants to target nonbanks for tougher oversight and additional regulation. The story states, “the Biden administration is laying the groundwork to target nonbank firms with stricter federal oversight as regulators grow concerned about financial threats from companies operating […]
Today new home sales beat estimates, and new home median sales prices hit an all-time high. What is going on here? My job is always to be the detective, not the troll so let’s take a look at today’s data, as there is a constant theme here that I have talked about for some time. […]
It’s a terrible time for homebuyers. Mortgage rates for a 30-year fixed-rate loan are hovering around 7% levels and still-high home prices are slashing purchasing power. What helped Erica Davis, a loan originator at Guild Mortgage, in the current high-rate environment is a seller-funded temporary 2-1 rate buydown. By taking advantage of the 2-1 temporary […]
Recent declines in mortgage rates, which are due to a slowdown in inflation growth, have been enough to convince some borrowers to apply for new home loans, according to recent data on mortgage applications. However, there are still forces pushing many borrowers — mainly lower-income buyers — to stay on the sidelines, industry experts say. […]
The current market downturn for mortgage lenders may be shorter than the previous cycles, mainly due to the recent rounds of workforce layoffs imposed by nonbanks. “While it is true that many nonbanks entered this downturn with a large war chest of cash and capital, this is more than offset by the impact of warehouse […]
Mortgage rates are changing every day – and those changes can have big effects on borrowers. Over the last year, it seems that most of those changes have taken an upward trajectory, but there are times that monitoring mortgage rates means good news, such as the rate drop from 7.37% on Nov. 9 to 6.67% […]
With mortgage rates down nearly 50 basis points from the recent peak about a month ago, borrower demand picked up again this week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The market composite index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, rose 2.2% for the week ending November 18 after registering a 2.7% increase in the previous week. Compared […]
Prepayment activity fell to another record low in October amid mortgage rates topping 7% and refis drying up. Black Knight expects that the steep declines in rate lock volume and seasonality factors point to further declines in prepayment activity. Prepayment dropped 16.5% to a single-month mortality rate of 0.48%, well below the previous record of […]
Movement Mortgage CEO Casey Crawford and President Mike Brennan. ” data-medium-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?w=1024″ width=”1200″ height=”700″ src=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?w=1024″ alt=”movement” class=”wp-image-370816″ srcset=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg 1200w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?resize=150,88 150w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?resize=300,175 300w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?resize=768,448 768w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?resize=1024,597 1024w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/deal_02.jpg?resize=600,350 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”>Movement Mortgage CEO Casey Crawford and President Mike Brennan. Movement Mortgage’s deal to acquire top indie retail lender Mortgage Network marks a shift […]
The forbearance rate increased marginally in October after more than two years of declines, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Monday. The trade group previously noted that it expected pressures due to worsening economic conditions. The total number of loans in forbearance in October increased to 0.70% of the servicers’ total portfolio volume, up one basis point […]
Homeowners with the Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage financing will now be allowed to obtain private flood insurance policies, expanding consumer options to protect borrowers from the country’s major natural disaster. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, through the FHA, announced on Monday that the change will go into effect on December 21, 2022. […]
The forecast for the housing market is expected to get gloomier next year before rebounding to 2022 levels in 2024. Fannie Mae‘s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group forecasts single-family home sales to post 5.67 million in 2022 before dropping to 4.42 million in 2023 and then climbing to 5.25 million in 2024. The latest […]
Black Knight agreed to sell its TitlePoint business unit to former parent company Fidelity National Financial for $225 million in cash. A sale of TitlePoint is expected ahead of Black Knight’s planned blockbuster acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. TitlePoint enables searches for detailed property information, images of documents and maps across the U.S. and is […]
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported today on two trends in existing home sales that we have seen for many months now: sales are declining while total inventory data has fallen directly for the three straight months. On a positive note, however, the days on the market are no longer a teenager anymore: that […]
On Aug. 31, 2022, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that it would conduct a comprehensive review of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) system. This article addresses two legal issues relevant to the review: FHFA’s statutory authority to reduce the number of Federal Home Loan Banks, and The application of the FHLBank statutory […]
Don’t be fooled by last week’s mortgage rate collapse. A combination of elevated mortgage rates, sluggish home sales and inflation continue to plague the housing market workforce, with numerous mortgage lenders and real estate startups shedding employees. “The U.S. housing market appreciation and the rapid increase in mortgage rates have reduced housing affordability and accelerated […]
The third quarter used to be historically the strongest of the year for independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks. At least until 2022. On the origination side, these companies’ costs exceeded $11,000 per loan for the first time, despite a reduction of 19% year over year for the total employees per […]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac purchased a record $2.52 trillion in single-family loans in 2021, with the average guarantee fee — expected to cover credit losses, administrative costs and cost of capital — rising 2 basis points from the prior year to 56 bps. That uptick is largely thanks to the controversial 50 bps “adverse market […]
Wisconsin-based mortgage lender Waterstone Mortgage Corporation appointed Chik Quintans its new director of digital marketing, the company announced Thursday. In his new role, Quintans will oversee the digital marketing strategy to advance Waterstone Mortgage’s online presence through social media campaigns and content creation, in collaboration with graphic designers and communications specialists. Quintans will focus on […]
The best way to fight inflation is to add more supply, and when I look at the housing completion data for the past two years, it just makes me want to puke. In previous expansions, builders’ housing completion data would move in line with housing starts and permits. However, for the first time in recent […]
Mortgage hedge advisory and secondary marketing software firm Mortgage Capital Trading, Inc. released a new marketplace for co-issue loan sales this week. Co-issue loan sales, also known as flow-based mortgage servicing rights sales, are three-way transactions involving the sale of loans to one of the agencies, with a simultaneous sale of the MSRs to a […]
Some lenders have experienced a spike in borrowers’ demand for mortgage loans following last week’s rate collapse due to softer inflation data. However, according to executives and loan officers, it’s too early to say that this marks a turning point in the shrinking mortgage market. To illustrate how fast mortgage rates have declined, the 30-year […]
Mortgage lender NewRez added the temporary rate buydown feature to its “Smart Series” non-QM products to leverage the growing group of non-traditional borrowers. Borrowers of non-QM mortgages now have an option to reduce their rates by 3% in the first year, 2% in the following year and 1% in the third year – called a 3-2-1 […]
Wealthy individuals are among the likely buyers of independent mortgage banks in 2023, according to one M&A expert. ” data-medium-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?w=1024″ width=”1200″ height=”675″ src=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?w=1024″ alt=”independent mortgage banks” class=”wp-image-370313″ srcset=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg 1200w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?resize=150,84 150w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?resize=300,169 300w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?resize=768,432 768w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?resize=1024,576 1024w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/independent-mortgage-banks.jpg?resize=600,338 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”> By the time 2022 is wrapped up, mortgage lenders will have […]
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) this week expanded its temporary rate buydown offerings amid higher interest rates and fierce competition. The Detroit-based lender now has an option for borrowers to reduce their rates by 3% during the first year of the loan, compared to the maximum 2% previously offered. UWM is also launching a lender-paid version […]
Mortgage demand rose as rates dropped following the October slowdown in inflation growth numbers. However, while purchase mortgage applications increased across all loan types, refinance activity remained depressed. The market composite index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 2.7% for the week ending November 11, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The […]
Lending standards tightened in October, largely due to higher mortgage rates and the worsening outlook for the economy, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said. The mortgage credit availability index (MCAI) fell by 0.5% to 102.0 last month, marking eight consecutive months of decline. This caused it to reach its lowest level since March 2013, according […]
California-based mortgage lender loanDepot terminated a master repurchase agreement (MRA) with J.V.B. Financial Group, reducing its funding capacity amid sharply decreasing originations. “The maximum amount available for financing of mortgage loans and mortgage-related securities available under the MRA and certain ancillary documents was $750 million,” according to loanDepot’s 8-K filing disclosed on Tuesday. No borrowings […]
Full-service mortgage lender Nations Lending and local Indiana real estate firm Carpenter Realtors launched a joint venture, Commitment Mortgage, in order to offer an end-to-end experience — from finding a home to closing a loan in a cooled-down housing market. “We view the launch of this venture as the natural progression of our company’s growth,” […]
Rate lock volume has dropped by more than 60% over the past 12 months as it struggles under the weight of high mortgage rates, which closed out October at 7.06%. Amid the surging rates, the refinance market is nearing the bottom. The decline in rate lock volume was driven by a 25.1% decline in cash-out […]
After last week’s enormous bond and stock rally, I wondered when the Federal Reserve would make a statement to try to reverse some of that momentum. Well, it didn’t take long: on Sunday Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller made comments at an economic conference in Australia that made their position clear. This is the second […]
While elevated mortgage rates, sluggish home sales and high inflation have taken a significant toll on the housing industry, it’s unlikely that these issues will cause home prices to drop next year, at least according to National Association of Realtors (NAR) Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. In fact, we may see a further uptick in home […]
Cherre, a real estate data integration and insights platform, announced its partnership with real estate valuation technology company Clear Capital this week. Cherre customers can now use Clear Capital’s property analytics, which includes insights from 93% of all listings in the U.S., internal systems, and application data with accompanying contextual data. “By combining Clear Capital’s […]