Texas-based multichannel lender Caliber Home Loans is accusing Ohio-based CrossCountry Mortgage of executing an “illegal scheme of unfair competition” by targeting its employees, stealing trade secrets and diverting customers. The accusations are part of a lawsuit filed in May in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington in Seattle. National Mortgage News first reported the case. Caliber […]
In this hot housing market, Michigan-based wholesale lender Homepoint understands the key to originating more home loans is ensuring more sellers accept offers made by its buyers. To do that it relies on the two words sellers increasingly want to hear: “All cash.” But how does an all-cash offer benefit a mortgage lender? Dubbed the […]
Prospective homebuyers aren’t deterred by the skyrocketing mortgage rates amid a slow start to the spring home-buying season this year. The Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, rose 2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending May 6, from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Conventional, […]
Detroit-based Rocket Companies, the parent of Rocket Mortgage, generated a whopping $1 billion profit in the first quarter, up from $865 million the previous quarter. Compared to its main competitors, the lender seems to be in a comfortable place. United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) reported a much lower profit of $453.2 million from January to March, buoyed by adjustments in […]
The mortgage-servicing rights (MSR) market went on a tear at the start of 2022, and that hot streak has continued into the second quarter as interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages continue to rise — now up 2 percentage points since the start of the year and still seemingly upward bound. As rates rise, MSR prepayment speeds […]
Nonbank heavyweight loanDepot reported an unprofitable quarter largely due to a steep decline in origination volume and expense reductions that did not keep up with the rapidly changing environment. The firm said it doesn’t expect to have a profitable fiscal year, citing pressures on margins and lower market volume. The California-based company reported a net […]
Eric Hill, an Atlanta real estate agent representing a nationwide homebuilder, had a plan to help more than 100 homebuyers get mortgages. The problem: They did not qualify for the loans. Hill’s scheme, also enabled by a group of co-conspirators, caught up with him, in part because many of the loans started going south. In […]
Fast-rising interest rates hit Finance of America Companies hard in the first quarter of 2022 and the company cut almost 600 jobs compared to one year ago. Like many of its competitors, the lender reported that its traditional mortgage business saw reduced originations and margins from January to March, mainly due to a drop-off in refinance volumes […]
Fewer buyers rushed to lock mortgages last month amid a rapid climb in long-term mortgage rates, reflecting home affordability concerns, reports from Mortgage Capital Trading and Black Knight showed. Total mortgage rate locks by dollar volume were down 5% in April from the previous month, according to MCT’s monthly Mortgage Lock Volume Indices report. Compared […]
Budget-tightening constraints of inflation, higher mortgage rates, and housing price gains are constraining consumers from buying houses. Fannie Mae‘s Home Purchase Sentiment Index, which tracks the housing market and consumer confidence to sell or buy a home, dropped by 4.7 points to 68.5 in April, marking the lowest level since May 2020. Compared with the […]
Closing costs for homeowners who jumped on the refi wave in 2021 increased at less than one-third the pace of closing costs for home purchases as homebuyers had to cope with a hot market that fueled higher home-sale prices and related settlement costs. The national average closing costs for a single-family property refinance in 2021 […]
A ruling late last year by a U.S. District Court judge in Wilmington, Delaware, put the structured-finance industry on high alert because of the serious legal and financial implications it poses for the private-label securities (PLS) market. The fate of the litigation is now in the hands of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third […]
California-based nonbank mortgage lender PennyMac Financial Services’ net income dropped more than 50% in the first quarter from the same period in 2021, driven by lower profits from its production segment due to surging mortgage rates and a shrinking origination market. However, the company still reported a pretax net income of $234.5 million in the […]
Add Guild Mortgage to the list of lenders with profitability propelled by the servicing portfolio in the first quarter — a trend that will continue in the coming months, as pressure on origination margins will remain, executives believe. The California-based nonbank mortgage lender reported a $208 million net income from January to March, an increase of 393% […]
Costco might have everything you need for a housewarming party, but as of this week it can’t help you buy the house. Homebuyers will have to look elsewhere to secure a mortgage, as the members-only big box store announced it’s no longer in the business of financing homes. The retailer recently decided to discontinue its […]
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. must convince regulators that the $13.1 billion mega-deal announced on Wednesday to acquire Black Knight will not harm competition in the mortgage tech solutions market. The software and data company also needs approval from Black Knight’s shareholders to move forward with the transaction, which valued the business at $85 per share, a […]
The cost of a home mortgage may be going up, but perhaps some good news: Fewer people who already own a home are missing payments. Mortgage delinquency rates dropped for the seventh straight quarter, hitting the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2019, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Delinquency rates for mortgage loans […]
Freddie Mac is bringing another credit-risk transfer offering to market, its fourth of the year, through the agency’s Structured Agency Credit Risk (STACR) program. The credit risk transfer (CRT) offering, STACR 2022-DNA4, involves a $1.5 billion note backed by a reference loan pool of 118,055 residential mortgages with an outstanding principal balance of $35.4 billion, […]
Black Knight, the Florida-based mortgage tech and analytics behemoth, increased its profits six fold in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the same period of 2021, propelled by the investment in the credit reporting services company Dun & Bradstreet Holdings. The company’s latest earnings became public on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Intercontinental […]
Mortgage rates surged to 5.27% over the last week, the highest average since 2009, according to the latest Freddie Mac PMMS. This week’s average purchase mortgage rate rose 17 basis points from the prior week’s 5.10%. A year ago at this time, 30-year fixed-rate purchase rates were at 2.96%. The government sponsored enterprise’s index accounts […]
Mortgage rates are increasing and demand is beginning to level out. The residential real estate market is shifting, creating uncharted territory for lenders who’ve relied on a housing boom and refinancing to keep them in business. As existing home owners potentially put the brakes on buying new homes or on refinancing their existing ones, lenders […]
In a move with ramifications for an untold number of mortgage lenders and service firms, Intercontinental Exchange, Inc., a software and data company whose mini-empire includes ICE Mortgage Technology, has bought Black Knight. The $13.1 billion mega-deal was announced in a press release Wednesday afternoon. The move between what are generally regarded as the two […]
The Federal Reserve Wednesday approved a 50 basis point increase to its policy interest rate in an effort to reduce inflation, in conjunction with a plan to shrink its $9 trillion asset portfolio beginning next month, according to Chairman Jerome Powell. During a news conference following the Fed’s committee meeting, Powell announced the increase and […]
Black Knight’s Optimal Blue is looking to court mortgage brokers with its new pricing feature that provides up-to-date rates on its cloud-based loan servicing platform. Dubbed Quick Quote, the feature was added to Loansifter – its product, pricing and eligibility engine – and enables brokers to make accurate quote offers for products available to consumers […]
Don Layton, the former CEO of Freddie Mac recently penned what can only be described as an attack piece on mortgage originators from his seat as a fellow at the JCHS, Harvard’s Joint Center For Housing Studies. But what Mr. Layton has done is simple: perpetuate his ongoing disdain for the participants in the manufacturing […]
Individuals across the country chasing the American dream of homeownership helped to push mortgage-application volume up by 2.5% for the week ending April 29, compared with the prior week. The uptick, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s (MBA’s) Market Composite Index, was propelled primarily by purchase-application activity, as rates remain elevated, hovering in the […]
Nonbank heavyweight loanDepot will unveil a home equity line of credit (HELOC) product in the third quarter of 2022, the first offering of its recently launched mello business unit. Fast-rising mortgage rates, recently cresting above 5%, have reduced refinance volumes by 70% year over year as of the end of April. The lender seeks to expand its […]
A Palo Alto, California-based fintech startup Point, which bills itself as allowing homeowners to tap into future home appreciation, closed on a $115 million Series C funding round, the company announced Tuesday. Point now says it has raised $170 million in equity capital. WestCap Group, a New York City-based investor, led the funding with existing […]
Fannie Mae, the government-sponsored enterprise that backs the majority of conventional mortgages, is not immune to the sharp decline in mortgage refinances. The enterprise reported $7.5 billion in first quarter revenue, a $700 million jump from 2021. But net income income was down 12% from nearly $5 billion first quarter 2021, to $4.4 billion this […]
Between February 2020 and January 2022, we witnessed something in the mortgage industry that we thought we’d never see — 30-year fixed-rate mortgages under 3.5%. These rates drew a record number of people refinancing their homes, with cash out refinances reaching $1.2 trillion in 2021. Then, in what felt like an instant, in Q1 2022 […]
U.S. home prices in March climbed a record 20.9% year over year, but the explosive pace of appreciation is expected to cool down to the single digits by the same time next year. The jump in March marks the 122nd consecutive month that the annual housing-price measure has increased, according to CoreLogic‘s recent national Home Price […]
Fannie Mae has priced its fifth Connecticut Avenue Series (CAS) credit-risk transfer deal of 2022, a $952 million note offering backed by a reference pool of single-family mortgages valued at $38.5 billion. The offering is slated to close May 11, according to a presale review by the Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA). A credit-risk transfer deal involves transferring […]
Surging interest rates and home price appreciation made March one of the most challenging months for prospective homebuyers looking to make purchases, according to a recent report. Annual home price gains saw 19.9% annual appreciation in March, down from an upwardly revised 20.1% in February, which was the first month to see price growth greater […]
Add Mr. Cooper Group to the list of mortgage originators and servicers reducing staff: pink slips arrived for 250 employees in the first quarter, as the company faced declines in the earnings from loan originations. And the company is forecasting a few tough origination quarters ahead. “While the mortgage industry experienced record high origination volumes […]
Total Expert team members took a trip to Louisiana earlier this year to help the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity organization. In partnership with the nonprofit, the team was able to rebuild a home that was destroyed by Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that made landfall in Louisiana at the end of […]
Connecticut-based mortgage servicer and lender Planet Home Lending has entered into an agreement to acquire assets from Homepoint‘s delegated correspondent channel for $2.5 million in cash, the companies announced on Friday. The move signals Homepoint’s exit from the correspondent channel to focus on wholesale. Homepoint was the 11th biggest residential mortgage lender in the country last year, […]
While other “big four” title insurers discussed the “transitional period” in the housing market during their first quarter 2022 earnings calls with investors, Old Republic International Corp.’s president and CEO, Craig Smiddy decided to take a bolder stance. “I think the way we are looking at refinancing activity right now, is that it is dried […]
Planet Earth has has gone from a ball of molten rock to ice, and then, to the climate we have today. Just like Earth, mortgage rates and housing markets are cyclic and we’re heading into another Ice Age. Find me a sales meeting in the U.S. that didn’t talk about the cycle. There is a […]
Nonbank mortgage lender and servicer Mr. Cooper Group reported net income of $658 million in the first quarter of 2022, increasing its profits by a factor of four compared to the $155 million recorded in the previous quarter. The performance reflects gains with mortgage servicing rights (MSR) and a deal with the fintech Sagent, which offset lower profitability […]
For the fifth consecutive month, pending home sales declined in March from February, down 1.2%, signaling a potential return to “much calmer” conditions, according to the National Association of Realtors. Only the northeast region saw an increase in pending sales in March from February, according to an NAR news release based off data from its […]
Homebuyers can secure a home mortgage using cryptocurrency as collateral through a new partnership between blockchain real estate platform Propy and crypto wallet service Abra. The Abra Borrow platform allows customers to use crypto as collateral to borrow U.S. dollars with flexible repayment terms and interest rates as low as 0%, Propy, a real estate […]
#2022 ” data-image-caption=”” data-medium-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?w=1024″ width=”1200″ height=”700″ src=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?w=1024″ alt=”2022 Layoff” class=”wp-image-335200″ srcset=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png 1200w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?resize=150,88 150w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?resize=300,175 300w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?resize=768,448 768w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?resize=1024,597 1024w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/newsroom-template_layoffs.png?resize=600,350 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”> Ohio-based Union Home Mortgage is the latest in a string of lenders this week to institute workforce reductions. “The residential housing market has turned quickly due to historically […]
Freddie Mac reported net income of $3.8 billion for the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 37% year-over-year, even as purchase and refinance activity continued to decline. The company’s net worth climbed to $31.7 billion, up nearly $13 billion from the same time last year. Its single-family mortgage portfolio now stands at $1.9 trillion, […]
A combination of home price appreciation, inflation, and low housing inventory continued to dent homebuyers’ ability to buy homes in March. The trend of a decrease in homebuyer affordability is forecast to persist in the coming months, hitting first-time buyers the most. The national median monthly mortgage payment settled in loan applications rose 5% to […]
As the first quarter unfolded, macroeconomic risks created strong headwinds for mortgage companies. The greatest concern is quickly rising mortgage rates, resulting in overall margin compression and essentially a nonexistent market for refinances. Fannie Mae forecasted in early March that mortgage rates would approximate between 3.7% and 3.9% this year, but by April 7, the […]