The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Monday announced $469 million in new funding that will go toward fixing up older homes, renovating existing stock with new safety features and preserving affordable housing. The funds will be allocated to state and local governments under HUD’s lead-hazard control grant programs, which are targeted […]
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) issued a statement on Monday that opposes the conditional approval of Freddie Mac’s plan to buy closed-end second mortgages. The plan was approved on Friday by Freddie Mac’s regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which said that it reached the decision to begin the pilot program following […]
The Biden administration, through the U.S. Department of the Treasury, announced the launch of multiple initiatives on Monday to increase funding sources for housing production. The announcement comes as high mortgage rates and a lack of supply have created affordability challenges. In a speech in Minneapolis, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will announce the new funding […]
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is fighting back against a group of borrowers who filed a class-action lawsuit in April that accuses the lender of structuring a “corrupt” scheme with brokers to steer loans. On Friday, the top U.S. mortgage lender filed a motion to dismiss the case with prejudice in a district court in Michigan, […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Friday announced that it has given conditional approval for Freddie Mac to begin purchasing closed-end second mortgages through a pilot program. The pilot program includes several limitations to the types of loans the government sponsored enterprise will be allowed to purchase. The program is only for primary residences […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Friday announced a new round of disaster relief in the state of Hawaii that is targeted for the island of Kauai following severe storms, flooding and landslides that took place there in April. On June 17, President Joe Biden issued an executive order approving a […]
In survey after survey in which Americans are asked about their preferred living situations in retirement, recent data is clear — they want to age in place in their current homes and remain in the familiar environs of their house and community. But a closer look at aging in place by NextAvenue asserts that there […]
Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group said on Friday that it expects a slower recovery of the U.S. housing market than previously forecast. That’s because volatility in inflation readings and resilience in nonfarm payroll growth may provide the Federal Reserve confidence to cut benchmark rates only once in 2024. “Unfortunately, we’re still not […]
On Thursday, two U.S. regulators — the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) — announced their approval of a final rule imposing quality control standards for automated valuation models (AVMs) used by mortgage originators and secondary market issuers. AVMs, which value residential real estate used as […]
Finance of America (FOA), the leading U.S. reverse mortgage lender, has received shareholder approval upon recommendation of its board to perform a reverse stock split at a 10-to-1 ratio in a move designed to boost the company’s stock price. This is according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reviewed by […]
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeking to provide more support to military veterans who want to age in place in their current homes. This includes exploration of the smart-home technology sector, according to reporting at the Federal News Network. Smart home tech, including wearable devices like smart watches, could help flag instances […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) is calling on both houses of Congress to adopt a mortgage interest credit as the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) is currently set to expire in 2025. This is according to a letter the organization submitted to leaders in both the U.S. House of Representatives and […]
Oklahoma-based Adfitech, a mortgage industry partner for quality control and risk management services, has changed its name to Mortgage Connect Risk Solutions. The move reflects the company’s 2022 acquisition by Pennsylvania-headquartered Mortgage Connect LP. Mortgage Connect, a nationwide services provider for lenders, institutional investors and servicers, acquired Adfitech two years ago to expand its efforts […]
Michael Saleh, a former senior vice president of Rocket Mortgage who spent about two decades at the company, has transitioned from the retail lending channel to wholesale by launching independent brokerage firm Zoom Home Lending. Saleh opened the Livonia, Michigan-based firm alongside Henri Houmani and Issa Al-Sheleh, who previously worked for Rocket and migrated to […]
Real estate technology firm Knock announced Thursday that its bridge loan product is being integrated into the borrower application process at Baltimore-based NFM Lending. The bridge loan estimate is being integrated into the lender’s workflow through an Encompass plugin. NFM loan officers will be automatically notified when a homeowner can tap into the equity of […]
California-based loanDepot has concluded the transaction to extend $497.7 million in senior notes due in the fourth quarter of 2025, resulting in new debt with a higher interest rate and a shorter maturity period than usually seen in the market for similar companies. A loanDepot subsidiary, LD Holdings Group LLC, will exchange its outstanding senior […]
Members of Generation X are more concerned about their post-retirement ability to support the lifestyles they’ve grown accustomed to when compared with other generations — including baby boomers and millennials — according to the results of a recent survey conducted by Allianz Life. In the company’s 2024 Annual Retirement Study, respondents indicated that 62% of […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Tuesday announced its submission of a letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which urges the department to avoid reprimanding mortgage servicers for compliance lapses with the new National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) system until it is “fully accessible and […]
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) this week announced a proposed Mortgagee Letter (ML) that would add fraud and misrepresentation to its defect taxonomy list for Title II FHA-sponsored mortgage financing. The defect taxonomy includes a list of attributes that FHA can use to identify potential defects at the loan level based on policy requirements from […]
CoreLogic noted that depreciation in the attached-rental segment is mainly being driven by a subset of markets in Florida, along with other Sun Belt hubs such as Austin, New Orleans and Phoenix. “As multifamily apartments are being completed, some markets are gaining increased rental supply, which competes with the attached segment of the single-family rental […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday announced a series of enforcement actions against two companies for what the bureau called “illegal activities that harmed older homeowners and caused them to fear losing their homes.” The actions were taken against Pittsford, New York-based Sutherland Global and Landover, Maryland-based NOVAD Management Consulting, which together formed […]
Mortgage rates continued to inch toward the 7% mark following last week’s meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers and new inflation data that showed further cooling of consumer prices. On Tuesday, HousingWire‘s Mortgage Rates Center showed that the average 30-year rate for conforming loans was 7.08%. That was down 11 basis points from the same time […]
The Carrington Companies has promoted Brett Wilbur to the position of chief information officer. He will succeed Brent Rasmussen, who will retire in early July. It’s the second leadership change for the company this year. Wilbur will report directly to Andrew Taffet, the company’s chief investment officer, who was also tapped as CEO in March. […]
Having built and led mortgage operations for nearly three decades, planning for the future stands out amongst the most challenging components a leader faces. Accurately predicting housing trends, mortgage rates, technology, elections, the impact of the broader economy , or how consumers will behave tests the best of us at some point in our career. The approach I […]
After first entering the housing business to sell real estate, Jim Cullen transitioned into the mortgage industry in 1997. It would be a few more years before he made the jump into the reverse lending space, but once he did, he found a business that he connected with until his retirement this year. After most […]
Dozens of former employees at Guaranteed Rate say the mortgage lender has fostered a toxic work environment — including verbal abuse, misogyny and bullying — amid the laser focus of its founder and CEO, Victor Ciardelli, on making money and growing the business, according to a report published Saturday by the Chicago Tribune. According to […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced Monday the availability of $10 million in new grants to be distributed to 23 HUD-approved counseling agencies nationwide, which will help the department boost homeownership rates within historically underserved communities. Announced Monday morning in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, by Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Commissioner Julia Gordon, the […]
Wells Fargo’s program that provides up to $5,000 in closing costs for low- and moderate-income families to purchase a home has been extended to an additional 16 metro areas, the bank announced on Monday. The credit is available for borrowers with combined incomes of up to 80% of their area’s median income who are seeking […]
Freddie Mac’s chief financial officer, Christian Lown, notified the company of his intention to resign at the end of this month. The government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) will “begin the process of identifying a successor,” Freddie Mac said in an 8-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday. Lown’s resignation, was was announced on June […]
Attorneys for the federal government have issued an extensive new filing in the ongoing litigation between Texas Capital Bank (TCB) and Ginnie Mae, including a raft of correspondence that took place immediately prior to the seizure of the Reverse Mortgage Funding servicing portfolio by Ginnie Mae. Separately, a magistrate judge has approved the government’s request […]
Incenter Lender Services, a Philadelphia-based family of companies that works with nonbank and depository lenders across the country, announced this week that it has promoted Shelley Duffy to the role of executive vice president of national sales. Duffy first joined Incenter in February 2022 as its senior vice president of national sales. She will now […]
Record-high home prices and elevated interest rates have weighed down mortgage markets. The Federal Reserve signaled its intention to maintain higher-for-longer rates, confirming that a reprieve is not on the horizon for borrowers and originators alike. Recent stagnation in refinancing loans, coupled with supply and demand discrepancies in housing, means originators still find themselves in […]
According to the most recent Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsement data compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI), Annapolis, Maryland-based South River Mortgage is the ninth-largest reverse mortgage lender in the country with 496 endorsements in the 12-month period ending May 31. After hitting milestones in recent years, including a rollout of a proprietary reverse […]
The Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (ACP), a trade association for financial planners, will be holding its annual conference this October in Savannah, Georgia, and the event will feature two of the nation’s leading reverse mortgage lenders as key sponsors. Plano, Texas-based Finance of America (FOA), currently the industry leader in the reverse mortgage space, and […]
The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) this week released the 10th edition of its annual Top 250 Latino Mortgage Originators rankings, honoring the top-performing Latino mortgage originators across the country. For the second year running, DHI Mortgage earned the top position in the report among all companies, followed by Guaranteed Rate and […]
Chart courtesy of Optimal Blue Total volume rose by 5.3% in May month over month and 1.8% year over year. Such gains were driven by a 4.1% increase in month-over-month purchase lock volume, a 7.2% rise in cash-out refinances, and the big rise in rate-and-term refinances. There was, however, a year-over-year decline in purchase lock […]
Wells Fargo‘s internal credit-scoring algorithm is at the center of a lawsuit that plaintiffs say resulted in more than 100,000 disparately impacted minority applicants. The lawsuit stems from a 2022 Bloomberg investigation that found Wells Fargo was the only large bank to deny more Black applicants than it accepted in 2020 during the refinancing boom. […]
A judge in Arizona has approved a $3.5 million settlement agreement between Rocket Mortgage and current and former employees who alleged in a class-action-seeking lawsuit that the company did not provide sufficient overtime pay, according to court documents reviewed by HousingWire. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas L. Rayes mentioned in the decision that the agreement […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this week issued a public request for information for plans submitted by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the Duty to Serve (DTS) program that aims to serve underserved markets from 2025 through 2027. Established by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008, the […]
Lawyers for the U.S. government have requested an extension of deadlines related to discovery in the case brought by Texas Capital Bank (TCB) against Ginnie Mae over the extinguishment of a priority lien tied to the loan portfolio collateral of Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF), according to court documents reviewed by HousingWire’s Reverse Mortgage Daily (RMD). […]
Persistent economic trends that include inflation, a strong labor market and real gross domestic product (GDP) growth will continue to “dampen” mortgage origination activity through at least the end of 2026, according to the newest U.S. mortgage originations outlook from financial services forecasting and advisory company iEmergent. Based on 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) […]
Home equity solutions and sale-leaseback platform EasyKnock announced a partnership on Tuesday with financial fitness and homeownership platform FinLocker that will make FinLocker’s tools available free of charge to EasyKnock customers. The FinLocker app includes a “personalized suite of tools“ designed to help consumers improve their financial health, the company explained in its announcement. This […]
Mortgage applications shot up 15.6% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly application survey for the week ending June 7. On an unadjusted basis, the market composite index increased 26% compared with the previous week. The refinance index increased 28% from the previous week and was also 28% higher […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) on Wednesday announced that Owen Lee, CEO at Success Mortgage Partners (SMP), has been nominated to serve as the association’s vice chairman for the forthcoming 2025 membership year. Lee’s nomination was announced by Mark Jones, the 2024 MBA chairman and president of Union Home Mortgage, who describing Lee as “an […]
An analysis released Wednesday by Columbia, Missouri-based lender Veterans United Home Loans revealed that the home loan program through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has contributed $3.9 trillion to the national economy since its inception near the end of World War II. The VA loan program — which was established in 1944 through […]