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 […]
The Federal Reserve has some positive news about inflation as it heads into its June meeting on Wednesday afternoon. The Consumer Price Index cooled slightly in May, with the all items index posting a 3.3% annual increase before seasonal adjustment, according to data released Wednesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This is down from a 3.4% annual […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has terminated the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) direct endorsement approval for Open Mortgage in Iowa. “HUD placed Open Mortgage on credit watch for the Des Moines HOC [homeownership center], which only impacts our loans in Iowa,” Christopher D’Auria, president and CEO of Open Mortgage, told HousingWire. […]
An article written by an Atlanta-based certified financial planner and published Tuesday by Forbes indicates that retirement may not be as difficult as many Americans think. Wes Moss, who hosts the “Retire Sooner” podcast and has 20-plus years of experience as an investment adviser, offered advice that reverse mortgage professionals and their business partners might […]
California-based loanDepot plans to extend its $497.8 million in senior notes due in the fourth quarter of 2025 at a lower maturity and a higher interest rate. The transaction reflects a business under stress but brings temporary relief to the company’s financials, analysts told HousingWire. loanDepot subsidiary LD Holdings Group LLC announced on June 4 […]
There were a total of 131 consumer complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) between Jan. 1 and June 10 of this year that were related to the reverse mortgage industry, according to a database maintained by the bureau. This was 52 fewer complaints compared to the same period in 2023. Of these […]
Optimal Blue announced yesterday that industry veteran Joe Tyrrell would be taking the CEO role at the company. Tyrrell was a long-time executive at Ellie Mae before it was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in 2020. He served as president of ICE Mortgage Technology for three years before leaving to become the CEO of Medallia, a […]
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on Tuesday issued a temporary fix that will allow homebuyers using VA loans to pay for their real estate agent’s commission — i.e., the buyer-broker fee. The change, a result of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) commission lawsuit settlement agreement, was anticipated late last month and commented on […]
In a market where every dollar matters, revenue retention areas like quality control and compliance are more critical than ever. Thus, keeping abreast of regulatory and investor updates and trends is vital to maintaining loan quality and compliance. Trevor Gauthier, chief executive officer at ACES Quality Management provides us with an update on the latest […]
The parent company of top 10 reverse mortgage lender Liberty Reverse Mortgage has completed its shareholder-approved rebranding initiative, transforming the former Ocwen Financial Corp. into The Onity Group. The initiative has also transitioned the company’s New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ticker symbol to “ONIT” as of the market opening on Monday. “Today marks the start […]
Los Angeles-based Dunmor, a technology-enabled lender that specializes in loans for residential real estate investors, has added a pair of experienced executives in the business-purpose lending space. The company announced Monday that it hired Tuam Pham as chief marketing officer and Steve Huff as senior vice president of asset management and servicing. Pham has 23 […]
As baby boomers increasingly seek to age in place in their own homes — a scenario supported by both the preferences of older homeowners and the realities brought on by elevated mortgage rates — this is clashing with the desires of millennials who wish to enter the housing market, as the combination of limited inventory […]
The average cost of homeownership has increased by 26% over the past four years to more than $18,000 annually, according to Bankrate’s newly released Hidden Costs of Homeownership study. The increase reflects rising home prices, which went up 40% since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to a lack of inventory, according to […]
Mortgage veteran Joe Tyrrell will succeed Scott Smith as CEO of Optimal Blue, the company announced Monday. Tyrrell has more than 25 years of experience in mortgage, finance and technology, serving as president of ICE Mortgage Technology for three years after ICE bought Ellie Mae in 2020. For the past 18 months he has served […]
Graphics by Dan Hultquist. This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s Almost all Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs) originated today utilize the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) option. In stark contrast to traditional mortgage lending, the reverse mortgage business is dominated by ARMs, representing over 99% of Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured reverse mortgages originated today. […]
Another round of layoffs hit hundreds of Newrez employees in Colorado, the second so far this year in the state. It follows the the lender’s recent acquisition of Computershare Mortgage Services and its affiliate Specialized Loan Servicing (SLS). Newrez, owned by asset manager Rithm Capital, is imposing a workforce reduction of 317 employees at its […]
Consumer attitudes toward the purchase of a home fell “markedly” in May, while the percentage of consumers who said it was a “bad” time to buy a home grew month over month from 79% to 86%, according to new survey data from government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) Fannie Mae. The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI) […]
Wholesale lender OCMBC Inc., which was recently sued by direct lender Home Mortgage Alliance Corp. (HMAC) over the alleged poaching of both key personnel and a wholesale lending brand, issued a statement this week that called the allegations “baseless” and added that any employment changes have been made “independently and lawfully.” The case was first […]