General World News

The Ever Given crisis put mega ships under the spotlight. As vessels get bigger and more automated, a long-serving captain and other experts are weighing up the risks.

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Summary List Placement Shipping vessels have grown larger by multiples in just a few years, adding to worries among some industry insiders that a single mistake made by a massive ship could cause a global supply chain disruption, as the world saw with the Ever Given.  That ship, which was stuck in the Suez Canal […]

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Fannie and Freddie continued to pump originations in Q1

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After a record year of mortgage originations, the GSEs released their Q1 earnings for the year on Thursday and Friday, revealing that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still riding the tail end of the market’s highs. With both enterprises posting strong quarterly and year-over-year results, earnings calls reminisced of a quarter that had yet […]

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Few may actually qualify for low-income refi program

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Housing Market Crash image ” data-medium-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?w=1024″ loading=”lazy” width=”1200″ height=”713″ src=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?w=1024″ alt=”Housing Market Crash image” class=”wp-image-283329″ srcset=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png 1200w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=150,89 150w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=300,178 300w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=768,456 768w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=1024,608 1024w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=600,357 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”> The great refi boom in 2020 wasn’t exactly equitable. Wealthier borrowers with stable jobs and high credit scores were fortunate enough to lock […]

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Why outsourcing is a key resource in a purchase market

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Community lenders have big opportunities in today’s purchase market. As homebuyers increasingly demand personal, service-driven experiences with their mortgage providers, community lending teams are well-positioned to capture business via the strong relationships they excel at creating. Including credit unions, community banks, and small-to-midsize independent mortgage bankers, the community lending segment has grown rapidly in market […]

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LoanDepot forms JV with homebuilder LGI Homes

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Top retail mortgage lender loanDepot has formed yet another strategic joint-venture with a fast-growing homebuilder. California-based loanDepot has formed a JV partnership with LGI Homes, called LGI Mortgage Solutions, the companies announced on Thursday. “Having been a preferred lender with LGI Homes since 2015, we have been extremely impressed by each other’s ability to scale while […]

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The red-hot housing market isn’t likely to crash soon. Experts warn prices will only climb higher from here.

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Summary List Placement Experts see little risk of the housing market’s boom turning into a bubble. But that doesn’t mean there’s no reason to worry. Housing has served as one of the rare economic hot spots during the coronavirus pandemic. Tumbling mortgage rates boosted demand, which quickly spurred rampant homebuying. The spree quickly snapped up […]

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America is the land of unequal opportunity. These 13 maps show how class, education, and health inequities all intersect — with nonwhite, rural areas hit especially hard.

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Summary List Placement At Insider, we make a lot of maps. And in my years of making dozens upon dozens of maps illustrating different aspects of American economic, social, and political life, I’ve noticed that many of them look strikingly similar. Maybe you’ve seen the pattern, too. The coasts and other big cities are wealthy, […]

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Reñe Rodriguez to headline Engage Marketing June 17

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Renowned speaker coach Reñe Rodriguez will headline HousingWire’s virtual Engage Marketing event on June 17. Rodriguez, CEO of Volentum and creator of the AMPLIFII Influencer events, has researched and applied behavioral neuroscience for the last 20 years as a speaker, leadership advisor and sales expert. For Engage Marketing’s keynote, he’ll lead a hands-on workshop on […]

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Biden won’t get all his tax increases through Congress. Here’s what Morgan Stanley thinks is possible.

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Summary List Placement President Joe Biden wants to increase taxes on some of the country’s highest earners to pay for affordable childcare,  paid family leave, and free community college.  But how much will taxes actually go up? Morgan Stanley thinks Biden will only get some of what he’s asking for. The investment bank cited comments […]

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Mortgage rates rise, but remain under 3%

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For the second consecutive week, mortgage rates managed to hold steady below 3%, rising one basis point last week to 2.98%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. In light of the rising COVID-19 caseloads globally, U.S. Treasury yields stopped moving up a month ago and have remained within a narrow range as the market responds to […]

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US weekly jobless claims dip to new pandemic-era low of 553,000 as recovery pushes forward

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Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell for a third consecutive week as the labor market’s recovery charged forward. New jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 553,000 last week, according to the Labor Department. The median estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for 540,000 claims. The previous week’s reading was revised […]

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Veritex buys 49% stake in Thrive Mortgage

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The parent company of Veritex Community Bank will acquire a 49% stake in Texas-based mortgage lender Thrive Mortgage, the firms announced late Tuesday afternoon. Veritex Holdings, which has a long history of making acquisitions, will pay $53.9 million for its piece of Thrive, valuing the Georgetown, Texas-headquartered company at roughly $110 million. The investment is […]

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The Fed isn’t going to stop buying MBS just yet

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The Federal Open Market Committee left future economic policies virtually unchanged at its Wednesday meeting, indicating it has not made any near-term plans to taper its asset purchases of Treasury– and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The FOMC did alter April’s verbiage of the nation’s larger economic status given positive progress on vaccine distribution, employment and inflation. The committee […]

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The Fed is watching housing ‘carefully’ and hopes builders catch up to the red-hot market, Chair Powell says

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Summary List Placement The housing market boom has caught the Federal Reserve’s attention. By several measures, the US housing market is running at its hottest level since the mid-2000s bubble that nearly crashed the global financial system. Prices have surged at decade-high rates, and homebuying, while slowed from recent highs, remains elevated. What began as […]

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What Biden’s new plan does for direct payments to Americans via tax credits — and what it doesn’t

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Summary List Placement Cornerstones of President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan are helping middle-class families and reshaping the economy. One way he aims to do that is through the expansion of health care and child tax credits.  Ahead of Biden’s $1.8 trillion infrastructure plan unveiling on Wednesday, the White House released a fact sheet detailing […]

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Strengthening tax enforcement on the wealthy could raise $700 billion in 10 years, Treasury says

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Summary List Placement Pouring more money into IRS enforcement could bring in an extra $700 billion in tax revenue over the next decade, according to the Department of the Treasury. The agency was commenting on measures from President Joe Biden’s newly announced American Families Plan, specifically, its investment in the Internal Revenue Service of about […]

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The housing market is the hottest it’s been since right before the 2008 crash — but there’s far less bubble risk this time around

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Summary List Placement Housing data is hitting levels unseen since 2006 in at least three different ways, begging the question of whether this is another bubble. Experts say this isn’t that — it’s economics. Another housing bubble 15 years after the last one would be very bad news, as the epic pop of that market […]

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What Biden’s new $1.8 trillion plan could mean for your education, from universal pre-K to free community college

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Summary List Placement President Joe Biden will unveil a $1.8 trillion plan on Wednesday, the second of his two-part infrastructure package worth about $4 trillion overall. While the first part of the plan included funding for physical infrastructure, the second entirely focuses on care-economy measures, including a national paid leave and four more years of […]

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FHFA releases new refi option for low-income borrowers

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Following an incredible year for refinances that mostly benefited wealthier borrowers, the Federal House Finance Agency announced it is implementing a new refi product that targets low-income borrowers with single-family mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to the regulatory agency, this new product will assist borrowers who were less likely to take […]

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Applications drop, despite falling mortgage rates

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Following an almost 9% jump in mortgage applications last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 2.5% decrease in applications in its latest report for the week ending April 23, 2021. Mortgage applications decreased despite mortgage rates falling for the third week in a row, indicating high prices and low inventory, said Joel Kan, MBA […]

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Finance of America to acquire Parkside’s wholesale biz

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Finance of America intends to acquire Parkside Lending‘s third-party origination channel operation for $40 million, the publicly traded lender and servicer announced Tuesday. It’s the latest in a string of big M&A deals in the mortgage lending space – and the growing wholesale channel in particular – over the past six months. The deal, which is expected to close […]

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Biden wants to entirely pay for trillions in new spending by raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy

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Summary List Placement The White House’s ambitious plans for more than $4 trillion in new spending on infrastructure, health care, and education will be completely paid for by new taxes on corporations and wealthy investors, President Joe Biden will announce Wednesday, Axios reported. The elements of the plan include nearly doubling the capital gains tax […]

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White House aware of issues over investment properties

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The federal government is well aware that mortgage lenders and industry stakeholders are frustrated by the 7% cap on second homes and investment properties that was implemented as part of a broader series of amendments to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac‘s Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements. In a conversation with Mortgage Bankers Association President Bob Broeksmit last week, […]

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Democrats are pushing Biden at the last minute to put a permanently expanded child tax credit in his latest economic plan

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Summary List Placement As President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion emergency stimulus law was about to clear the House in late February, some Democrats started setting the stage for their next battle: Making the beefed-up child tax credit permanent. Sen. Sherrod Brown told reporters that Democrats would press the Biden administration on the issue as soon […]

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Home prices grew at the fastest-ever rate in February as the market boom charged on, FHFA says

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Summary List Placement Homeowners, rejoice. Potential buyers, lament.  US home prices surged 12.2% year-over-year in February, up 0.9 points from the previous month’s reading, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Tuesday. That’s the fastest price appreciation on record and an increase of $35,000 to the median selling price for homes just a year ago. […]

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Broker lawsuit targets UWM’s ultimatum

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The controversial ultimatum United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) issued to brokers in March constituted a violation of the Sherman Act and a series of anti-competition laws in the state of Florida, a St. Augustine-based mortgage broker alleges in a new lawsuit that seeks class-action status. Dan O’Kavage, president and founder of the O’Kavage Group, is the […]

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Suzy Lindblom named COO of Kind Lending

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Wholesale lender Kind Lending has brought on mortgage veteran Suzy Lindblom as its chief operating officer, the company said Tuesday. Lindblom has 40 years of experience in the mortgage space, most recently serving as the COO of Planet Home Lending for three and half years. Prior to that, Lindblom served as the managing director of […]

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Solving for fraud, biometrics are the future of mortgage

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Better, faster, cheaper has long been the promise of technology in the mortgage industry. Some may argue whether today’s technology is that much better than the tools we used in the past, particularly in the servicing business where many still use platforms designed and first built decades ago. Likewise, others will argue over whether today’s […]

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Elizabeth Warren brings back her $700 billion universal childcare plan and wants the wealthy to pay for it

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Summary List Placement Ahead of President Joe Biden’s second infrastructure proposal unveiling on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a plan on Tuesday to help families get quality, affordable child care in the US. CBS News first reported that Warren, alongside Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York, reintroduced a $700 billion Universal Child Care […]