Cenlar FSB, the second-largest mortgage servicer and largest sub-servicer in the U.S., appointed Michelle DeHart as the vice president of loan operations, escrow, the company announced on Tuesday. “Having managed large-scale servicing operations, we will lean on Michelle’s expertise and are confident that she will deliver the best possible solutions for Cenlar, our clients and […]
Cloud-based mortgage CRM OptifiNow has launched a version of its CRM platform called OptifiNow Flex, which is designed to support multi-channel mortgage teams. The product aims to unify workflows for wholesale, retail, reverse mortgage, recruiting and more into a single system while also lowering IT costs, OptifiNow said in a statement. OptifiNow’s vice president of […]
Rocket Mortgage expanded its special-purpose credit program that will offer a $3,000 credit for first-time homebuyers to use toward their downpayment in select cities. The Detroit-headquarterd lender will offer Freddie Mac‘s BorrowSmart Access program for buyers who are purchasing a home in counties across 10 metropolitan areas — Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, El Paso, Houston, McAllen, […]
Black Knight will be selling its loan origination system Empower in a bid to save the merger deal with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). “ICE and Black Knight entered into the divestiture agreement in connection with efforts to secure clearance of ICE’s proposed acquisition of Black Knight under the Hart-Scott Rodino Act,” the two companies said in […]
Home Point Capital, the parent company of wholesale lender Homepoint, is seeking a successor to take over Mark Elbaum’s chief financial officer position. On February 24, Elbaum submitted his resignation as CFO, according to a March 1 8-K filing from the company. Elbaum’s resignation will be effective April 3 and he will continue to serve […]
California-based CMG Mortgage, Inc. struck a deal to acquire the retail division of Homebridge Financial Services, the companies announced on Monday. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. CMG Mortgage, which claims it originated more than $19 billion in 2022, said the M&A deal seeks to increase its footprint on the retail lending […]
Guaranty Home Mortgage Corporation (GHMC) on Monday announced its expansion with three new licensed retail branches in Tennessee. The new branches are located in Brentwood, Lebanon and Chattanooga. GHMC originates and purchases loans through multiple channels. The expansion is part of the company’s strategy to grow its presence and focus on residential mortgage lending. “This […]
Illinois-based mortgage lender Celebrity Home Loans and its parent company Celebrity Financial, Inc. are the target of a class-action-seeking lawsuit. A former employee is suing the companies, alleging they “abruptly terminated hundreds of its employees” without giving legally required 60-day advance notice as required by the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act). In addition, plaintiff Michael Blake, […]
The housing market faced some serious obstacles last week as the 10-year yield broke over 4%, mortgage rates rose to over 7%, purchase apps fell again and we are still trying to find the elusive seasonal bottom for housing inventory. Here is a quick rundown of the last week: Purchase application data was down 6% […]
It felt like somebody turned on the spigot. There were leads, referrals and action in January, after people returned from holiday vacations and rates declined, said Don Monson, branch manager at Sente Mortgage. He was cautiously optimistic for a better 2023. Monson had hoped for a “spring rush,” but recently, somebody turned the spigot back […]
Growing supply shortages are holding housing prices higher, and affordability constraints coupled with elevated rates lock potential sellers in place. Home prices fell in January, pulling back by 0.24% from December to mark the smallest monthly decline in seven months, according to Black Knight‘s mortgage monitor report. The annual home price growth rate fell to […]
Inflation is hot, so why aren’t mortgage rates over 10% like we saw in the 1970s? Put those disco pants back in the closet; this isn’t the 1970s, John, and the bond market has been saying this to anyone who would listen. Mortgage rates have trended up to over 7% while the 10-year yield has […]
Executives at Rocket Companies are engaged in a very tricky balancing act: they must drastically reduce expenses to return the company to profitability. And at the same time they must continue to invest in their business to avoid losing further ground in a mortgage market that doesn’t play to Rocket’s natural strengths. The lender has […]
Title industry revenue dropped 19% year over year in 2022, according to data released Thursday by Fitch Ratings. This 19% decline is on a GAAP basis for the Fitch Ratings title universe, which includes Fidelity National Financial, First American, Old Republic and Stewart. According to the Fitch report, the decline in revenue was driven by […]
Blank-check firm Aurora Acquisition Corp. extended the deadline to complete its merger with struggling digital mortgage lender Better.com for the third time. The deadline for the merger is now September. The decision was made during Aurora’s shareholder’s meeting held on February 24, filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed on Thursday. “Aurora […]
Mortgage rates are surging again due to sustained economic growth and continued inflation, eclipsing 7% on Thursday. And it could be a while before they tick back down, economists say. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage on Thursday, March 2 touched 7.10%, up 16 basis points from 6.94 on Wednesday. The most recent survey by Freddie Mac […]
When the entire mortgage industry saw volume drop by more than half in 2022, nearly every lender emerged with battle scars. Rising rates caused refinances to dry up, production plummeted, and pink slips were issued to employees. Non-qualified mortgage (non-QM) wholesale lender A&D Mortgage, however, saw origination volume increase by more than 31% to $3.2 […]
Income verification platform Truework has added its automated service ordering feature to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Mortgage Technology’’s loan origination system Encompass. The integration is now built on the latest Encompass Partner Connect application programming interface (API) platform and is available through ICE Mortgage Technology, Truework said Wednesday. “The automation eliminates the tedious data submissions traditionally […]
San Francisco-based SaaS technology provider Polly on Monday announced its API integration with Total Expert, a customer engagement platform purpose-built for financial institutions. Through this API integration, users can populate MLS and non-MLS rate flyers in a short period of time using “real-time, scenario-specific mortgage offers” delivered through Polly’s cloud-native Product and Pricing Engine (PPE), […]
Issuance of agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) is projected to contract significantly over the next two years in the face of a housing-market contraction, but the actual supply of MBS available for purchase in the private market is expected to swell to record levels over that period. That’s the takeaway from a recent market report by the Amherst Group, […]
Opteon, a Scottsdale-based appraisal, valuation, advisory, and property services provider, has expanded its direct-to-consumer business model nationwide, the company announced on Wednesday. The goal of the expansion is to provide homeowners and buyers, along with real estate, legal, and tax professionals, the option to order an appraisal directly through Opteon’s services, according to a statement […]
Fannie Mae updated its Selling Guide on Wednesday to include more options for property valuations, saying that they are “moving away from implying that an appraisal is a default requirement.” Those options include value acceptance (formerly appraisal waivers), value acceptance plus property data and hybrid appraisals. “We are on a journey of continuous improvement to […]
Higher mortgage rates have zapped mortgage demand, as buyers are having second thoughts about purchasing homes. Mortgage applications for home purchases dropped 6% for the week ending February 24 from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s seasonally adjusted index. Mortgage demand was also 44% lower than the same week a year ago, […]
The financials are all red for the top U.S. mortgage lenders for the fourth quarter of 2022. United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) reported on Wednesday morning an unprofitable quarter, the day after Rocket Companies disclosed its most significant quarterly loss in company history to the market. UWM, the top U.S. wholesale lender, maintained flat gain-on-sale margins relatively in the fourth […]
Independent mortgage lender New American Funding (NAF) has partnered with hyper-local news platform Patch to become its exclusive mortgage provider, the company announced on Tuesday. Through this partnership, NAF will be featured in Patch’s weekly newsletters in more than 1,200 communities nationwide, and the mortgage and real estate verticals on Patch’s community websites. “This partnership […]
Mortgage technology giant Black Knight reported slimmer organic growth in 2022 amid operational challenges for its clients, which stemmed from high interest rates. Black Knight reported organic revenue growth of 4%, which demonstrates the durability of our business model,” the firm’s chief executive officer Joe Nackashi said in a statement. “We remain focused on winning […]
The 2022 housing market was largely characterized by the swift slowdown in demand caused by rapidly rising mortgage rates. However, even as existing home sales fell 17.8% year over year in 2022, according to data from the National Association of Realtors, home prices still managed to rise 5.8% for the year as a whole, according […]
Digital mortgage lender and nonbank home loan provider Better.com has launched “Equity Unlocker,” a mortgage innovation that allows employees to pledge vested stock equity as collateral for a down payment without selling their stock. “At Better, our mission is to make homeownership cheaper, faster and easier for all Americans,” Better CEO and founder Vishal Garg […]
RMK Financial Corporation, which does business as Majestic Home Loans, has been permanently banned by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from the mortgage lending industry following a series of repeat offenses — which occurred despite the CFPB’s law enforcement order issued in 2015. The CFPB issued the initial agency order against RMK for, among […]
Successful negotiation begins within. It may seem surprising, yet this is what we’ve found true in our experience at the junction between financial services and technology. The first step in securing the best outcome for yourself, your enterprise and the people you serve is to not talk yourself out of things. Yes, it might seem […]
We created the weekly Housing Market Tracker because housing data has been so wild since 2020. The housing market madness persisted last week as inventory fell and higher mortgage rates took a bigger bite out of purchase application data. Here is a quick rundown from last week: Purchase applications fell 18% week to week and […]
January’s pending home sales picked up right where they left off in 2022, posting the second consecutive month of increases, according to data released Monday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). After posting a 2.5% month-over-month increase in December, the Pending Home Sales Index rose 8.1% month over month in January to a reading of 82.5. […]
Mortgage lender CRM and marketing automation solutions provider Insellerate has launched a new third party origination (TPO) solution for wholesale lenders, the company announced on Monday during ICE Experience. Insellerate TPO will provide account executive workflows, marketing content, pipeline management at the company and individual broker levels and other services, according to a statement from […]
While the homebuilders weren’t surprised by the better-than-estimated new home sales report released Friday, some people were a bit shocked. But the forward-looking purchase application data was getting better from Nov. 9 up until the early part of February as mortgage rates fell from 7.37% to 5.99%. Now, of course, that has all changed quickly. […]
It is crunch time in the housing industry. Sadly, for some organizations, that means there have been job losses and cutbacks that leave some former employees wondering, “What’s next?” Whether you’ve been affected by industry layoffs or you’re future-proofing your career, applying for new positions and interviewing can be daunting. Certain careers, like underwriting, come […]
10 years ago, HousingWire kicked off the first ever Rising Stars award and since then, the program has been showcasing massive talent in housing year after year. The award recognizes leaders and young talent who are moving markets forward through a variety of roles in the housing economy. And this year, HW Rising Stars is […]
New home sales started off 2023 on a positive note, rising 7.2% from December to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 670,000 homes, according to data published by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Friday. This marks the second consecutive month of increases and the strongest sales pace since March 2022. […]
LenderLogix, a provider of mortgage automation software and application programming interfaces (APIs), has launched LiteSpeed, a white-label streamlined point-of-sale (POS) system that serves small- to mid-sized mortgage lenders. Patrick O’Brien, the founder and CEO of LenderLogix, said the product was designed in response to the need for a more efficient and cost-effective method of managing […]
Despite the closed title purchase order volume dropping 36% year over year and the number of closed refinance orders dropping 79% compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, Fidelity National Financial still managed to record a strong Q4 in 2022. “Our title business has continued to perform well despite the fall off in mortgage originations […]
Wells Fargo, the largest depository mortgage lender in America, issued pink slips to employees in its home lending business on Tuesday following its decision to exit the correspondent channel. “I can’t provide any specifics but we announced in January strategic plans to create a more focused Home Lending business,” Tom Goyda, senior vice president of […]
A week after canceling its quarterly earnings results without explanation, Freddie Mac on Wednesday disclosed a net profit of $1.76 billion in the fourth quarter. That figure was a sequential gain on the $1.3 billion in net income recorded in the third quarter of 2022, though it represented a 36% decline from a year prior. […]
Leading property data and analytics company CoreLogic has acquired Roostify, a digital mortgage technology provider. “By integrating Roostify’s digital mortgage technology platform with CoreLogic’s robust data, analytics and workflow solutions, clients will gain critical information about borrowers and properties at the beginning of the loan process, saving both time and money,” CoreLogic said in a […]
It’s proving to be a brutal February for the mortgage industry, with mortgage demand falling for the third time in four weeks. At a time when purchase activity typically ramps up, the latest mortgage application data is showing that mortgage demand is dropping due to mortgage rates climbing back up. Mortgage applications decreased 13.3% for […]
The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2023 HW Rising Stars are open now through Friday, February 24, 2023. Click here to nominate your organization. HousingWire’s Rising Stars award recognizes housing professionals 40 years old and younger who are making […]
The residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) market took a beating in 2022, nearly stalling as the year came to an end — on the heels of interest rates jumping more than 3 percentage points over the first half of 2022. That dramatic rate volatility wreaked havoc on spreads and RMBS deal execution — and created cash-flow challenges […]