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 mortgage […]
Two top wholesale lenders are up in arms as a result of charges on loans sold to the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) arising from a recession-era idea that those loans are riskier. The lenders, Homepoint and United Wholesale Mortgage, say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac started tacking on an extra charge for third-party originated, or wholesale, […]
Pewaukee, Wisconsin-based lender Waterstone Mortgage Corporation named Paul Garrigues as the company’s new chief financial officer. Garrigues will oversee all corporate accounting functions and provide financial direction for Waterstone Mortgage’s branches nationwide. The executive brings more than 40 years of accounting experience in the financial services, banking and mortgage industries. Before landing at Waterstone Mortgage, […]
Mortgage apps dropped 2.3% for the week ending May 27, decreasing to the lowest level since December 2018, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Market Composite Index. “Mortgage rates fell for the fourth time in five weeks, as concerns of weaker economic growth and the recent stock market sell-off drove Treasury yields lower,” […]
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Mortgage lenders and real estate investment firms this month entered tight housing markets in the Midwest and the Northwest to better reach prospective homebuyers, despite a challenging mortgage market. While many lenders laid off some of their staff to cut costs, others continue opening offices to capitalize on demand from homebuyers. Among them are Geneva […]
There is no single silver bullet that will rectify the pernicious impact of bias in residential real estate valuations — it is a complex problem that requires a multifaceted solution. But there is the promise of a better future on the horizon. The housing industry and Biden administration have begun a full throttled effort to […]
Donna Corley, head of the single-family division at Freddie Mac, is stepping down from her post at the government-sponsored enterprise. Corley will stay on until Nov. 25 as executive vice president and special advisor, reporting to Michael Hutchins, president of Freddie Mac. Hutchins will take over active management responsibilities for the single-family division until the […]
The Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) appreciates that the Biden administration has created a White House Task Force on Manufactured Housing. We also commend the administration for the White House initiative announced a week ago Monday to “Ease the Burden of Housing Costs,” which a Housing Wire article noted is designed to reduce regulatory hurdles. So, […]
At least two financial institutions brought back adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) products this week amid surging mortgage rates and double-digit home price growth. Michigan-based wholesale lender Homepoint rolled out a jumbo ARM product offering a maximum loan amount as much as $2.5 million, with a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 80%. Homepoint’s jumbo ARMs have a seven- […]
Freddie Mac will now automatically verify borrower employment 10 days ahead of closing, which it says is more efficient than obtaining that information through oral or written verification. The option will be available starting June 1. To verify the borrower’s employment, Freddie Mac’s asset and income modeler will draw data from bank accounts for direct […]
A Florida-based loan officer faces more than 30 years in federal prison if convicted on charges alleging she falsified divorce papers and child support payment information to help unqualified borrowers secure a loan, according to a Department of Justice indictment. Evelisse Hernandez is charged with four counts of bank fraud and four counts of […]
Purchase mortgage rates this week averaged 5.10% continuing a decline from last week amid a housing market slowdown, according to the latest Freddie Mac PMMS. A year ago at this time, 30-year fixed rate purchase rates were at 2.95%. The government-sponsored enterprise index accounts solely for purchase mortgages reported by lenders during the past three […]
Keller Mortgage, part of the kwx holding company, laid off operations positions in a conference call on Monday May 23, according to more than a dozen employees. Pink slips will arrive for affected employees on May 27 and no later than June 1. The layoffs included closing managers, underwriter managers, processors, post closers, funders, and […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which oversees the bulk of the mortgage market, now has a U.S. Senate-confirmed director: Sandra Thompson. The Senate today confirmed Thompson’s nomination to head the FHFA by a 49 to 46 vote. Thompson, a longtime regulator, has been leading the agency on a temporary basis for nearly a year. […]
One of the largest loan-servicing companies in the nation, Lakeview Loan Servicing LLC, is facing at least a dozen civil lawsuits, all seeking class-action status, in the wake of a major cyberattack that compromised the personal data of the mortgage borrowers the company serves. That data breach, revealed by Lakeview in mid-March, targeted the personal […]
Despite a decline in mortgage rates last week, mortgage application volume was down 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending May 20. The decline, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Market Composite Index, continued to be led by a drop in the refinance share of mortgage activity, which has been […]
A Fannie Mae survey published in mid-May found that mortgage lenders see value in appraisal modernization, specifically in the implementation of non-traditional appraisals and inspection-based appraisal waivers. However, they have several more pressing priorities when it comes to what they’re investing in. Out of 200 senior mortgage executives surveyed, who represent 188 lending institutions, 94% […]
Indecomm Global Services, a New Jersey-based mortgage automation and services provider, aims to court more lenders through its new automation-enabled origination solution, GeniusWorks, which is intended to cut the cost of middle-office origination functions: set-up, processing and underwriting. GeniusWorks operates in conjunction with Indecomm’s suite of automation solution softwares to take loan files at set-up […]
When writing about the ’80s banks and passbooks, I started to see a pattern emerge concerning customers and refinance loans and rates. They were so high; then so low. I started thinking about farming. Farmers know that you can’t keep putting the same plants in the same dirt season after season. You kill your soil. […]
Despite the turbulence in the U.S. economy fueled by inflation, international tensions and rising mortgage rates, the private-label securities (PLS) market recorded a strong first quarter, at nearly $43 billion in issuance, and is projected to finish 2022 with record volume. That $43 billion mark represents the second-highest issuance total since the global financial crisis […]
California-based nonbank mortgage lender Pennymac Financial Services will lay off 207 additional employees in June and July following a workforce reduction filing of more than 230 employees in March. According to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices submitted to the Employment Development Department (EDD) on April 28 and May 9, the company plans to […]
Potential homebuyers in today’s market are facing a number of challenges, including increasing mortgage rates and a sizeable supply and demand imbalance that is pushing home-price appreciation to very high levels throughout the country. MBA’s Purchase Application Payment Index (PAPI) has increased by 32% thus far this year, indicating that payments have risen much faster […]
A piece of legislation introduced in the Senate in mid-May could streamline the appraisal process for VA loans. The legislation would modernize the Department of Veteran Affairs‘ appraisal requirements by allowing desktop appraisals, and in some circumstances, waving appraisals all together. Currently, all VA appraisals must be performed in-house. If passed, the legislation, introduced by […]
Full-service lender Cherry Creek Mortgage announced Rick Hogle has joined the company as its chief revenue officer. In his new role, Hogle will manage the firm’s retail operations, overseeing growth and development of retail sales and the production network, while supporting the firm’s business channels. He’s also tasked with developing a recruiting platform to engage […]
Planet Financial Group will donate $100,000 to a project that distributes food surplus to food banks. The donation will be made to The Farmlink Project, a nonprofit organization that aims to reduce carbon emissions and save millions of pounds of fresh produce by connecting farmers to food banks. Since Farmlink launched in 2020, more than […]
Fannie Mae has executed its fifth Credit Insurance Risk Transfer (CIRT) deal of 2022, providing up to $733.3 million in mortgage-risk coverage for the private market. The transaction, CIRT 2022-5 involved a covered loan pool of 67,700 single-family mortgages with a total unpaid principal balance of about $21 billion. The loans in the pool are […]
If there’s a bet to be made on the future of the non-agency lending space, it’s that the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) will become far more popular this year as purchase mortgages increasingly dominate a housing market pivoting to an up-rate environment. That’s the consensus forecast of a panel of non-agency industry experts who spoke at […]
Skyrocketing mortgage rates and a slowdown in new home constructions led to a drop in home purchases in April. Mortgage applications for new home purchases dropped 10.6% in April from the same period last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association builder application survey. Compared with last month, applications dropped by 14%. MBA estimates that about […]
A combination of persistent inflation, rising interest rates and a slowdown in global economic growth forced Fannie Mae to reduce this year’s GDP growth rate. Fannie Mae’s Economic and Strategic Research (ESR) Group dropped its projected 2022 real GDP to 1.3%, 0.8 percentage points lower than its previous forecast. It sees the second quarter of […]
Purchase mortgage rates this week averaged 5.25%, down five basis points from a week ago, as some individuals put the American homeownership dream on standby due to higher rates and surging home prices, according to the latest Freddie Mac PMMS. This time a year ago, the 30-year fixed-rate purchase rates were at 3%, the report shows. The government-sponsored […]
Nonbank mortgage lender and servicer Ocwen Financial Corp. announced on Wednesday that Sean O’Neil is joining the company as executive vice president and chief financial officer. O’Neil will start at Ocwen on June 13 to lead the firm’s global finance organization amid a challenging mortgage origination market. Before landing at Ocwen, the executive served as […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a report this week looking at how servicers fared in the second half of 2021. The report said that on average, servicers improved their call metrics, but that some servicers continue to lag behind in assisting borrowers. According to the report, which examined data provided from 16 undisclosed […]
Individuals across the country put the American dream of homeownership on standby for the week ending May 13, reducing mortgage application volume by 11% compared to the prior week, as measured by the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s (MBA’s) Market Composite Index. “Mortgage applications decreased for the first time in three weeks, as mortgage rates — despite declining […]
Private equity firm Narrow Gauge Capital (NGC) acquired Inco-Check, LLC, a provider of quality control audit mortgage software and fraud prevention services. Founded in 2000, Irvine, California-based Inco-Check leverages its proprietary web-based platform to support GSE, regulatory agency, and investor requirements. With NGC’s acquisition of Inco-Check, the company aims to enhance loan quality and prevent […]
Orchard, which operates a home-buying and selling platform, wants to expand its customer base of first-time homebuyers by helping them to make a cash-backed offer. Buy with Orchard is the firm’s first product targeted to first-time buyers that provides home shoppers with the cash needed to compete with equity-rich homeowners and investors, the company said. […]
Julia Gordon made a habit of stopping by Ed Golding’s office when he ran the agency that she now leads. During her visits, one thing stood out to Golding, who served as the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s principal deputy assistant secretary from 2015 to 2017. Gordon already possessed a vast knowledge of the […]
The rise in mortgage-related fraud over the past three years was largely due to a surge in online and mobile-only mortgage transactions. The pandemic and growing mobile channel fueled the number of fraud cases with application fraud being a key entrant point for fraudsters, a new report analyzing fraud trends suggests. Fraud costs largely came […]
Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume dropped in April to a level below 1%, with fewer than half a million borrowers remaining with an active plan, according to the monthly Loan Monitoring Survey conducted by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). That’s good news after the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic hit borrowers hard, making it difficult for Americans to pay […]
As banks and non-bank lenders recently released earnings for the first quarter of 2022, two things became clear: Origination volume plummeted across the board, but those that managed to muster up a good quarter benefited from servicing portfolios. As refinancing became less appealing, lenders also sold off a large portion of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs), […]
Polly, a software-as-service mortgage technology firm that operates a loan-trading platform, integrated with six mortgage insurance providers to streamline the mortgage process for loan officers and mortgage lenders. The San Francisco-based fintech will embed quoting capabilities of Arch MI, Enact, Essent, MGIC, National MI and Radian to Polly’s product and pricing engine to streamline the […]
Movement Mortgage was founded in 2008 with a mission to create a “movement of change” in the mortgage industry after one of the hardest financial episodes in American history. This mindset is still present today, as they continue to move forward to tackle some of the biggest problems in the industry today. Montell Watson, director […]
Mortgage servicing is a scale business, meaning the economics of scale can be achieved with larger servicing portfolio by spreading the fixed costs among more loans being serviced. Such scaling; however, hasn’t achieved the expected results as indicated by both the increase of servicing cost on a per-loan basis and on loans serviced on a […]
Blend Labs reported a $73.5 million loss in the first quarter, but pointed to the performance of its mortgage banking and title sectors as a positive sign for the rest of the year. The company’s revenue rose to $71.5 million, up 124% year over year, driven by $38.7 million in revenue from Title 365, which […]
Rates are rising. Refinances are falling. Inventory is contracting. Application fallouts are worsening. It’s getting harder out there. Worsening market conditions are only going to accelerate an already hyper-competitive mortgage lending industry that is still learning to adapt to post-pandemic homebuying behaviors. Technology has been the focal point of that evolution more out of necessity […]