There is still ample opportunity in the market for lenders to rope in refi business, according to a quarterly report published Monday by Sales Boomerang. And the reason for this is two-fold. The report – which is compiled using data sourced from more than 150 residential mortgage lenders – found that one in 12 borrowers saw “significant […]
In several previous articles I have opined that an increase in mortgage rates may be our only hope for slowing the escalation of home prices that we’ve been experiencing for the past year. With mortgage rates hitting above 3% last week for the first time since June, it’s a good time to revisit this conversation […]
The secondary market for mortgage servicing rights, or MSRs, has been heating up recently as interest rates tick up, increasing the value of MSR assets, and as other revenue streams for lenders begin to slow — such as loan refinancing. It’s also the time of year that many nondepository lenders, also called nonbanks, typically will […]
PennyMac announced this week that it is upping conforming loan limits by almost 14% through broker and correspondent channels. According to PennyMac, for a one-unit property a borrower could receive $625,000, an increase of almost $75,000 from the maximum loan limit dictated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The 2021 baseline national conforming loan […]
Brena NathHW+ Managing Editor 2021 has been a year of transition. We’ve been transitioning to a new White House administration, transitioning away from a refinance market and cautiously transitioning back to meeting in person. And now, the year is almost over, with only one more magazine issue left until we cross over into 2022. But […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced this week that it is extending the timeframe for borrowers to request loan deferment. According to the VA’s circular, servicers may continue offering loan deferment until July 1, 2023, thus pushing the deadline nearly two additional years. The original expiration of this option was supposed to occur on Oct. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused historic, unprecedented challenges for mortgage servicers. Forbearance deadlines get pushed back seemingly in perpetuity, and an unproven, inconsistent technology infrastructure has the potential to result in a series of foreclosure and loss mitigation crises. This was one contention made during a panel featuring leaders in the mortgage servicing profession held […]
The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rate rose 13 basis points to 3.01% for the week ending Sept. 30, according to Freddie Mac’s latest PMMS survey. Mortgage rates had been roughly flat for seven weeks, and this is the first time it rose above 3% since June. Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement that rates […]
Agnes Standowicz, vice president, underwriting leader at United Wholesale Mortgage This year’s list of HousingWire Insiders radiate influence well beyond the walls of their individual companies, providing the infrastructure that upholds the whole industry. HousingWire decided to dive deeper into a few of our award winners to get a peek behind the curtain on what defines […]
When Brad Lawson and Fernando Escaffi founded Charlotte-based PrimeLine Capital in January 2019, they wanted their operation to be all about having fun. Their leadership style is based on treating broker team members like family and ensuring that everyone can have fun and bring their full selves into the office. This philosophy, not being driven […]
Mortgage companies must focus on bolstering cybersecurity infrastructure, and should report any and all incursions from bad actors who seek access to sensitive information or who plan to encrypt systems to hold for ransom. This was a core part of the thesis presented by Selim Aissi, cybersecurity expert and former CISO of ICE Mortgage Technologies […]
Mortgage application volume declined by 1.1% for the week ending Sept. 24, after a rebound in the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Pushing the decline was the purchase index, which dipped by 1.2% from the previous week. Meanwhile, the refi activity decreased by 0.9% from the prior week, the trade group […]
Housing Market Crash image ” data-image-caption=”” 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”> Investing in technology is not the be-all end-all when it comes to efficiency in mortgage origination. Lenders who adopt technology but don’t […]
Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume dropped last week to a level below 3.00% for the first time in 18 months. The total number of loans in forbearance decreased by four basis points to 2.96% as of Sept. 19, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The most notable decline was in the portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) category, dipping […]
United Wholesale Mortgage announced several new initiatives at the AIME Fuse conference on Saturday. In a keynote session about the future of mortgage, UWM CEO Mat Ishbia previewed Bolt, an underwriting system that he said would enable brokers to underwrite a loan in 15 minutes or less, which will go live on Monday, Sept. 27. […]
The raft of legislation designed to spur first-time homeownership in America seems to grow by the minute. Another bill joined the fray, and its sponsors propose creating a new 20-year-fixed-rate mortgage program through Ginnie Mae. The legislation, dubbed the “Low-income First Time Homebuyer (LIFT) Act,” would create a program through the Department of Housing and […]
Multifamily property owners who are struggling to make mortgage payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic now will have access to forbearance programs indefinitely in the case of loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced today. Forbearance options for multifamily mortgages backed by the GSEs were set to […]
Knowing where borrowers are at in their home-buying journey is key to any successful lending strategy, but it’s often overlooked in the busy operations of an origination shop. That’s why HousingWire invited Alex Kutsishin, CEO and co-founder of Sales Boomerang, to HW Annual Sept. 28 to discuss the easiest ways to keep borrowers on your radar, […]
Homeowners with mortgages gained $2.9 trillion in equity in the second quarter of 2021, a 29.3% year-over-year increase, according to a new report by CoreLogic released Wednesday. This marks an average gain of $51,500(!) per borrower since the second quarter of 2020. The amount of equity for a property is determined by comparting the estimated […]
A former executive at loanDepot dropped a bombshell on the mortgage industry late Wednesday, alleging in a lawsuit that the California-based nonbank lender, in a ploy to drum up money during the refi boom and in preparation for its initial public offering, closed thousands of loans without proper documentation. The suit, filed by Tammy Richards, […]
The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rose, ever so slightly, to 2.88% for the week ending Sept. 23, according to Freddie Mac‘s latest PMMS survey. Mortgage rates have been roughly flat for months now. “The slowdown in economic growth around the world has caused a flight to the quality of the U.S. financial markets,” said Sam Khater, […]
The Biden administration recently announced its efforts to address the lack of affordable housing in America by increasing funding for existing programs geared toward producing, financing and rehabilitating affordable housing. HousingWire invited Tai Christensen, director of government affairs for CBC Mortgage Agency, to HW Annual Sept 27-28 to discuss these recent efforts by the Biden […]
Sandra Madigan, digital product director, enterprise product strategy, servicing technologies at Black Knight This year’s list of HousingWire Insiders radiate influence well beyond the walls of their individual companies, providing the infrastructure that upholds the whole industry. HousingWire decided to dive deeper into a few of our award winners to get a peek behind the curtain […]
The week following Labor Day saw a flurry of mortgage loan application activity, with volume jumping by 4.9% for the seven days ending Sept. 17, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refis were on the front foot again. The increase in application activity is quite different from the MBA’s survey published in early September, which […]
A series of regulatory changes are taking place in housing due to a new political administration and the country’s reckoning with racial inequality in homeownership. That’s why HousingWire invited attorney Jeffrey Naimon, partner at the Buckley LLP Washington, D.C. office, to HW Annual to explain what these new regulations mean for the housing economy. Naimon […]
Starting March 14, 2022, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will require all lenders to use FHA Catalyst for appraisals. The module can also accept appraisals for Home Equity Conversion Mortgages (HECMs), the administration announced last week. The FHA Catalyst: Electronic Appraisal Delivery module will allow for the administration to expand their data collection and analysis […]
Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume fell once again last week, as exits remained elevated compared to requests or re-entries. The total number of loans in forbearance dropped by eight basis points to 3.00% as of Sept. 12, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The most notable decline was in the portfolio loans and private-label securities […]
Limited inventory, supply chain disruptions and concerns about inflation have led economists at Fannie Mae to lower their mortgage origination forecasts for the remainder of this year and into 2022. Fannie Mae dropped its projected origination volume for 2021 to $4.33 trillion from the $4.36 trillion it projected in August. It also downsized its 2022 […]
Rookies that pursued a career as mortgage loan originators in 2020 air dropped into a scintillating real estate market. There was easy money to be made – refi opportunities were bountiful, lenders hired tens of thousands of workers to meet capacity, and even showered underwriters with five-figure bonuses on top of $150,000 salaries. Rookie LOs […]
Influential Congresswoman Maxine Waters has waded into the growing debate about who should lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). And her pick – though she doesn’t get a vote – is the acting director, Sandra Thompson. “Appointed on June 23 as acting director, Ms. Thompson has needed little time to show this nation how uniquely […]
Mortgage lenders have been making strides to right their wrongs, with critical defects falling to a rate of 2.01% in the first quarter of 2021, according to ACES Quality Management’s report published this week. This marks a notable improvement from the third quarter of 2020, when the critical rate rose to 2.34%, buoyed by increased […]
As the summer comes to an end, several issues are top of mind for everyone: the impact of the Delta variant, the debate over when the Federal Reserve will taper its asset purchases, the situation in Afghanistan, and the federal debt limit and budget debate. When it comes to housing and mortgage markets this fall, […]
Amid all the rumors that President Biden might be nominating a new FHFA director, the acting director has been doing something that all should pay attention to. Sandra Thompson has been deliberately fixing all of the flawed steps of her predecessor. As I look at the work Sandra has done in the short time since […]
The FHFA proposed a rule on Wednesday to amend the Enterprise Regulatory Capital Framework (ERCF) for the GSEs that would refine the leverage buffer and the risk-based capital treatment for CRT transactions. However, far from reopening the whole discussion on the ERCF, the new rule proposes three specific amendments based on comments the FHFA received […]
As the housing economy becomes increasingly digital, appraisal modernization may hold the key to not only providing a better experience for borrowers and lenders but also reducing potential appraisal bias. That’s why HousingWire invited Rachel Robinson, director, collateral policy and product development at Rocket Mortgage, to HW Annual to discuss how technology can play an […]
The reverse mortgage volume boom appears to have diminished for now, at least if new data is any indication. Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements fell in August, 2021 by 14.3% to 3,679 loans, with July now having marked the end of a streak of monthly volume above a threshold of at least 4,000 units […]
Mortgage loan application volume rebounded from the week prior, increasing by 0.3% for the week ending Sept. 10, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly report. The increase in application volume was predominantly driven by purchase mortgage activity, which grew by 8% from the week prior, the trade group said. Not surprisingly, the refi […]
Black Knight is looking to hook mortgage brokers with a new loan origination system designed specifically for them. The Florida-based mortgage tech and analytics behemoth on Wednesday unveiled “LoanCatcher” to mortgage brokers, which it described as an “end-to-end” solution that is integrated into its Surefire CRM and mortgage marketing engine. The direct integration will allow […]
The Treasury Department and FHFA announced Tuesday that they are suspending certain requirements that were added in January to the Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements (PSPAs) between Treasury and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Under those requirements, Fannie Mae had restricted its acquisition of loans secured by second homes and investment properties to 7% of its […]
Mike Calhoun is president of the Center for Responsible Lending This week the Biden administration announced several high-level nominations, including Alanna McCargo to lead Ginnie Mae. But missing from those announcements was the White House’s widely expected pick for the next permanent director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency(FHFA), Mike Calhoun. Sources told HousingWire at […]
Point, a shared equity reverse mortgage firm that gives homeowners the ability to sell a small fraction of their equity, recently announced that it has raised over $1 billion in new capital commitments from real estate and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) investors. These companies include Atalaya Capital Management (which made a prior investment in 2018), Kingsbridge Wealth Management, […]
The regulatory environment for the mortgage industry is experiencing a period of turbulence as President Biden has ushered in a new era of regulation under his administration. That’s why HousingWire invited attorney Daniella Casseres to HW Annual to discuss just what these new regulations mean for those in the housing economy. Casseres is a partner […]
After a slight lull, forbearance numbers across the board have started to lurch downwards, with the total number of loans dropping by 15 basis points to 3.08% as of Sept. 5, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s latest survey. The portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) category, which has remained stubbornly high, saw the most […]
Wells Fargo has been slapped with a $250 million civil money penalty by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for “unsafe or unsound practices” pertaining to their home lending loss mitigation program this week. According to the OCC, the fine is also a result of the bank violating the terms of a 2018 […]
Currently, one in five, or roughly 20%, of consumers work with an independent mortgage broker. With their strong, personal relationships, endless loan options and access to technology, we expect that number to continue to grow as more and more consumers become educated on the value brokers add to the home-buying experience. This past year and […]