Delinquency rates for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties shrank across the board to 5.47% in the second quarter, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey published this week. Compared to the previous quarter, the delinquency rate dropped 91 basis points and was down a whopping 275 bps from a year ago. The results are […]
Summary List Placement Around 31 million more households didn’t have to pay federal income taxes in 2020 than in 2019. That’s a 40% increase, according to new data from the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. According to data from the think tank, 106.8 million households owed no federal income taxes in 2020, or 61% of households who […]
Summary List Placement US Sen. Bernie Sanders is leaving Vermont to pitch the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion reconciliation package to Republican voters in Indiana and Iowa. Sanders, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, has called the proposal the “most significant piece of legislation… since the Great Depression.” Financed by tax hikes on the wealthy and large […]
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined slightly to 2.86% for the week ending in August 19, according to mortgage rates data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. The week prior, mortgage rates rose to 2.87%, after six consecutive weeks of mortgage rate declines. This week’s slight decline tracks closely with downward-trending U.S. Treasury yields. The […]
Summary List Placement Even if they didn’t finish college, Black student-loan borrowers carry the same debt burden as a white adults with an advanced degree. That’s what two statisticians found after analyzing US Census data on the burden of student loan debt before the pandemic. They also learned that women — Black women in particular […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance dropped to a new pandemic-era low last week as the latest surge in virus cases did little to dent the labor market’s rebound. Weekly jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 348,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected claims to drop […]
Summary List Placement Today’s inflation debate, largely over whether the run-up is transitory or not, is a distraction. It’s not about the inflation per se, but how policymakers respond to it. The more pertinent discussion is the rate of inflation the Federal Reserve is willing to tolerate to achieve maximum employment. How high above their […]
Summary List Placement The owner of a seafood trailer in Bellingham, Washington, told The Bellingham Herald that supply-chain chaos had forced him to change his menu, stockpile supplies, and hike prices. On top of that, he decided to close one day a week to make sure he doesn’t run out of food, he said. Steven […]
Summary List Placement There’s an end in sight for the Federal Reserve’s drastic economic support. A majority of the central bank’s policymakers determined late last month the Fed could start reducing the amount of money it’s feeding into the economy as early as this year, minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s July meeting showed Wednesday. […]
We’re living through a very interesting time in the U.S. housing industry. The global pandemic hit our industry like a pair of defibrillator paddles, bringing mortgage industry CFOs to life and sending millions of dollars into new technology investment and implementation. The old debate over the primacy of best-of-breed tech stacks versus an all-in-one platform […]
Summary List Placement Senator Ron Wyden wants to end homelessness in America and help out low-income renters — and he just introduced a bill to do so. The “Decent, Affordable, Safe Housing For All Act” (DASH) targets affordable housing, income-burdened renters, and first-time homeowners. It aims to house everyone currently unhoused within five years, with […]
Summary List Placement School systems across the nation are facing a shortage of bus drivers, the Washington Post reported on Monday. With the end of summer quickly approaching, some schools have been forced to push back start dates while they search for new hires. EastSide Charter School in Delaware is offering parents financial incentives to […]
Summary List Placement Despite millions of people resigning during a tightening labor market and the trend of “rage quitting,” the majority of human resources professionals and executives believe that less than 9% of employees will resign once pandemic-related restrictions lift, according to a survey done by TINYpulse. Employers might be in for a surprise, however, […]
Summary List Placement The $1 trillion infrastructure plan, in President Joe Biden’s words, “invests in the American people and their future and their success.” If investors play their cards right, they can also benefit. Bank of America analysts see 12 stocks leading the way in an infrastructure-fueled rally. The infrastructure measure won Senate approval last week, […]
The Biden administration will use its strongest tool in its toolkit to increase minority homeownership: The Federal Housing Finance Agency. The FHFA on Wednesday proposed new affordable housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, goals that would require it to “responsibly promote equitable access to affordable housing that reaches low- and moderate-income families, minority […]
Summary List Placement The Education Department announced in March that colleges could use funds from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan to wipe out debt students owe to their schools, and since then, a growing number of colleges have been doing just that. But while institutional student debt differs from federal student debt, schools are […]
Candor, a mortgage artificial intelligence firm that has pioneered automated underwriter technology, announced a $12.5 million funding round, led by Arthur Ventures. Nearly a year ago, when Candor vaulted onto the scene, mortgage lenders were desperate to hire underwriters. Lenders offered signing bonuses to qualified underwriters and base salaries of $150,000, stunning observers. Shortly thereafter, […]
Summary List Placement The pandemic unchained Americans from their office desks and sent rental vacancies in big cities like New York and San Francisco climbing. In an attempt to curb the free fall, a record share of landlords slashed rent prices and offered concessions like months off rent and waived application fees to lure tenants […]
Mortgage applications decreased 3.9% for the week ending Aug. 13 compared to the week prior and fewer borrowers opted to refinance, according to the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Ten-year Treasury yields rose overall but tapered off slightly at the end of last week, and 30-year mortgage rates tracked by the MBA reached […]
Baird & Warner President and CEO Stephen Baird Baird & Warner lays claim to be the oldest U.S. brokerage still in operation, launching in 1855. In the 1960s, its then-executive John Baird tussled with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) over that group’s enforcement of redlining as Baird wanted to sell homes to Black people […]
Summary List Placement Jobless workers in Indiana will still receive their enhanced unemployment benefits, even after a court ruling struck down them again. Indiana was one of the 26 states to end federal benefits early, and one of the first to see its jobless residents sue to get them back. Workers there sued the state […]
Summary List Placement Rising wages sparked some concerns that higher pay for workers will translate to higher prices. Reality isn’t so clear-cut. A handful of other factors are playing a much larger role in lifting prices across the US. The Federal Reserve and the Biden administration argue the overshoot is temporary and linked to the economic […]
Summary List Placement If you want to be wealthier, becoming your own boss may pay off. A new release from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy finds that self-employed people are, on average, wealthier than their non-self-employed peers. Specifically, the median net worth for self-employed families was $380,000 in 2019; for the families of workers […]
Summary List Placement It’s a tempting world out there for Henrys. Short for “high earner, not rich yet,” Henrys are typically millennials in their early 30s earning over $100,000 and living in urban areas. The tend to live above their means and struggle to balance saving with spending, which leaves them feeling like they’re living […]
Summary List Placement Renters beware. People who thought they wanted to buy a home — but balked at skyrocketing prices — are coming for the rental market. It’s already sparking a new affordability crisis. Single-family rent prices rose 7.5% year-over-year in June, property analytics firm CoreLogic said in a Tuesday report. That’s up from 6.6% […]
Summary List Placement This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Julio Gonzalez, an East Coast landlord, about the US eviction moratorium. I’m Julio Gonzalez, the CEO and founder of specialty tax engineering firm Engineered Tax Services. I also own 24 properties on the East Coast and have been a landlord for 20 […]
Summary List Placement My husband and I recently took a day trip to our old stomping grounds in the city, where we’d lived for almost a decade before the pandemic. That caprese salad I had ordered too many times from our local café was delicious, the birthday-cake-flavored frozen yogurt was a taste of olam haba […]
Summary List Placement A Vermont chef made a seven-hour round trip to Whole Foods to stock up on a key ingredient after a supplier let him down last minute, he said. Nadav Mille, who owns catering company Chef Nadav LLC with his wife, told CNN he ordered a batch of pitas from food distribution giant […]
UWM Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia United Wholesale Mortgage plans to be the first mortgage lender in America to accept cryptocurrency payments from borrowers. The alternative currency acceptance could come as early as the third quarter, UWM Chairman and CEO Mat Ishbia said on the lender’s quarterly earnings call on Monday. “We’ve evaluated the feasibility […]
Summary List Placement American meat producers and distributors are sounding the alarm on a potential turkey shortage ahead of the holiday season. “The news is not promising,” a broker for Shady Brook Farms, one of the nation’s largest turkey suppliers, said in a letter to retailers and distributors, according to a food seller who received […]
Summary List Placement Some white-collar workers are taking advantage of remote working by holding down two full-time jobs – and not telling either employer. The Wall Street Journal spoke to six workers who have held multiple full-time jobs. They told the publication that it’s a difficult balancing act, but worth it for the double salary. […]
Summary List Placement A whole lot of people have been quitting their jobs in the past months, but it’s still lower than the number who would’ve quit in a pandemic-free world. That’s because there’s still 3.7 million “missing quits,” according to Daniel Zhao, a senior economist at Glassdoor. “Basically, I just looked at what quits […]
The volume of loans in forbearance fell 14 basis points, from 3.40% the prior week to 3.26% for the week ending August 8, per the latest Mortgage Bankers Association report, while new forbearance requests and calls to servicers increased. According to the trade association’s estimate, 1.6 million homeowners are in a forbearance plan. Forbearance numbers […]
Summary List Placement The Higher Education Act permits borrowers with permanent disabilities to get their student loans forgiven, but the process is lengthy and difficult to navigate. Six bipartisan lawmakers want to change that. On August 4, Sens. Chris Coons, Tammy Duckworth, Rob Portman, and Angus King, along with Reps. Ron Kind and Brian Fitzpatrick, […]
Summary List Placement Finally ready to have the wedding they put on the back burner last year, some wealthy millennials are now doubling the price tag of saying ‘I do.’ It’s partly out of desire and partly out of necessity, reported Jeanna Smialek for The New York Times: They’ve been able to save discretionary money […]
United Wholesale Mortgage CEO Mat Ishbia has set the goal of topping arch-rival Rocket Mortgage by 2024. The second quarter earnings report shows he still has quite a bit of work ahead of him. The wholesale-only lender originated $59 billion in mortgages in the second quarter, generating $139 million in net income, UWM disclosed in […]
Summary List Placement After shedding residents through much of the pandemic, cities are bouncing back. The onset of lockdowns in early 2020 eroded the appeal of the US’s largest cities. Residents looking for more space and cheaper housing fled metropolitan areas in large numbers, with New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles seeing huge […]
Summary List Placement When it comes to what workers want out of their careers right now, there’s a simple answer for many: A new job altogether. A new survey from remote and flexible jobs site FlexJobs asked over 4,600 workers about their career paths, and what they’re looking for in a job. Of those surveyed, […]
In an interesting announcement last week, HUD and FHFA issued a joint MOU (memorandum of understanding) that enhances efforts to synchronize fair lending policy, enforcement and investigatory activities. This is a rare instance where HUD and the regulator of the GSEs have publicly agreed to attempt to synchronize efforts on such a major policy effort. […]
Summary List Placement Small businesses don’t see things returning to normal anytime soon. The Delta variant is causing a surge in COVID-19 cases, and consumers are shopping less out of fear of contracting the virus. Of more than 560 small-business owners surveyed, just 39% of them see economic conditions improving over the next year, according to a […]
Summary List Placement Nearly 3 million people have signed a petition calling for Congress to issue $2,000 monthly stimulus checks. The petition has been gaining significant traction since creator Stephanie Bonin posted it to Change.org last year. It’s been making waves again as the Delta variant spreads across the country. Since May, hundreds of thousands […]
Summary List Placement In the year 2021, it’s almost impossible not to be a techno-pessimist. Silicon Valley’s promises of revolutionary technological advancement just a decade ago have gone unfulfilled. No self-driving cars, just more expensive cabs. Sure, we got next-day delivery with Amazon Prime, but at the expense of our local corner store. The promise […]
Summary List Placement In 1991, a senator called out the deep-rooted flaws in the student-loan system that caused borrowers to take out debt they could not repay. He said the loan programs might not be salvageable, and three decades later, the flaws he pointed to are even worse. The new book by the The Wall […]
Summary List Placement The US economy has been on a rampage all summer, with growth, consumer demand, wage growth, and job openings all at historically high levels as the country reopened. But there’s a strange divide in the recovery, and how it works itself out could define the rest of the decade. There’s a split […]
Summary List Placement Calls are increasing for businesses to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for their employees. The White House has said it supports private employers who do this. A former health adviser to President Biden is arguing that businesses should do so quickly, saying we’re running out of time. In New York City, which has the […]