Summary List Placement As chair of the Senate subcommittee on economic policy, Elizabeth Warren in April invited the CEOs of the country’s major student-loan servicers to testify on the impact of student debt on borrowers. She, and the subcommittee’s Republican ranking member, John Kennedy, say that one of them may have given false testimony. On […]
The 2021 nominations for HW Insiders close today, so be sure to nominate your organizational all star before it’s too late! This award program recognizes key players in housing who are absolutely essential to the performance of their organizations, doing the leg work that makes the mortgage industry tick. Winners will be featured not only […]
Summary List Placement The CEO of HEI Hotels and Resorts said the chain was encouraging customers to authorize tips at check-in to ensure staff were recognized for their hard work. Guests who opt-in would pay tips when they left the hotel, Ted Darnall told Insider on Thursday. The chain has more than 80 hotels and […]
Summary List Placement Red-hot inflation persisted through May as nationwide supply bottlenecks and extraordinary demand led producers and businesses to lift prices. The Personal Consumption Expenditures price index — among the country’s most popular measures of inflation — rose 0.4% through May, the Commerce Department said Friday. The median estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg […]
Summary List Placement The CEO of Starbucks insisted the chain wasn’t running low on coffee and cups – but said some baked goods were in short supply. “We’ve had some shortages in the bakery case, that certainly is true,” CEO Kevin Johnson told CNBC’s Jim Cramer Thursday. He didn’t specify which baked goods had run […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden has thrown his support behind a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal focused on roads and bridges — and part of the spending would be potentially offset by unused relief funds and targeting unemployment insurance fraud. Repurposed federal UI will account for $25 billion of the deal’s pay-fors, a person […]
Summary List Placement The solution to the labor shortage is, according to President Joe Biden, as simple as a higher wage. The president allayed a range of concerns around the economy during a Thursday press conference. Among them is the nationwide labor shortage, which has seen hiring slow despite millions of Americans still being unemployed. […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Joe Manchin on Thursday expressed concern about the $6 trillion price tag put forth in an economic package drafted by Sen Bernie Sanders along with other Senate Democrats, which increases odds of major cuts from that blueprint. The West Virginia Democrat called the proposed number “extremely, extremely high” and said he’s […]
Summary List Placement Businesses are battling to attract workers as the economy roars back to life. Their latest weapon: a slew of hiring incentives. The share of job openings touting incentives — ranging from signing bonuses to retention payouts — has doubled since July 2020, according to employment service Indeed. The share began to steadily […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden has thrown his support behind a $1 trillion infrastructure deal negotiated by a Senate group of Republican and Democrats, a major step towards his goal of working with the GOP despite their opposition to the majority of his agenda. “We have a deal,” Biden said Thursday after an Oval […]
Summary List Placement Like many other aspects of the US recovery, the housing market’s boom has been anything but even. The market rally started as a broad upswing. After home sales tumbled at the start of the pandemic, surging demand and low mortgage rates spurred a nationwide buying spree. But as the boom charged forward, […]
ALL EYES ON PURCHASE In 2021, all housing professionals must be focused on the 3 P’s: Process, Profitability and Purchase. PPP may have meant something different in 2020, but this year the 3 P’s are the guiding light to long-term mortgage success and domination. The ratios flipped last year. Strong purchase lenders that historically did […]
This content is exclusively for HW+ members. Start an HousingWire Editor-In-Chief, Sarah Wheeler, sits down with Brian Rieger, co-founder and CEO at Content Beacon, and Kirk G. Willison, vice president at Arch Mortgage Insurance Company, to walk attendees through the process of creating a successful content strategy. Here is a small preview of the session, […]
The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose nine basis points from the week prior to 3.02%, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. This is the first time in 10 weeks mortgage rates have risen above 3%. “As the economy progresses and inflation remains elevated, we expect that rates will continue to gradually rise in the second […]
Summary List Placement You have to feel a little bit sorry for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. On Tuesday he testified before the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, and it was a waste of his time. Both Democrats and Republicans failed to ask productive questions about how the Federal Reserve is responding to […]
Summary List Placement Weekly filings for unemployment benefits fell just barely last week, resuming a steady downward trend after last week’s surprise increase. Jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 411,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg held a median estimate of 380,000 claims. The previous week’s count was revised to 418,000 […]
Summary List Placement The price of air-conditioning units has shot up thanks to a shortage of key components — and a lack of installers means some customers are waiting longer for their units, Fox Business reports. Over the past few months, multiple manufacturers have announced rising equipment costs for units of between 3% and 9%. Brad […]
Summary List Placement A bipartisan coalition of senators secured a tentative agreement with White House staff on the highly prioritized infrastructure spending package. On Wednesday, Senators involved in the negotiations, including Sens. Susan Collins, Joe Manchin, and Mitt Romney, announced that they had reached the “framework,” for a bill on the spending. “There’s a framework […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged Congress on Wednesday to extend a July 31 deadline to pay down a portion of the federal government’s $28 trillion in debt to investors and foreign governments. Without the extension, she warned of an “absolutely catastrophic” default that would imperil the nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic. […]
Summary List Placement Twenty-five GOP-led states have so far opted to end President Joe Biden’s $300 weekly unemployment benefits early to incentivize residents to get back to work. But it looks like the cuts aren’t motivating people to step up their job searches. Indeed’s hiring lab released a report on Tuesday that found job-search activity […]
Summary List Placement Amazon, Under Armour, Chipotle, and McDonald’s raised their starting wages through the spring, and overall wage growth accelerated to its fastest rate since the 1980s in May as businesses scrambled to attract workers. But don’t count on it being a revolutionary jump in worker power, at least not according to Oxford Economics, whose […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is poised to play a critical role in President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. The influential Democratic centrist nearly derailed passage of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package when he pressed for a last-minute cut to federal unemployment benefits. It sent Democrats scrambling to secure his support […]
Summary List Placement Borrowers with student loans haven’t had to pay them back through the pandemic, but that pause on payments is set to lift at the end of September. Although Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has hinted at a futher extension of the pause, no details have yet been released. Sixty-four Democrats want to give borrowers […]
Summary List Placement Even as people are becoming wealthier in Asia, the US is maintaining its hold on the ultra-wealthy and will likely continue to house the greatest proportion of wealthiest individuals though 2025. The Boston Consulting Group — a management consulting firm — released its Global Wealth Report of 2021 earlier this month, which […]
A Supreme Court decision in Collins v. Yellen has found the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) unconstitutional, allowing for the removal of its director. The case questioned whether the Biden administration would have the power to fire the agency’s director, Mark Calabria, a Trump-appointee and vocal critic of the government-sponsored enterprises. The […]
Summary List Placement Technology has saved the world. So said tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen in a recent blog post, in which he said he believed remote work was “a permanent civilizational shift.” Its impact could be even greater than that of the internet itself, he added. “It is perhaps the most important […]
Summary List Placement In a remarkable decision delivered on June 21, the Supreme Court ruled that restrictions on education-related benefits offered to college athletes by universities violated antitrust law — in essence dealing a huge blow to the model that has dominated college sports for over a century. While the ruling only applies to a […]
Summary List Placement Some car dealers have sold used trucks for more than the original sticker price thanks to rocketing demand and a global shortage of chips needed to make new cars, Fox Business reported. Used vehicle prices have risen by an average of 30% over the past year, according to automotive data site Black […]
For the second week in a row, mortgage applications increased — this time, up 2.1% for the week ending June 18, 2021, per the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate also rose to 3.18% — the highest level in a month, according to the MBA. Purchase activity was higher […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia on Tuesday said he was open to backing a party-line infrastructure bill. It’s one of the clearest signs yet that Democrats could pivot to approving much of President Joe Biden’s spending plans without GOP support. The influential Democratic centrist told NBC News that “human infrastructure” should […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts is responsible for holding up James Kvaal’s nomination for under secretary of education, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Insider. Kvaal, the former president of the nonprofit Institute of College Access and Success, was nominated for the number three position at the Education Department in February, […]
The forbearance rate is officially below 4% for the first time in a year. Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume fell 11 basis points last week to 3.93%, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA now estimates 2 million homeowners are still in some form of a forbearance plan. In addition to last week’s drop, every […]
Summary List Placement Americans received $600 weekly unemployment benefits under the CARES Act in March, but the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found in May that a portion of those funds fell into the wrong hands due to failures in detecting fraud. Mississippi just affirmed those findings on a statewide level — with a […]
Crazy. Horrible. Grueling. These are the words real estate agents use when asked to describe the current state of the market and what it’s like to buy a home today. Buyers are facing unprecedented challenges, they say, due to a confluence of housing market conditions: Pricing. Redfin reported earlier this month that the national median […]
Summary List Placement Student-loan payments have been on pause for the duration of the pandemic, providing significant financial relief to borrowers. But the pause is set to lift in October, and some Democrats want to ensure borrowers are as prepared as possible. On Monday, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and Tina […]
Summary List Placement I wrote last week about the pressures facing Amazon as it tries to hire workers and expand rapidly in a tight labor market. It’s a hard task. The company is almost certainly going to need to raise wages and rethink its approach to employment in an attempt to become more of a […]
Summary List Placement Millions of Americans are behind on rent payments and will soon have to confront their back rent once the nationwide eviction ban expires at the end of June. But for low-income Californians, financial rental relief could be on the horizon. Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans to pay off 100% […]
Summary List Placement A bipartisan gang of 21 lawmakers is in fluid negotiations over a $1 trillion infrastructure plan, with the crucial difference being how to pay for some of it. Some moderate Democrats in the group are leaning in a certain direction on revenue: strengthening the IRS’ ability to pursue tax evaders. A pair […]
Summary List Placement Hotel workers are quitting their jobs for better pay during the US labor shortage, making recruitment a huge challenge, the owner of a New York City told Fox Business. “Hiring has been incredibly challenging,” Michael Achenbaum, founder and president of Gansevoort Hotel Group, which owns a 186-room room in NYC’s Meatpacking district, […]
Summary List Placement Fast-food chains are pushing up wages amid the current labor shortage – and factories are struggling to raise theirs as quickly, which is one of the reasons a stream of workers is leaving the manufacturing industry, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Factories have historically offered better wages than […]
Summary List Placement Hotels are scrambling to find perks to both recruit and retain employees amid a US labor shortage that’s causing some businesses to cut operating hours, slash production, and raise prices. Some hotels are offering long-term perks, such as expanded healthcare access and higher wages, while others are turning to one-off quick fixes, […]
Though the number of high-quality refi candidates grew from 12 to more than 14 million from March through May — a 15% increase — actual refinance rate locks dropped by 27% over the same period, according to recent data from Black Knight’s Originations Market Monitor. Month over month, overall rate lock volume was down 4.7% […]
Summary List Placement On the surface, the labor market hasn’t been making much sense. Take April for example: Ten million Americans were unemployed, even though nearly that same number of jobs were open (9.3 million, a record high). That same month, hiring slowed to a crawl and 4 million more people quit their jobs (another […]
Summary List Placement White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki pushed back against a gas tax proposal under consideration in the Senate, as she argued that ramping up IRS enforcement would net more revenue. At a Monday press conference, Psaki said the administration had projected that the bipartisan group’s planned gas tax measure would raise around […]
Summary List Placement Are you a millennial who earns six figures and still feels broke? Then you might be a “Henry,” short for “high earner, not rich yet.” Melkorka Licea first reported on the Henry millennial for the New York Post. The acronym, invented by Shawn Tully in a 2003 Fortune magazine article, has come […]