Summary List Placement Service members are currently eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, in which they can enroll in income-based repayment plans that could lead to loan forgiveness after 10 years. But if a service member is deployed and puts payments on pause, that time doesn’t count toward loan forgiveness, extending the period […]
Summary List Placement America is running out of houses amid a historic housing shortage and record-high selling prices. A recent bank note from Jefferies said the US was short 2.5 million homes, while Freddie Mac put that estimate higher at a shortage of 3.8 million. There are 40% fewer homes on the market than last […]
Summary List Placement With vaccinations ramping up across the country and the economy reopening, people’s wages are going up. America hasn’t seen this kind of wage growth in 20 years. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the ECI, which measures the change in total employment compensation each quarter, shows that the first three months of […]
Community lenders have big opportunities in today’s purchase market. As homebuyers increasingly demand personal, service-driven experiences with their mortgage providers, community lending teams are well-positioned to capture business via the strong relationships they excel at creating. Including credit unions, community banks, and small-to-midsize independent mortgage bankers, the community lending segment has grown rapidly in market […]
Top retail mortgage lender loanDepot has formed yet another strategic joint-venture with a fast-growing homebuilder. California-based loanDepot has formed a JV partnership with LGI Homes, called LGI Mortgage Solutions, the companies announced on Thursday. “Having been a preferred lender with LGI Homes since 2015, we have been extremely impressed by each other’s ability to scale while […]
Summary List Placement Experts see little risk of the housing market’s boom turning into a bubble. But that doesn’t mean there’s no reason to worry. Housing has served as one of the rare economic hot spots during the coronavirus pandemic. Tumbling mortgage rates boosted demand, which quickly spurred rampant homebuying. The spree quickly snapped up […]
Summary List Placement At Insider, we make a lot of maps. And in my years of making dozens upon dozens of maps illustrating different aspects of American economic, social, and political life, I’ve noticed that many of them look strikingly similar. Maybe you’ve seen the pattern, too. The coasts and other big cities are wealthy, […]
Renowned speaker coach Reñe Rodriguez will headline HousingWire’s virtual Engage Marketing event on June 17. Rodriguez, CEO of Volentum and creator of the AMPLIFII Influencer events, has researched and applied behavioral neuroscience for the last 20 years as a speaker, leadership advisor and sales expert. For Engage Marketing’s keynote, he’ll lead a hands-on workshop on […]
Summary List Placement Under President Joe Biden’s proposed tax increases, the top 1% of Americans could soon see their tax bills grow by about $100,000 per year. A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds that only the highest-earning Americans would see their taxes change if President Biden’s proposed increases […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden makes private phone calls to Sen. Bernie Sanders to hear from the left of his party, according to a New York Times report. It’s an unlikely turn of events for two fierce rivals from last fall’s primary campaign from opposite wings of the Democratic Party, but another piece of […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden officially unveiled the $1.8 trillion part of his $4 trillion infrastructure plan Wednesday night, and it included significant funding toward education, child care, nutrition, tax credits, and more. But while Biden said in his speech that he wants to make college more affordable, the speech did not address — […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden wants to increase taxes on some of the country’s highest earners to pay for affordable childcare, paid family leave, and free community college. But how much will taxes actually go up? Morgan Stanley thinks Biden will only get some of what he’s asking for. The investment bank cited comments […]
For the second consecutive week, mortgage rates managed to hold steady below 3%, rising one basis point last week to 2.98%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. In light of the rising COVID-19 caseloads globally, U.S. Treasury yields stopped moving up a month ago and have remained within a narrow range as the market responds to […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits fell for a third consecutive week as the labor market’s recovery charged forward. New jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 553,000 last week, according to the Labor Department. The median estimate from economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for 540,000 claims. The previous week’s reading was revised […]
Summary List Placement Some Americans earning less than $400,000 will have to pay higher tax rates under President Joe Biden’s economic plan, a White House official told Axios on Wednesday. In May 2020, Biden said that “nobody making under $400,000 would have their taxes raised” during his administration. But the White House official said people […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, on the eve of his 100th day in office. In his address before a pared-down audience due to the pandemic, Biden called for an ambitious economic recovery plan focused on jobs, infrastructure, childcare, and education. The […]
The parent company of Veritex Community Bank will acquire a 49% stake in Texas-based mortgage lender Thrive Mortgage, the firms announced late Tuesday afternoon. Veritex Holdings, which has a long history of making acquisitions, will pay $53.9 million for its piece of Thrive, valuing the Georgetown, Texas-headquartered company at roughly $110 million. The investment is […]
Summary List Placement On Wednesday, President Joe Biden unveiled a $1.8 trillion economic plan that would invest heavily in childcare, education, and workers. One part of the sprawling package includes a pledge to work with lawmakers on reforming unemployment insurance, a top priority for Democrats like Sens. Ron Wyden and Michael Bennet. The White House […]
The Federal Open Market Committee left future economic policies virtually unchanged at its Wednesday meeting, indicating it has not made any near-term plans to taper its asset purchases of Treasury– and mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The FOMC did alter April’s verbiage of the nation’s larger economic status given positive progress on vaccine distribution, employment and inflation. The committee […]
Summary List Placement The housing market boom has caught the Federal Reserve’s attention. By several measures, the US housing market is running at its hottest level since the mid-2000s bubble that nearly crashed the global financial system. Prices have surged at decade-high rates, and homebuying, while slowed from recent highs, remains elevated. What began as […]
Summary List Placement Ahead of President Joe Biden’s unveiling of his $1.8 trillion infrastructure plan on Wednesday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi spoke out in defense of the president’s tax increase proposals to fund the plan. Pelosi joined MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday afternoon to talk about Biden’s progress since he took office, and […]
Summary List Placement Cornerstones of President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan are helping middle-class families and reshaping the economy. One way he aims to do that is through the expansion of health care and child tax credits. Ahead of Biden’s $1.8 trillion infrastructure plan unveiling on Wednesday, the White House released a fact sheet detailing […]
Summary List Placement Pouring more money into IRS enforcement could bring in an extra $700 billion in tax revenue over the next decade, according to the Department of the Treasury. The agency was commenting on measures from President Joe Biden’s newly announced American Families Plan, specifically, its investment in the Internal Revenue Service of about […]
Summary List Placement Housing data is hitting levels unseen since 2006 in at least three different ways, begging the question of whether this is another bubble. Experts say this isn’t that — it’s economics. Another housing bubble 15 years after the last one would be very bad news, as the epic pop of that market […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden will unveil a $1.8 trillion plan on Wednesday, the second of his two-part infrastructure package worth about $4 trillion overall. While the first part of the plan included funding for physical infrastructure, the second entirely focuses on care-economy measures, including a national paid leave and four more years of […]
Following an incredible year for refinances that mostly benefited wealthier borrowers, the Federal House Finance Agency announced it is implementing a new refi product that targets low-income borrowers with single-family mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to the regulatory agency, this new product will assist borrowers who were less likely to take […]
Summary List Placement As part of his plan to hold the wealthy and corporations accountable, President Joe Biden hopes to boost Internal Revenue Service funding by $80 billion over 10 years, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. This new funding would be a two-thirds increase over funding levels from the past decade, but it could still […]
Following an almost 9% jump in mortgage applications last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported a 2.5% decrease in applications in its latest report for the week ending April 23, 2021. Mortgage applications decreased despite mortgage rates falling for the third week in a row, indicating high prices and low inventory, said Joel Kan, MBA […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden is set to propose a $1.8 trillion new economic spending program on Wednesday evening — and a core element of the initiative will be a revamped child tax credit aimed at assisting families. The measure was boosted under the recent stimulus law to $3,600 per child age 6 and […]
Finance of America intends to acquire Parkside Lending‘s third-party origination channel operation for $40 million, the publicly traded lender and servicer announced Tuesday. It’s the latest in a string of big M&A deals in the mortgage lending space – and the growing wholesale channel in particular – over the past six months. The deal, which is expected to close […]
Summary List Placement The White House’s ambitious plans for more than $4 trillion in new spending on infrastructure, health care, and education will be completely paid for by new taxes on corporations and wealthy investors, President Joe Biden will announce Wednesday, Axios reported. The elements of the plan include nearly doubling the capital gains tax […]
The federal government is well aware that mortgage lenders and industry stakeholders are frustrated by the 7% cap on second homes and investment properties that was implemented as part of a broader series of amendments to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac‘s Preferred Stock Purchase Agreements. In a conversation with Mortgage Bankers Association President Bob Broeksmit last week, […]
Summary List Placement As President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion emergency stimulus law was about to clear the House in late February, some Democrats started setting the stage for their next battle: Making the beefed-up child tax credit permanent. Sen. Sherrod Brown told reporters that Democrats would press the Biden administration on the issue as soon […]
Summary List Placement Providing newborns with college savings accounts at birth has been an idea that has floated around lawmakers’ minds for years. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, for example, campaigned on “baby bonds” when running for president, which would provide every child with a $1,000 savings account. Some states are now beginning to […]
Summary List Placement Homeowners, rejoice. Potential buyers, lament. US home prices surged 12.2% year-over-year in February, up 0.9 points from the previous month’s reading, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said on Tuesday. That’s the fastest price appreciation on record and an increase of $35,000 to the median selling price for homes just a year ago. […]
The controversial ultimatum United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) issued to brokers in March constituted a violation of the Sherman Act and a series of anti-competition laws in the state of Florida, a St. Augustine-based mortgage broker alleges in a new lawsuit that seeks class-action status. Dan O’Kavage, president and founder of the O’Kavage Group, is the […]
Summary List Placement A Biden tax proposal sent a jolt through markets last week — and through wealthy Americans. The White House is on the case, addressing the tax’s impact in a briefing yesterday. National Economic Council Director Brian Deese insisted in the briefing that it will touch very few Americans, and that the market […]
Wholesale lender Kind Lending has brought on mortgage veteran Suzy Lindblom as its chief operating officer, the company said Tuesday. Lindblom has 40 years of experience in the mortgage space, most recently serving as the COO of Planet Home Lending for three and half years. Prior to that, Lindblom served as the managing director of […]
Better, faster, cheaper has long been the promise of technology in the mortgage industry. Some may argue whether today’s technology is that much better than the tools we used in the past, particularly in the servicing business where many still use platforms designed and first built decades ago. Likewise, others will argue over whether today’s […]
Summary List Placement Ahead of President Joe Biden’s second infrastructure proposal unveiling on Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts released a plan on Tuesday to help families get quality, affordable child care in the US. CBS News first reported that Warren, alongside Rep. Mondaire Jones of New York, reintroduced a $700 billion Universal Child Care […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden is hopes to boost funding at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by $80 billion as part of an ambitious plan to increase tax revenue from rich individuals and corporations, sources told The New York Times. According to The Times the 10-year funding boost will be accompanied by new powers […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden will issue an executive order on Monday to enact a $15 an hour minimum wage for federal contractors. The order is set to increase the hourly minimum wage for workers on federal contracts no later than March 30, 2022, almost a year from now. Biden administration officials estimate the […]
Summary List Placement Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced a plan for universal paid sick and medical leave on Tuesday. The proposal would set up 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for every worker in the US, calculating benefits based on average monthly earnings. The […]
Summary List Placement House Democrats unveiled a bill on Monday to keep the one-year child tax credit expansion, an anti-poverty initiative which formed a major part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan approved a month ago. The plan was introduced by a trio of Democrats including Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House […]
The total number of servicers’ loans in forbearance has dropped for two months, however, forbearance portfolio volume fell just one basis point last week to an average of 4.49%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Last week’s drop paled in comparison to the 40 basis point decline the previous two weeks had seen, and was likely […]