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Summary List Placement Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is reportedly pushing GOP senators to praise Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona as they come under pressure to support scrapping the filibuster. Politico reported that McConnell told Republicans during their Wednesday caucus lunch that the Democratic pair could “save this institution” […]

Summary List Placement It’s going to be twice as hard for Gen Z to build wealth as it was for millennials. At least, through stock and bond investments. The generation can expect average annual real returns of just 2% on their investment portfolios, according to Credit Suisse’s global investment returns yearbook. That’s a third less than the […]

The average U.S. mortgage rate fell for the second consecutive week, down nine basis points to 3.04%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Despite rates mirroring mid-march levels, Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, doesn’t expect them to hold. “The economy is improving on the demand side and on the supply side, a variety of […]

Summary List Placement On his 20th anniversary of working at University of Tennessee Health Science Center, electrician Tony Patton was called in to a meeting.  That’s when he found out that he was one of 70 frontline facilities workers being laid off.  Patton had heard whispers about layoffs about a week before. Carpenter Michael Garrett […]

Summary List Placement Even millionaires have a wealth gap. One out of every 10 millionaires has a net worth between $5 to $30 million, which Wealth-X defines as “very high net worth” (VHNW) individuals in its annual report. But the wealth among this wealthy class is lopsided.  Two-thirds of the VHNW class (about 1.7 million […]

Summary List Placement America’s richest keep getting richer. The six richest Americans are worth more than the GDP of 13 states combined, including Delaware, Maine, and Vermont, according to data from Forbes and the US Department of Commerce. The publication’s rich list contains six “centibillionaires” — people worth at least $100 billion each. In a […]

Summary List Placement Over the last 13 months, American billionaires added $1.62 trillion to their wealth — a 55% increase. This was a finding in the latest report from the left-leaning Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF). Both groups have tracked billionaire gains throughout the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen […]

RoundPoint Mortgage has added three new senior executives to its management team, as it prepares to ramp up its retail operations. The mortgage subservicer’s board of directors appointed Patrick McEnerney as chief executive officer. McEnerney was a managing director at Deutsche Bank for 14 years before Freedom Mortgage brought him on in August 2020 as […]

Summary List Placement Sens. Mitt Romney and Kyrsten Sinema are working together on their own minimum wage proposal, after an increase to $15 was stricken from reconciliation for the American Rescue Plan. HuffPost first reported a plan was being drafted.  “We’re negotiating a minimum wage proposal which we would ultimately take to our group of […]

Summary List Placement Republican lawmakers are responding to President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion infrastructure bill with a litany of misleading and even false statements. The GOP’s longstanding strategy of attaching the socialism label to any Democratic policy proposal is not new. It’s been the go-to move for the party ever since the rise of the […]

JPMorgan Chase increased originations by 21% over the fourth quarter of 2020, but compressed margins ate away at the bank’s mortgage profits in the first quarter of 2021. The New York-headquartered bank originated $39.3 billion in home loans during the first quarter, a big jump from the $32.5 billion originated in the prior quarter. Notably, […]

Summary List Placement The Biden administration spent much of its first days in office testing how further stimulus might drive inflation higher. No modeled scenario saw price growth surge out of control, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Still, the report said repeatedly that White House and Treasury officials are “worried” about the issue. […]

Summary List Placement Luxury items became even more expensive last month as the price of goods in the US saw its highest monthly increase in nearly 9 years, according to the US Bureau and Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index. Jewelry and watches were among several items that pushed the overall surge in prices. The cost […]

Summary List Placement A pair of Senate Democrats introduced a plan on Wednesday to permanently boost unemployment benefits, making state checks larger to cover most of a worker’s lost wages. The plan from Sens. Ron Wyden and Michael Bennet would also set up a $250 “jobseeker allowance” for gig workers and contractors — essentially a […]

Acquisitions-hungry New Residential Investment Corp. (NewRez) has agreed to acquire multichannel lender Caliber Home Loans in a deal valued at $1.675 billion, the firms announced on Wednesday. The agreement with NewRez, a publicly traded mortgage REIT, comes roughly six months after Lone Star Funds attempted to take Caliber public. Since the independent public offering fell […]

Mortgage applications declined for the week ending April 9, according to the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. It’s the sixth consecutive week of falling mortgage applications. Applications were down 3.7% from the week ending April 2, with rising mortgage rates and low inventory contributing to the slowdown and leading to a decline in purchase […]

The share of refinances in mortgage origination volume dipped below 50% for the first time in 15 months in March, according to Black Knight‘s new monthly data report, the Originations Market Monitor. With interest rates continuing to tick up, the purchase mortgage market is where most lenders will focus operations over the next year. Since […]

Summary List Placement Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, indicated another major infrastructure plan was being drafted by lawmakers searching for another option besides President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion proposal. “I’ll be meeting with governors and bipartisan group of senators and [representatives] on a bill which will be an alternative to […]

Summary List Placement While the IRS’ current official estimate of the tax gap — taxes owed but not collected — is $441 billion, the actual number could be a lot higher. “I think it would not be outlandish to believe that the actual tax gap could approach and possibly exceed $1 trillion per year,” IRS […]

Summary List Placement President Joe Biden’s $1.5 trillion budget proposal on Friday proposes a ramp-up in spending for education, health, climate initiatives, and more. It also included over $1 billion in increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service to hold the wealthy accountable. According to a White House fact sheet on Biden’s budget proposal, Biden […]

Across the mortgage industry, revenues swelled to record highs in 2020. Nonbank lenders and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reaped the rewards – they nearly tripled their profit per loan last year. According to recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, IMBs and mortgage subsidiaries averaged around $4,202 profit on each loan in 2020, compared […]

Summary List Placement In her first hearing as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts will address the impact of student debt on racial justice, borrowers, and the economy. On Tuesday, 11 witnesses, including Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and the CEO of student-loan servicer Navient, John […]

Summary List Placement Gas prices jumped over 9% in the past month and they’re not expected to slow down anytime soon. Gas prices are up 22.5% from the previous year and were the biggest contributor to an overall increase in goods and services in the nation, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer […]

A perfect storm of record low interest rates and shifting consumer behavior spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an absolutely incredible year for mortgage lenders in 2020, especially the independent mortgage banks. Virtually every IMB saw origination volumes soar in 2020, with many eclipsing $40 billion in originations, according to the Consumer Financial Protection […]

Summary List Placement The US budget deficit climbed to a record $1.7 trillion last month after stimulus spending in March lifted the shortfall. The government spent roughly $927 billion as the first half of the fiscal year came to a close, the Treasury Department said Monday. Much of the surge was linked to Democrats’ $1.9 […]

Summary List Placement Democratic lawmakers are continuing to push for President Joe Biden to cancel $50,000 in student debt per person, and new data from the Department of Education (DOE) may have just helped them make their case to the president. A DOE analysis obtained by Yahoo Finance on Monday found that $50,000 in student […]

Summary List Placement Sen. Roger Wicker of Kansas, the ranking Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, downplayed the prospect of a bipartisan deal on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan that included rolling back the 2017 Trump tax cuts. “It would be an almost impossible sell from the president to come to a bipartisan agreement that […]

National mortgage services provider Lenderworks has brought on Fannie Mae‘s head of single-family strategy Andrew Peters as president, the company said Monday. Peters served as a strategy consultant for the government sponsored enterprise before rising to the position of vice president, head of single family strategy for nearly two years. The bulk of Peters’ 25 […]

Summary List Placement Congress is returning from a two-week Easter recess and now it’s set to tackle other parts of President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. Likely the biggest piece of it will be an infrastructure package — A $2.3 trillion part of which has been unveiled, and a second part which will be rolled out […]

Servicers’ total number of loans in forbearance fell a whopping 24 basis points to 4.66% of portfolio volume during the first full week of April, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association – one of the biggest drops in the history of the series. Ginnie Mae loans in particular dipped a massive 45 […]

Summary List Placement Gen Z is walking a rocky road to getting rich. They’re set to earn less than previous generations on stocks and bonds, reported The Economist, citing Credit Suisse’s global investment returns yearbook. In fact, the generation can expect average annual real returns of just 2% on their investment portfolios — a third […]

Summary List Placement Americans grew more concerned about rising prices in March as vaccination accelerated and the economy slowly reopened. The median expectation for one-year inflation climbed to 3.2% from 3.1% last month, according to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The estimate for three-year inflation crept to 3.1% from […]

Summary List Placement A top White House advisor said that President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan doesn’t need Congressional Republican support to be considered bipartisan. “If you looked up ‘bipartisan’ in the dictionary, I think it would say support from Republicans and Democrats,” Anita Dunn told the Washington Post. “It doesn’t say the Republicans have […]

Summary List Placement The first $2.3 trillion part of the infrastructure package President Joe Biden unveiled on March 31 included some elements related to care-economy measures, like investments in home care. But progressive and liberal groups want Biden to go bigger on such measures in the next part of his plan. Led by Invest in […]

After speaking with several other female mortgage executives in celebration of International Women’s Day, I wanted to take the opportunity to highlight a few women leaders who are making waves. I asked them their thoughts on “the growing surge of support for women in the industry,” and am honored to share their voices. Susan Stewart, […]

Summary List Placement Numerous chief executives and senior leaders met on a Zoom call this weekend to map out how businesses should respond to new voting restrictions that are set to be enacted in Texas and other states across the country, according to The Wall Street Journal. In the wake of the controversy surrounding Georgia’s […]

Summary List Placement Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says the US economy is about to start growing “much more quickly,” but a resurgence in COVID-19 cases could derail that progress. Powell discussed the US economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic with CBS’ Scott Pelley, in an interview set to be aired on 60 Minutes Sunday […]

Summary List Placement In March 2020, Vanessa Diaz was supposed to be in Mexico getting married. Instead she was quarantined in her Los Angeles apartment with her fiance and their chihuahua/pug mix, Raisin Bran. But she had just splashed out on a new set of pajamas she was planning to wear on her wedding weekend, […]

Summary List Placement The positive March jobs report showed a country on the brink of full reopening, with good news for the economy around the corner. But just reopening isn’t enough for a full recovery. “There’s no guarantee that the people whose jobs have been permanently eliminated will be able to find work elsewhere,” Nancy […]

Summary List Placement Fallout from the Ever Given’s time lodged in the Suez Canal will “ripple” through the economy for the next few weeks or months, according to Maersk, the world’s biggest shipping company.  “We will see ripple effects continuing into the second half of May,” Lars Mikael Jensen, head of Maersk’s Global Ocean Network, […]

Summary List Placement When President Ronald Reagan in 1981 moved to trim $884 million from a budget used by Amtrak, Senator Joe Biden was the only member of the Senate Budget Committee to vote against Reagan’s plan. “You can’t come back next year or the next year and change it,” Biden said, according to a […]

Summary List Placement The best brief definition of the limits of American freedom is a very old line that’s often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln: “My freedom to swing my fists ends where your nose begins.”  In other words, you can do what you want in America as long as you’re not hurting anyone. So far […]

Summary List Placement Corporate America is going through growing pains on political activism — but it’s still trying to fight off higher taxes. In the Biden era, the two may go hand in hand. Long apolitical, the dynamic that emerged during the Trump years of big business weighing in on hot-button social issues has, if […]

Summary List Placement Restaurant chains are trying to lure back employees as COVID-19 restrictions lift across the US. As business picks up and more people become vaccinated, some companies are having trouble finding employees and they’re rolling out perks to draw in workers to deal with the job boom. Read more: These 13 grocery-delivery companies […]

Summary List Placement Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California called President Joe Biden’s decision to split up his infrastructure plan into separate jobs and family components a major error. “This idea that there are two separate buckets, a bucket of American Jobs Plan … and this idea he has a second plan coming soon that […]