In Lender Letters issued on Thursday, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac confirmed that loans purchased by the GSEs with application dates on and after July 1, 2021, must meet the standards of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Revised Qualified Mortgage Rule. In the letters, the two government sponsored enterprises state that they will follow the […]
Summary List Placement As economies turn toward reopening and recovery, the coronavirus’ economic toll is coming into focus. The picture is incredibly bleak. The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines presents a clear end to the pandemic, but new data from the Pew Research Center suggests that returning to pre-pandemic unemployment levels is only the first step […]
Summary List Placement The vaccine race has intensified wealth inequality across the globe. Bloomberg’s Vaccine Tracker found that the world’s wealthiest countries are vaccinating at 25 times the rate of the poorest countries. The database has thus far tracked more than 726 million doses administered in 154 countries. So far, per the tracker, about 5% […]
Summary List Placement The White House unveiled its initial $1.5 trillion budget proposal on Friday. The plan represents a an early glimpse into President Joe Biden’s domestic spending priorities, ramping up spending on education, health, and climate initiatives. It’s Biden’s first budgetary pitch to Congress, which can also reshape it it in a process that […]
Summary List Placement The homebuying sprint seen throughout the pandemic will soon give way to a long and healthy jog, Jefferies analysts said Thursday. The dramatic housing market boom of 2020 simply can’t last. The surge in home sales has left mere months of supply left, and contractors are struggling to keep up. Prices leaped […]
Summary List Placement New York’s mega-millionaires are set to start paying the nation’s highest income-tax rates, and some are already considering moving to states with lower taxes, CNBC reported Thursday. This includes Florida, which doesn’t have a personal-income tax. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed plans on Thursday to hike personal-income tax for those earning more […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan is ambitious. It includes funding for things like climate change and research initiatives, and an influential business lobbying group wants Biden to scale things way back. Josh Bolten, chief executive officer of Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs of the largest US companies, said in an […]
JPMorgan Chase has appointed Bhavesh Patel to lead client management for the bank’s correspondent lending channel. As director of client management, Patel will focus on improving the client experience and driving future growth for the business, which is growing at a faster rate than the bank’s more traditional retail arm. He will report to Terry […]
Mortgage credit showed signs of loosening up in March, and with it, more availability for lower credit scores and high LTV products to enter the housing market, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a report on Thursday. The group’s Mortgage Credit Availability Index rose .6% to 125.4 last month, a positive indicator after pandemic-driven factors plunged the […]
Summary List Placement A full rebound from the coronavirus recession won’t be as simple as recouping every lost job, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday. The US economy is decidedly on the path to recovery. The March jobs report beat estimates and other indicators signal activity is bouncing back thanks to reopening and new […]
As we enter the second quarter of 2021, it’s time for the mortgage industry to reflect on the past 12 months and think about how to plan for the same period ahead. After all, it was mid-March of last year that the president declared a national emergency leading to school closures, the wearing of masks, […]
Summary List Placement Starbucks employees say some stores are experiencing shortages of key products and ingredients including cups, flavored syrups, and baked goods. Reports of the supply issues come as Starbucks grapples with a shortage of oat milk, which the coffee chain added to menus last month. A Starbucks barista in Alabama told Insider that […]
Summary List Placement Tax policy has taken center stage in recent weeks. President Joe Biden is aiming to lift tax rates on wealthy Americans and corporations in order to offset the costs of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal. Republicans have balked at the plan, arguing such changes cut into the country’s global competitiveness. One of […]
Summary List Placement The $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan President Joe Biden unveiled last week includes a proposed corporate tax hike to 28%, and voters seem to like it, even a significant minority of Republicans. A Morning Consult/Politico poll released on Wednesday found that 65% of all voters support corporate tax hikes to pay for Biden’s infrastructure […]
Summary List Placement The pandemic has had a lopsided affect on millennials, a generation that was already divided before 2020 by wealth and opportunity, among other things. Millennials’ first recession — the financial crisis — split the generation down the middle, as the older cohort graduated into a stagnated job market and the younger cohort […]
Summary List Placement If you live in Illinois and have outstanding student loans, the state could pay off some of your debt to help you buy a house. The SmartBuy program, offered by the Illinois Housing Development Authority, helps anyone who wants to buy a home in Illinois by paying off up to $40,000 in student […]
The average U.S. mortgage rate dropped five basis points last week to 3.13%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. It’s the first decline in mortgage rates in two months. Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, pointed to a modest decline in treasury yields as the leading factor behind last week’s drop. Traders were […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits ticked higher last week as hiring slowed after surging through March. New filings for unemployment benefits totaled an unadjusted 744,000 for the week that ended Saturday, the Labor Department said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected a reading of 680,000 claims. The reading marks a […]
Summary List Placement Staff at UK fintech Revolut, one of Europe’s biggest startups, will soon be able to work abroad for up to two months each year, the company said Thursday. The policy would apply to all of the company’s more than 2,000 employees, it said. “Revolut staff members who wish to work outside their […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden may not achieve his proposed corporate tax rise to 28%, but lawmakers and corporations could agree on a 25% rate as a compromise, White House officials and business groups told Reuters. The US corporate tax rate is 21%, but Biden wants to raise it to help fund his $2 […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia suggested he could derail Democratic attempts to circumvent Republicans more than once this year, arguing that embarking on the path would be harmful to the nation’s future. “We should all be alarmed at how the budget reconciliation process is being used by both parties to stifle […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden made a forceful pitch for his massive infrastructure package on Wednesday, arguing his proposed 28% corporate tax hike would level the playing field between large companies and average Americans. “I’m not trying to punish anybody, but dammit — maybe because I come from a middle class neighborhood — I’m […]
Summary List Placement The American Rescue Plan passed by President Joe Biden last month was larger than Federal Reserve policymakers had anticipated, according to minutes from the Federal Open Market Committee’s March meeting. Committee members rolled out a more optimistic outlook for the US economy on March 17 after concluding their two-day policy meeting. The […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a proposed rule on Monday that would bar servicers from starting on foreclosures until 2022. The CFPB also proposed streamlined processes for moving homeowners out of forbearance and in to loss mitigation options. However, since the announcement, several industry leaders have expressed reservations about the blanket policy. “My concern […]
Summary List Placement The Biden administration unveiled a proposal for a series of corporate tax hikes on Wednesday, projecting they would raise $2.5 trillion over 15 years to cover all of their infrastructure spending. But soon afterward, officials signaled an openness to compromise with lawmakers on the size of a corporate tax increase. The 17-page […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently released to Congress the 2020 Consumer Response report. While overall complaints were up 54% year-over-year, complaints against mortgage companies were up just 7.5%, and complaints against mortgage servicers were actually down, by 3.5%. These results are notable considering the sheer speed and impact the pandemic had on the mortgage […]
Summary List Placement The Biden administration has cleared its goal of delivering more than 150 million economic relief payments in the first 100 days of the president’s first term. It has now been 77 days since Biden’s inauguration on January 20. The IRS and the Treasury Department have sent out more than 156 million stimulus […]
Summary List Placement So far, President Joe Biden’s Department of Education has acted to address the $1.7 trillion student debt crisis in the country by, among other things, canceling debt for some borrowers defrauded by for-profit schools and for borrowers with disabilities. On his first day in office, Biden’s first action addressing student debt was […]
Summary List Placement JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in his latest annual letter to shareholders that the US economic boom could “easily run into 2023.” “I have little doubt that with excess savings, new stimulus savings, huge deficit spending, more QE, a new potential infrastructure bill, a successful vaccine and euphoria around the end of […]
Home sellers are chomping at the bit. As the economy reopens, vaccinations continue to roll out and stimulus checks reach bank accounts across America, home sellers are increasingly optimistic. And despite fierce bidding wars, competition from institutional investors and sore wrists from writing dozens of heartfelt letters to home sellers, even buyers are growing in […]
Mortgage applications decreased for the fifth straight week – this time down 5.1%, according to the latest report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. As has been the case for several weeks now, rising mortgage rates and low inventory are contributing to the slowdown in mortgage applications, said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “The rapidly […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he would safeguard the independence of the Federal Reserve, breaking with his predecessor, Donald Trump, who often tried pressuring the central bank to lower the cost of borrowing. “Starting off my presidency, I want to be real clear that I’m not going to do the kinds […]
Summary List Placement Everyone knows it’s been hard to find an affordable house amid the pandemic, but as the data comes in, it’s becoming clearer just how hard. The answer: Extremely. US home prices continued to rip higher in February as supply constraints across the country and outsize demand boosted competition. Selling prices increased 10.4% […]
The U.S. housing market is in the midst of an inventory crisis. The number of homes for sale in the U.S. is hovering near record lows, caused by a pandemic-induced housing inventory death-spiral. At the same time, home sales have soared close to record highs, suggesting the housing market suffers exclusively from a supply (and […]
Summary List Placement The White House said on Tuesday that it is aiming to get President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar infrastructure package approved within months, an ambitious timeline that underscores the administration’s desire to quickly muscle a plan through Congress. “We’d like to see progress by May and certainly a package through by the summer,” White […]
Summary List Placement The government’s bid to pad against the coronavirus recession was mostly successful, but there are lessons to learn from some key shortcomings, researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis said. Congress authorized roughly $5 trillion in spending on various economic relief measures since the pandemic began. Households received support through direct […]
Summary List Placement The NFT craze continues, and it could change the art world. The acronym, which stands for “non-fungible token,” is a digital file that’s tradable by blockchain. It shot to fame and prominence in March when a visual artist called Beeple sold “Everydays: the First 5000 Days,” a digital collage of images, for […]
Summary List Placement The second part of the $4 trillion infrastructure plan President Joe Biden will unveil in the coming weeks includes funding for issues like universal pre-K and paid family and medical leave, and House Ways and Means Committee Chair Richard Neal said that those issues belong in infrastructure and should be a top […]
Summary List Placement Seventy economists have signed on to a letter saying it’s time to go big on infrastructure. “A multitrillion-dollar investment in infrastructure like the one President Biden laid out last week will help pave the way for sustainable and equitable economic growth and pay for itself in the long run,” the letter, coordinated […]
Summary List Placement New York City millionaires are about to fall under the highest tax rate in the country. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders are coming close to agreeing on a 2022 budget proposal that would create an extra $4.3 billion a year by raising income and corporate taxes, The New York Times’ […]
Summary List Placement The student-debt problem numbers are massive: 45 million people owe $1.7 trillion. But another big number is 19, as that many states have more outstanding student debt than their annual budgets. Student Loan Justice — an organization advocating for student-debt cancellation — released a report in March on these 19 states, with […]
The share of loans in forbearance fell six basis points during the final week of March to 4.9% of servicers’ portfolio volume, according to recent data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. New forbearance requests also dropped to their lowest level since March, 2020 as forbearance volume fell across the board for every investor type. Fannie […]
Summary List Placement Gradual reopening and widespread vaccination have economists wondering how Americans will spend in a post-pandemic economy. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York see little cause for concern. Americans enjoyed a savings surge during the pandemic as government stimulus hit households and lockdown measures cut down on spending. Estimates suggest people […]
Summary List Placement After the freeze, comes the thaw. For the US economy, the pandemic era stopped the all-important service sector in its tracks. Now a spring thaw is emerging in more ways than one. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of service businesses rose to 63.7 last month from 55.3, according to a Monday […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a notice of proposed rulemaking on Monday that would amend Regulation X to provide a special pre-foreclosure review period prohibiting servicers from starting foreclosures until after December 31, 2021. Under current CFPB foreclosure rules, a borrower must be 120 days delinquent before the foreclosure process can start. The Bureau […]