Summary List Placement Senate Democrats are preparing to advance the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill this week as efforts to push through a $15-per-hour minimum wage with a new tax penalty for large corporations crumbled over the weekend. “The Senate will take up the American Rescue Plan this week,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on […]
After one month of steady declines, servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume rose one basis point last week to 5.23%, according to data released Monday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The trade group pointed to a slowdown in exits coupled with an uptick in requests for last week’s increase. Once again, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac boasted the […]
Summary List Placement In an effort to combat wealth inequality, Democrats on Monday unveiled a bill that would impose a 2% wealth tax on American households with net worths over $50 million. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who has long been a proponent of the wealth tax, introduced the Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act with Rep. Pramila […]
Summary List Placement Are millennials finally catching up to previous generations? A new report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College indicates that the answer is yes — at least, in some regards. The report compared findings from the Center’s 2016 generational study and the Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances. The […]
In this HousingWire Daily episode, HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath covers the recent COVID-19 forbearance extensions. In February, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it had extended COVID-19 foreclosure and forbearance moratoriums for FHA and USDA loans to June 30, 2021. For the episode, Greg McBride, senior vice president and chief financial analyst for Bankrate.com, joins the […]
Summary List Placement In order to aid essential workers during COVID-19, Democrats introduced a bill on Friday to provide undocumented immigrants who have worked on the frontlines during the pandemic an expedited pathway to citizenship. Led by Sen. Alex Padilla of California, his first bill in Congress — the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act — […]
Summary List Placement A group of House progressives are urging the Biden administration in a new letter to overrule the Senate parliamentarian and keep the $15 per hour minimum wage in the $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. The effort to ramp up pressure on President Joe Biden is made up of 23 progressive lawmakers led by […]
Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Mark Calabria announced on Monday that he has authorized the disbursement of $1.09 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac‘s affordable housing allocations. This is the largest amount ever disbursed by the government sponsored enterprises, and more than double what was provided the prior year. Of the GSEs’ provided […]
Summary List Placement After earmarks were banned in 2011 due to corruption scandals in that late 2000s, the House Appropriations Committee on Friday unveiled its new reforms that accounted for transparency and accountability in community funding. Earmarks, which Democrats have switched to calling community project funding, are congressional provisions that direct funds toward a specific […]
At this point, you’re probably used to seeing Kelsey Ramírez’s name in this spot. As the HousingWire magazine editor, she not only profiled and covered the top leaders and stories in the housing industry, but she also spearheaded the redesign of this magazine, taking the content and creative to a whole new level. For that, […]
By late spring of 2020, the loan pipeline at Princeton Mortgage was full. And CEO Rich Weidel’s staff was absolutely slammed. He needed to scale up — and quickly — to manage record origination volume. Like most other lenders, Princeton, which operates in retail, wholesale and correspondent channels, fell back on the familiar strategy of […]
Summary List Placement Senior Democrats are abandoning their backdoor $15 minimum wage proposal, leaving a wage hike in doubt as they scramble to enact a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan within two weeks. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) were in the midst of drafting a plan to levy a 5% tax on the […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has indicated that a wealth tax is off the table, but she is looking at other potentially significant measures. In an interview with The New York Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin, Yellen said she wasn’t planning a wealth tax like Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposal because it’s “something that has very […]
Summary List Placement The Treasury market has made it clear: the Federal Reserve is a downer. Optimism toward the US economic recovery flourished over the past week. Daily COVID-19 case counts fell further from their January peak. Vaccinations continued across the country, hinting the pandemic could fade in just a few months. Economic data beat […]
Summary List Placement House Democrats approved President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion emergency spending package in a 219-212 vote early on Saturday morning, sending the legislation to the Senate as lawmakers rushed to head off the expiration of enhanced unemployment insurance in mid-March. The stimulus plan cleared the chamber with Republicans unified in their resistance. Two […]
Thasunda Brown Duckett With the hire, TIAA is now the first Fortune 500 company to have TIAA Bank has tapped JPMorgan Chase‘s head of consumer banking, Thasunda Brown Duckett, to succeed longtime president and CEO, Roger Ferguson, Jr. Thasunda Brown Duckett With the hire, TIAA is now the first Fortune 500 company to have two Black […]
HousingWire Lead Analyst Logan Mohtashami joins the HousingWire Daily podcast to talk about why low mortgage rates need to end. During the interview, HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath interviews Mohtashami on his most recent article, “We need higher mortgage rates to cool the housing market.” In his opinion piece, Mohtashami states, “For 2021, we need to […]
L Summary List Placement House Democrats were on course to vote on President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package later on Friday as lawmakers rushed to rescue a key progressive priority from being left out of the legislation. The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Thursday evening that the $15 minimum wage should be removed from the […]
Lisa Patterson, chief originations officer at Homepoint, will speak on a panel titled Operational Strategies in the Current Market at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Patterson will be joined on the panel by Dave Vermillion, founder and CEO of Mortgage Champions, and Fred Bolstad, executive vice president of retail lending at U.S. Bank Home Mortgage. Patterson […]
In Mississippi, single women on average paid 3.47% on a 30-year, conventional fixed-rate mortgage in 2019. But single men on average paid 3.37%, according to the latest HMDA data available. Over the lifespan of the mortgage, the single woman in this instance will have roughly $7,000 more in mortgage payments than the single man. Patrick […]
Summary List Placement As passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus approaches, the federal agency that is focused on housing is urging Congress to pass its measures for struggling homeowners. The US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, expressed support on Thursday for the package’s funding for emergency rental assistance and homelessness […]
Summary List Placement The US economy’s rebound from the coronavirus slump could fuel some of the strongest growth in recent memory, John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said. With the pandemic’s winter resurgence fading, economists are looking ahead and gauging how fresh stimulus, falling case counts, and continued vaccination will […]
Summary List Placement Economists from the University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame, and Zhejiang University found that American poverty rates dropped when the most recent stimulus payments and unemployment benefits were enacted. From December 2020 to January 2021, the poverty rate fell from 11.8% to 11.5%, in contrast with an increase from 9.3% last […]
Summary List Placement Bitcoin’s surge shows that lawmakers should view its technology more seriously, Mohamed El-Erian wrote in an op-ed. Adoption by major players indicates the potential of a growing migration away from traditional money, he said. “Too many officials are inclined to look at the cryptocurrency in a rather narrow way. They shouldn’t.” Sign […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Bernie Sanders said Democrats would try to devise a backdoor to implement a $15 minimum wage after a pay hike was struck from the $1.9 trillion stimulus package on Thursday evening — a major setback for progressives. Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth McDonough ruled that a $15 minimum wage violated the strict guidelines […]
Summary List Placement The Senate parliamentarian ruled on Thursday evening that a $15 minimum wage provision cannot stay in the President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package, according to a Senate Democratic aide familiar with the decision. The parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, said the provision’s effect on the federal budget was “merely incidental,” the aide said. […]
Rocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgage, cleared another $2.48 billion in profits during the fourth quarter, giving the nation’s biggest mortgage lender a total of $9.5 billion in profits for 2020. Rocket originated $107.2 billion in mortgages, with net rate lock volume of $96 billion in the fourth quarter, the company disclosed in […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats said on Thursday they would seek later this year to turn a proposed emergency federal check program for parents into a permanent piece of the American social safety net. “As soon as we pass the Recovery Act, we will fight to make it permanent and to make sure they can […]
Summary List Placement American billionaires have added $1.3 trillion to their collective net worths since March 2020, according to a new report from the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF). Using data from Forbes, the report finds that billionaires have seen a 44% increase in wealth since March 18, 2020. […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan is steadily making its way to a full House vote, and although Republican lawmakers have been in staunch opposition of the bill, Republican voters seem to largely support it. A Morning Consult/Politico poll released on Wednesday found that the public overwhelmingly supports the stimulus plan […]
Borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be eligible for an additional forbearance extension of up to six months, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Thursday. On Feb. 9, the FHFA extended forbearance plans an additional three months past beyond their initial 12 month expiration. With the latest edict, the agency is now allowing borrowers up to […]
The average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan is now just 3 basis points away from 3%, after a 16 basis point jump last week pushed mortgage rates to 2.97%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The average mortgage rate hasn’t risen this high since the end of July 2020, but Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits declined more than expected last week, signaling the labor market recovery is still recovering, albeit at a modest pace. New jobless claims reached an unadjusted 730,000 for the week that ended Saturday, the Labor Department announced Thursday morning. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected the […]
Debbie Thayer, executive vice president of default administration at Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, will speak on a panel titled Servicing Challenges During a Pandemic Period at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Thayer will be joined on the panel by Courtney Thompson to discuss how servicers have scaled staff and operations to make sure homeowners are being served […]
Summary List Placement Millions of Texans lost power last week and were stuck living in freezing conditions as their electrical bills skyrocketed. The crisis was totally preventable, according to a left-leaning economist who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin, and the reason why has to do with the state’s deregulated electricity system. James […]
Summary List Placement One of the biggest laggards of the previous economic recovery is recovering better this time around, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday. The direct payments and expansion to unemployment benefits included in President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief plan are already among its most popular elements. But the inclusion of state […]
For the first time since March 2020, the national mortgage delinquency rate fell below 6% to 5.9% in January, according to data from Black Knight on Wednesday. At the current rate of improvement, the data giant estimates 2.1 million borrowers remain 90 or more days past due though are not yet in foreclosure. While modest […]
Summary List Placement Recently, Democrats have been clashing over how much federal student-loan debt to forgive. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer called for $50,000 in student loan forgiveness, but President Joe Biden essentially rejected that plan, throwing his support behind $10,000 in forgiveness. “I will not make that happen,” Biden said of the $50,000 […]
Summary List Placement Almost all states still had fewer jobs than before the pandemic at the end of last year, but just how far these states are from reaching previous employment levels vary. States that rely on industries that have been harder hit nationally by the pandemic are especially far below their February employment levels. […]
Summary List Placement At the start of the pandemic, Maya wasn’t paying too much attention to investing. But some of her friends — bartenders and DJs whose work dwindled during a period of social distancing — were. With extra time on their hands, they opened accounts on the startup brokerage Robinhood. “They would start tweeting […]
Mortgage applications decreased 11.4% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s weekly survey for the week ending Feb. 19. It’s the lowest level applications have fallen to since December 2020. Activity decreased across the board, with the unadjusted index (-10%), the refinance index (-11%), the seasonally adjusted purchase index (-12%) […]
Rocket Mortgage will receive a tax subsidy worth up to $9.6 million to add hundreds of full-time jobs to Cleveland. The 600-plus new jobs will added over the course of a year. Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted on Monday said the Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved an expansion project for tax credit assistance for Rocket […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats want to enact a new $1.9 trillion rescue package within weeks, but one major hurdle stands between them and the bill’s final passage: whether it will include a $15 minimum wage increase. Once the House approves the legislation and sends it to the Senate, the wage provision is likely to […]
Summary List Placement Showing off wealth is no longer the way to signify having wealth. Flashing a Louis Vuitton handbag or a multimillion-dollar Bugatti have long been standard status symbols for the elite, but the ultrawealthy have increasingly turned to intangible investments such as security and health to discreetly flaunt their wealth instead. An unlikely […]
We may never again see a year like 2020. That’s somewhat somber news for the lenders who benefited from a series of downright strange conditions to generate more refi business than anyone in March could have imagined. Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported that refis made up about 70% of their mortgage activity in […]