Summary List Placement Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia indicated during an interview on Capitol Hill that he favors keeping the same income thresholds for a wave of $1,4o0 stimulus checks and not tightening eligibility around them. “I think people making $75,000 in Georgia are struggling in many instances,” he told Insider. “I am committed to […]
Summary List Placement Congressional Democrats are starting to encourage people to file their taxes early this year so they qualify for more generous federal relief under President Joe Biden’s stimulus package. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, tweeted that tax-filing season starts this week on February 12. He encouraged people […]
Summary List Placement The House Committee on Education and Labor released a draft of its budget bill on Monday, detailing key components of the pandemic relief package. It includes a gradual federal minimum wage increase, funding for reopening K-12 schools, and additional pandemic benefits. Led by Education and Labor Chair Bobby Scott, the draft bill […]
The U.S forbearance rate is falling, though not as quickly as it once was. Data released on Monday by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the share of servicers’ portfolio volume in forbearance fell 3 basis points to 5.35% last week. For the third month in a row, the MBA estimated 2.7 million homeowners are […]
Summary List Placement Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025 will lift 900,000 people out of poverty, while increasing the country’s budget deficit by $54 billion over the 2021-2031 time period, according to a report from the Congressional Budget Office. Introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and other top Democrats […]
Roughly 5 million households did not make their rent or mortgage payments in December, and 3.5 million renters and homeowners feel at risk of losing their home, according to new research from the Mortgage Bankers Association. There are some bright spots, however. The 5 million households who missed a payment in December was down from […]
In 2021, a lingering symptom of the economic sickness we suffered in 2020 is forbearance. Not the forbearance plans themselves, which allowed mortgage holders to delay their payments for many months, but the fact that 2.72 million homes remain in forbearance and can therefore be considered at risk. Forbearance will have to end at some […]
Summary List Placement The $15-per-hour minimum wage sought by Democrats may be too lofty a goal, economists at Goldman Sachs said Monday. President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats are pushing to gradually lift the federal minimum wage over the next four years. The nominal wage was last increased in 2007 to its current level of […]
Summary List Placement Over 50 House Democrats sent a letter to President Joe Biden on Friday requesting that the income threshold for the next round of stimulus payments remain at $75,000, ensuring families who need the payments are not left out. When Congress approved the $600 stimulus payments in December, the payments began to phase […]
Weeks before United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) went public in a SPAC deal that valued the lender at $16.1 billion, its president and CEO Mat Ishbia said observers shouldn’t expect a different United Wholesale Mortgage or a different Mat. He proved it in his first earnings call. On Thursday morning, Ishbia, in his characteristic fast-talking bravado, […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said US workers earning up to $60,000 should get direct payments. The question of who should receive payments under Biden’s relief package is a key debate in Congress. If Biden’s $1.9 trillion package is passed, the US would return to full employment by 2022, Yellen said. Sign up […]
Summary List Placement Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Sunday regulators are still examining whether new policies are needed to address recent market volatility spurred by retail investors in forums like Reddit’s Wall Street Bets. The crowd of casual investors took the stock market by storm in January by bidding up highly shorted stocks like […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Pat Toomey on Sunday said it would be “inappropriate” if Congress passed another stimulus package because the US economy is bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic. “The economy has come roaring back. Disposable income is at record high levels,” Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said in an interview on CNN’s “State […]
Summary List Placement Democrats are currently trying to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025. While it’s a measure that’s facing an uphill battle, some Democrats — including President Joe Biden — have continued to emphasize its importance. That increase would more than double the current federal minimum wage of $7.25. It […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden gave one of the strongest indications yet on Friday that he is prepared to pass his $1.9 trillion emergency spending package with only Democratic votes. While delivering remarks at the White House, Biden said he wanted to “act fast” and emphasized his large plan was designed to address the […]
Summary List Placement The latest job report showed little improvement to job gains as the pandemic continues. Only 49,000 jobs were added last month, much lower than the 105,000 economists expected to see in the report. Last month’s gains were also much smaller than in several previous months, and come after December had a revised […]
This HousingWire Daily interview transcription features an interview with Housing Policy Council President and former director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency Ed DeMarco. In this episode, DeMarco talks about the Biden administration’s plans for homeowners coming out of forbearance and its focus moving forward. Listen to the full episode here and make sure to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. Below is the transcription […]
Summary List Placement Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Republican Rep. David McKinley of West Virginia introduced legislation on Friday that provides $1,400 stimulus checks to Americans while maintaining the $75,000 income threshold from the previous stimulus payments. In his $2 trillion stimulus plan, President Joe Biden called for $1,400 stimulus payments following […]
Mortgage Champions founder and CEO Dave Vermillion will be speaking on a panel covering operational strategies in the current market at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Vermillion is a trainer, speaker, consultant, author, consumer advocate, and philanthropist. He and his team have trained over 1 million lending professionals and worked with over 600 financial organizations and […]
Fresh off its acquisition of Stearns, Guaranteed Rate has picked up Owning Corporation, a direct-to-consumer mortgage lender. The acquisition gives Guaranteed Rate, best known for its retail prowess, another engine to boost its growth in the direct-to-consumer channel. Terms of the deal with Orange, California-based Owning were not disclosed. According to Guaranteed Rate, Owning’s direct-to-consumer […]
Summary List Placement A group of Republican senators questioned the size of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion stimulus plan in a letter sent on Thursday, noting that there is still emergency COVID-19 funding to be spent. On Monday, 1o Republican senators, led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, met with Biden to discuss their counter-proposal […]
Summary List Placement Workers who earned less than the median hourly wage saw greater job losses when the pandemic started and have seen a slower recovery, according to a new BofA Global Research report. BofA calculates the median average hourly wage as $15.30, using Current Population Survey (CPS) data. That equates to a salary of […]
Summary List Placement The US labor market improved slightly last month as daily COVID-19 cases crested and new stimulus hit households, but job-addition figures still fell short of expectations. American businesses added 49,000 nonfarm payrolls in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The report misses the consensus economist estimate of 105,000 job additions, […]
Summary List Placement The Senate unanimously passed a Republican amendment on Thursday that seeks to prevent Democrats from doing something they never wanted to do: double the minimum wage to $15 an hour during the pandemic. In effect, Democrats, as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, joined with Republicans to drive the fact home. […]
Summary List Placement More than a decade since the last federal minimum wage increase, the country could be on track to see more than a doubling of the current rate by the year 2025, but only if Democrats can get the measure passed. As part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, he included […]
PennyMac, the nation’s largest mortgage aggregator, posted net profits of $452.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. In all, the nonbank brought in $1 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2020, its latest earnings report showed. The gains were driven by “core production and servicing results partially offset by fair value losses […]
Like many players in the non-Qualified Mortgage space, Deephaven Mortgage was forced to halt operations in 2020 when liquidity dried up. That was then, this is now. Deephaven is now set to issue a $146.2 million security backed by non-QM mortgages that have seasoned for an average of nine months, a presale report from S&P […]
Summary List Placement One of President Joe Biden’s earliest campaign pledges to increase the pay for millions of workers is on thin ice. And it’s not just because of Republican opposition. Biden’s proposal to raise the hourly minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 is so far one of the most controversial parts of his $1.9 […]
Lisa Haynes, the Mortgage Banker Association‘s senior vice president, chief financial officer and chief diversity and inclusion officer, will discuss how lenders can increase their diversity strategy to impact minority homeownership at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. The homeownership gap between white and Black Americans is larger than in the 1960s, and both real estate and […]
sto Summary List Placement The Senate kicked off a procedure called a “vote-a-rama” on Thursday where any senator can propose an amendment to the budget resolution. If the resolution is approved, it unlocks a process in the Senate for Democrats to pass President Joe Biden’s rescue package without Republican votes. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chair […]
Summary List Placement The US economy will struggle for at least a few more months before falling COVID-19 cases and stimulus can drive a full recovery, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday. In her first television interview since being confirmed last week, Yellen emphasized the importance of using stimulus to bridge the final months of […]
Summary List Placement A group of Democratic lawmakers reintroduced a resolution on Thursday that called for the cancelation of up to $50,000 of federal student loan debt to address the student debt crisis in the country. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Rep. Alma Adams of […]
Guaranteed Rate announced Wednesday it will air a 60-second commercial featuring Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Dustin Poirier and NASCAR driver Ryan Newman during Super Bowl LV on Sunday, Feb. 8. The commercial will introduce Guaranteed Rate’s new brand campaign, “Believe You Will,” of which Poirier and Newman are ambassadors. The commercial spots will also feature […]
The average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan remained unchanged last week from the week prior at 2.73%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. With mortgage rates hovering below 3% for over six months now, Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said this may be a sign of an economy still struggling. “This […]
Summary List Placement A problem with bull markets is that amateur investors can become convinced they’re good at something. Let’s suppose you got into “investing” — but really speculating — last spring. Maybe you were working from home, bored and not going out to restaurants or on vacation, but still earning your salary, and you […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance dropped last week as COVID-19 cases fell and Democrats pushed for a near-term stimulus deal. New US jobless claims reached an unadjusted 779,000 for the week that ended Saturday, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That came in below the consensus estimate of 830,000 from […]
Summary List Placement House Democrats on Wednesday approved a measure to enact President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion emergency spending package on a party-line vote without Republican support. The vote to approve the budget resolution passed 218-212. Two Democratic lawmakers opposed it along with every GOP lawmaker. The passage of the budget bill in the House […]
United Wholesale Mortgage originated more than $54 billion in mortgages and generated more than $1.3 billion in net income during the fourth quarter, the company revealed on Wednesday. The wholesale lender’s parent company reported $54.7 billion in originations, a 71% increase from the $31.9 billion the Michigan-based lender originated in the fourth quarter in 2019. […]
Summary List Placement President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion stimulus plan would provide over $3,000 in benefits to households in the bottom 40% of incomes, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model. In a report released on Wednesday, the Penn Wharton Budget Model found that three provisions of Biden’s stimulus plan — extending the child tax […]
In a bid to aid borrowers, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced on Wednesday a series of temporary waivers that will allow servicers to use alternative methods when servicing FHA-insured forward and reverse mortgages. Rather than conducting face-to-face interviews, HUD’s waiver will allow substitute methods for servicers to conduct borrower interviews for FHA-insured […]
Summary List Placement The Dept. of Labor proposed on Wednesday to delay the effective start date of a rule issued by the previous administration to permit tipped workers to be paid sub-minimum wage while performing non-tipped work. In December, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division published its final rules on tipping, which included allowing […]
Pacific Western Bank, the wholly owned subsidiary of PacWest Bancorp, announced Tuesday it had acquired Civic Financial Services, a private money lender that caters to real estate investors. Wedgewood, a real estate investment firm that focuses on distressed properties, was the seller of Civic. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Pacific Western Bank hailed […]
Summary List Placement Even as vaccines are distributed nationwide and COVID-19 cases fall, the US government may need to take on swaths of new debt to get through the pandemic. Borrowing related to the costs of COVID-19 is likely to stay elevated well into 2021, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The government expects to continue […]
Summary List Placement Sec. of Agriculture nominee Tom Vilsack said during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that he plans to prioritize efforts to address climate change and food insecurity, which are main issues in President Joe Biden’s stimulus plan. Vilsack, who served as the head of the Dept. of Agriculture under former President Barack Obama, […]
Summary List Placement Employment at US businesses expanded last month as COVID-19 cases began to fall and the US remained mired in a strict economic lockdown. The country’s private sector added 174,000 payrolls in January, according to the ADP monthly employment report published Wednesday morning. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected payrolls to climb by 70,000. […]