A coalition of eight trade groups — including the Housing Policy Council (HPC), the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) — have requested additional time from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to comment on proposed changes to Regulation X, which implements the Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act […]
Mortgage applications to purchase new homes fell 16% month over month in June but rose 0.7% year over year, according to a report released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The data, derived from the trade group’s survey of homebuilders, is “consistent with broader declines in single-family construction and new building permits as well […]
Reverse mortgage marketing can be an exacting process. Due to ongoing reputational challenges stemming from years (and loans) past, lenders have to consider the ways they can effectively recontextualize the product for some clients while broadening its appeal, compensating for misconceptions and acknowledging current realities around things like interest rates, retirement savings levels and access […]
Survey data released Wednesday by F&G Annuities & Life Inc. shows that economic realities and other considerations are driving Americans to either delay or come out of retirement. F&G’s newly released Retirement Reconsidered survey, which was conducted in May across a sample of 2,048 respondents ages 50 and older, found that 51% of this cohort […]
The gap between home appraisals and sale prices is rising. That’s according to a new report from Corporate Settlement Solutions (CSS), which analyzed 10 states on the East Coast and Midwest for the share of properties that were appraised for more than the sale price, in addition to the average value over appraisal. CSS’s analysis […]
Six U.S. regulators announced on Wednesday that they have approved a final rule that requires mortgage originators and secondary market issuers to impose quality control standards for their automated valuation models (AVMs). In June, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) announced their approval of the […]
Mortgage applications increased 3.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending July 12, due mainly to borrowers taking advantage of a decline in rates to refinance their home loans, according to data released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). “Mortgage rates declined last week, as recent signs of cooling inflation and the […]
The state of Montana may not be a key source of business for the reverse mortgage industry, but that doesn’t negate the reality that seniors who reside there might find the product useful for reaching some kind of financial goal. That can be a challenge if they live in an unusual or uniquely constructed home, […]
Even as a federal law designed to protect income for retirees turns 50 this year, the cry to reform retirement benefits seems to be growing louder than ever. This rising chorus includes The New York Times, which recently published an article titled, “The $25 Trillion System of Retirement Savings Needs Fixing.” It offers expert opinions […]
Mortgage production increased at Bank of America (BofA) in the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous three months, but the bank’s home loan volumes were still lower than those delivered in the same period last year. Competitors Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citi showed the same trend when opening the Q2 2024 earnings […]
Just like a football team entering the red zone — the area of the field inside the opponent’s 20-yard line — should be extra cautious to avoid wasting a scoring chance, Americans who are nearing retirement should dial back aggressive investment strategies. That’s the advice of Kevin Wade, a financial planner with Centennial Advisors LLC, […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Monday that it has charged lender Rocket Mortgage, two appraisal companies and one appraiser with allegedly issuing a biased valuation and denying a refinance loan to a Black homeowner in Denver. The HUD accused appraiser Maksym Mykhailyna and his company, Maverick Appraisal Group, appraisal […]
How would the housing market fare under a potential second Trump administration? Mark Calabria, the former Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director under Trump, has some ideas. And no surprise — he’d like to be part of that administration if asked. According to Calabria, who currently serves as a senior adviser to the Cato Institute, […]
Baltimore-based Dominion Financial Services, a nationwide private lender that specializes in financing for real estate investors, announced the hiring of Dustin Wells as the president of its newly launched wholesale lending division. Wells has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services arena. Most recently, he served as co-president of Stronghill Capital, an […]
Rocket Pro TPO, the wholesale arm of Rocket Mortgage, announced Monday that it has decided to waive the $795 origination fee charged to broker partners on home equity loans. “When you think about what home equity looks like or represents across the country, there’s a record-breaking home equity, with homeowners sitting on almost $17 trillion,” […]
Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citi opened the second-quarter earnings season in the mortgage space on Friday by showing strong increases in sales volumes from April to June compared to the previous quarter. But it was not enough to bring home loan originations to year-ago levels. Among the three depositories, JPMorgan was the leader in […]
The latest 2023 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data is in, and it confirms a few key trend lines for the mortgage industry: there was significantly less interest in mortgage loans in 2023, and fewer banks thought it worth participating in the market. The full dataset from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal […]
Former reverse mortgage lender James B. Nutter & Co., aka Nutter Home Loans, recently scored what an attorney has characterized as a win in a case brought against it by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ initially sued Nutter in September 2020 in a federal court in Missouri under the Financial Institutions Reform, […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has broad authority under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) to prohibit discrimination against credit applicants and from discouraging prospective applicants for credit. This reinforces the bureau’s enforcement authority as it wages a war against redlining, including in a case against Chicago-based Townstone Financial, according to court documents reviewed […]
A wide-ranging and multigenerational survey about retirement confidence in the U.S. found that while general confidence has risen over the past year, most Americans remain concerned that their savings will not be able to keep up with their needs in retirement. The Read on Retirement survey, conducted by BlackRock, enlisted perspectives from members of the […]
Fintech firms Rocktop Technologies and LiquidFi on Thursday announced a milestone in their business partnership that was formed earlier this year. Rocktop — a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that works to improve yields for institutional investors, asset managers and other participants in the fixed-income and mortgage markets — has now placed more than $60 billion in […]
Despite concerns from housing and mortgage industry trade groups, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) on Thursday announced the release of VantageScore 4.0 historic credit data, a step that is designed to ease the transition to new credit reporting requirements by the end of next year. The datasets released Wednesday are tied to single-family mortgages […]
The Consumer Price Index fell 3% in June on an annual basis, a sharper decrease than economists had anticipated. It’s a shot in the arm for the housing industry, which has been battered by several years of high interest rates as the Federal Reserve tries to tamp down inflation. The evidence that inflation is meaningfully […]
Accessory dwelling units (ADUs) have a lot of potential for aging in place, as evidenced by their growing popularity and statements from private companies and public officials alike that emphasize their utility for housing seniors. In one recent instance highlighted by the Los Angeles Times, one family turned to an ADU after finding limited options […]
With the release of the CoreLogic 2024 Q1 Equity Insights report, which Logan discussed last week, and now the FHFA National Mortgage Database Aggregate Statistics, we have a lot of visibility into the financial position of the American homeowner. The important message in the mortgage data is that even as the economy perhaps finally slows […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Wednesday announced a newly proposed rule that would amend Regulation X and require mortgage servicers to emphasize borrower assistance and loss-mitigation options over foreclosure when a borrower struggles to make their required mortgage payments. “The proposed changes would also make it simpler for servicers to offer assistance by […]
Signs of a “stagnant late-spring housing market“ emerged in June as U.S. home prices declined for the first time this year and purchase mortgage locks fell by 8% year over year. That’s a key takeaway from the June 2024 Market Advantage report released Wednesday by Optimal Blue. The report, which covers the 20 largest U.S. […]
Highlands Residential Mortgage announced that Dan Carson recently joined the company as a senior vice president and area manager of its Park Cities branch in Dallas. Carson has spent more than a decade in the mortgage industry, having previously served in leadership positions for OriginPoint, Willow Bend Mortgage Co., PrimeLending and PNC Bank. Dan Carson […]
The complexities of Non-QM lending demand a strategic approach that combines innovation, efficiency, and resilience. Acra Lending has positioned itself at the forefront of this sector by investing in its workforce, optimizing processes, leveraging cutting-edge technology, and building a robust infrastructure. In this executive conversation, we delve into how Acra Lending is enhancing its operations […]
As expected, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell did not set a timeline for lowering interest rates during his semiannual monetary policy report to Congress on Tuesday morning when participants complained about the effects of a tightening monetary policy in the housing market. Powell indicated that Fed officials are not there yet, but suggested a better […]
Over a quarter (26%) of retired investors continue to pay off their mortgage, and precisely one-quarter of the cohort are continuing to pay down credit card debt, according to a new survey from the Nationwide Retirement Institute. The U.S. retirement population is getting older at a faster rate and are also confronted with inflation as […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Tuesday announced that it has published updated policies for its 203(k) Rehabilitation Mortgage Insurance Program, in an effort to “modernize the program and enhance its usefulness for individuals and families seeking affordable financing for renovating or rehabilitating a single-family home when purchasing or refinancing it.” […]
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago (FHLBank Chicago) and consumer credit scoring system VantageScore announced on Tuesday that the bank is now accepting mortgage collateral using VantageScore 4.0, an updated version of the scoring system using trended credit bureau data. “[M]ember financial institutions can now pledge mortgage collateral using VantageScore credit scores as an […]
At the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) Eastern Regional Meeting in May, Acting Ginnie Mae President Sam Valverde said that the government-owned company planned to release a term sheet for a newly proposed Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) program sometime in the next month. After the industry’s secondary market was rocked by […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) on Monday submitted a letter to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra, urging the agency to more forcefully go after trigger lead solicitations. To cement the point, CHLA is calling such solicitations “junk calls,” echoing the language of the campaign the Bureau has waged against “junk […]
Top-five mortgage lender Newrez, owned by asset manager Rithm Capital, has imposed another round of layoffs affecting 265 employees in Colorado and Arizona, per documents sent to state authorities. That’s the third round this year, following the acquisition of Computershare Mortgage Services and its affiliate Specialized Loan Servicing (SLS ) for $720 million in October […]
Roughly eight months after acquiring PacWest Bancorp in a rescue deal, Banc of California is selling roughly $2 billion in business-purpose residential mortgage loans, according to Bloomberg. PacWest had already sold the servicing on the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) loans, which were originated by its subsidiary Civic Financial Services, before Pacwest was acquired by […]
Global asset manager Bain Capital announced Monday that it has acquired a controlling stake in Archwest Capital, a California-based company that offers financing to residential real estate investors. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the companies said in a joint statement that Archwest management, led by CEO Shawn Miller, would retain […]
A New York jury found Vishal Garg, CEO and founder of digital mortgage lender Better.com, liable for breach of fiduciary duty and conversion in a decade-long lawsuit filed by his former partner, Raza Khan. Garg intends to appeal. The court ordered Garg to pay $5.5 million to Educational Investment & Finance Corporation (EIFC), the company […]
Attorneys for both Ginnie Mae and Texas Capital Bank (TCB) are asking a magistrate judge overseeing their case about HECM tail collateral in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas for an extension to decide on separate motions brought by both parties: one seeking a change of venue to a different court, […]
As those in or near retirement continue to proclaim a preference for aging in place, there may be challenges for people who aren’t sure about how or when they should get started on making plans. A series of home healthcare, renovation and senior care experts offer tips on ways to begin in a column published […]
Data on the intersection between housing issues and politics is clear: in 2024, housing is an issue that resonates strongly with younger voters, but high mortgage rates and high home prices may be issues for years to come. This is according to a report published this week by Politico. Recent data about attributes of the […]
Fewer prospective mortgage borrowers pulled the trigger in June, according to a new report from Mortgage Capital Trading. Mortgage rate locks decreased 7.84% in June compared to the previous month. This drop follows a brief uptick in volume at the beginning of the traditional buying season, suggesting a continuing stalemate between limited housing supply and […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) this week detailed its reasons for opposing a bill in the state of Florida designed “to expand projects eligible for residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing,” which was recently signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Florida Senate Bill SB-770 authorizes local and county authorities within the state to […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Wednesday announced that it has released five new language translations for 19 separate single-family mortgage documents used for Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured mortgage servicing. The new translations — which are available in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog and Vietnamese — are accessible from FHA’s language access webpage […]