Lewisville, Texas-based property services company MCS announced last week that it acquired Five Brothers Asset Management Solutions, a deal which brings MCS into the reverse mortgage industry for the first time, according to an announcement by the company. MCS contends that the deal creates “a national property preservation and services market leader that combines complementary […]
Mortgage rates remained flat this week ahead of the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed the average 30-year fixed rate for conventional loans at 7.07% on Tuesday, down from 7.08% one week earlier. At the same time one year ago, the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.69%. Meanwhile, […]
President Joe Biden will be in Las Vegas on Tuesday, where he will offer additional remarks about the policies and priorities of his administration’s push to address housing issues for renters and buyers alike. Biden will also highlight the money offered to states in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act to boost affordable housing supply. […]
As we started 2024, the signals in the U.S. real estate market were for inventory growth, sales growth and home-price growth across the U.S. At the time, I observed that even if mortgage rates stayed flat, the momentum seemed to be in the cards for broad, slow growth in the market. However, mortgage rates didn’t […]
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced on Monday that it has raised lending limits for its Title I Manufactured Home Loan Program, a move designed to align the FHA with market forces and to encourage more lenders to participate in the program as the Biden administration makes a renewed push on affordable housing. The move […]
Digital lender Better.com launched its One Day Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) product that will provide approval decisions to consumers within 24 hours of locking their interest rate. Better launched its first HELOC product about a year ago. The One Day HELOC product is the latest upgraded version as the New York-headquartered lender looks […]
A national syndicated columnist has taken a closer look at the reverse mortgage product category after reviewing data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) about the industry’s advertising practices, and she says that the product can have utility for older Americans as long as a prospective borrower properly understands it. Julie Jason, an investment […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Monday announced that it would be bringing its Innovative Housing Showcase back to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., this June. The event is designed to highlights housing solutions and “advancements in housing design, technology and sustainability.” Taking place on June 7-9, the event is […]
It’s spring 2024 and we have a Federal Reserve meeting this week. The 10-year yield is at the same critical point as last year before the Fed went hawkish and sent mortgage rates to 8% and the 10-year yield to 5%. Could this happen again? This is the week the balls are all in the […]
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) settlement of commission lawsuits nationwide is expected to force mortgage lenders and loan officers to find new ways of approaching listing agents and borrowers, give LOs a more significant role in the home-buying process, and encourage housing professionals to pursue dual-licensing, industry experts told HousingWire. Mortgage pros have closely […]
David Peskin, formerly from Senior Lending Network and Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF), has purchased an ownership stake in top 10 reverse mortgage lender HighTechLending (HTL) and will lead the company’s new pursuits alongside co-owner and COO Erika Macias. Peskin spoke to RMD about the move. He shed light on why now was the right time […]
Homeowners 62 and older saw their collective home equity levels drop in the fourth quarter of 2023 by roughly $119 billion to $12.84 trillion, the third quarterly fall in the last year. This is according to the Reverse Mortgage Market Index (RMMI), a measure of senior-held home equity from the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association […]
Production gains and losses for IMBs and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks over the past five years. Courtesy of the Mortgage Bankers Association “This year was exacerbated by the current lack of housing inventory and mortgage rates that increased to their highest levels of the year, keeping refinancings volumes low. These factors contributed to a […]
Sara Holtz “I am energized by the opportunity to build on the company’s momentum to drive meaningful transformation for Optimal Blue’s valued clients and the borrowers they serve,” said Holtz in a prepared statement. She brings more than 20 years of experience to the position, with her latest stint at ICE Mortgage Technology involving leading […]
California mortgage tech firm Blend Labs narrowed its loss in 2023 by expanding its consumer banking footprint and growing its mortgage consumer base. The San Francisco-based company reported a non-GAAP net loss of $101.3 million in 2023, down from a non-GAAP net loss of $182.2 million in 2022, according to data shared in its fourth-quarter […]
Lisa Moriello, the national retail reverse mortgage sales manager at multichannel lender loanDepot, recently spoke to RMD about how business in 2024 seemed to be off to a promising start. Diving deeper into the current reverse mortgage business environment, she offered additional perspectives on multiple topics. These include the integration of forward mortgage professionals into […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is being sued in federal court over accusations that it failed to refund nearly $385 million in mortgage insurance premiums (MIP) to borrowers over a period of more than two decades. The lawsuit was previously reported by National Mortgage News and Law360. The proposed class-action lawsuit […]
Michael Hild, who served as CEO of now-defunct reverse mortgage lender Live Well Financial, is seeking a one-year delay of a deadline to file a motion for a new trial based on what his attorney describes as “new evidence.” This is according to court documents reviewed by RMD. After his arrest by the FBI in […]
Nonbank mortgage originator Change Lending will become a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLB-SF). The Anaheim, California-based originator’s application was approved on Wednesday after it fulfilled all statutory requirements for membership, including those related to capital, profitability and liquidity, the company reported. Change’s membership will become effective upon its acquisition […]
The presiding judge in the bankruptcy case involving Reverse Mortgage Investment Trust (RMIT) — the parent company of former leading reverse mortgage lender Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF) — has approved a request to transfer the company’s bankruptcy status to Chapter 7 from its current Chapter 11 status. This is according to court documents reviewed by […]
Guild Mortgage released its fourth-quarter and full year 2023 earnings report this week, showing that it narrowed its focus on purchase originations and increased its market share on the forward lending side, but it still sustained a loss. After its acquisition last year of Cherry Creek Mortgage, Guild increased its involvement in the reverse mortgage […]
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) will begin to cover the upfront cost of hard credit report pulls for its broker partners as it aims to expand market share. The new initiative will ease the impact of out-of-pocket expenses for mortgage brokers after the costs for credit reports increased this year, the company said in making the […]
Good news! The national economy is growing; unemployment is low; corporate revenues are up. For housing and mortgage professionals, however, these apparent boons spell trouble. They signal that the economy is still running hot — or at least more than lukewarm — and that inflation may still need more cold water from the Federal Reserve […]
A decline in interest rates buoyed mortgage demand for another week. Mortgage applications increased by 7.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending March 8, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey. It was the second increase in a row. “Mortgage rates dropped below 7% last week for most loan […]
loanDepot greatly reduced its costs in 2023 while revenues were in free fall amid a contracting market. It wasn’t enough to bring the California-based lender company profitability, but it narrowed its losses. Operationally, loanDepot entered 2024 by dealing with a cyberattack that brought its systems down and a forecast for market conditions to improve. loanDepot recorded a non-GAAP […]
The White House this week submitted its fiscal year 2025 budget proposal to the House of Representatives and the Senate, outlining the priorities of the administration in providing a budgetary blueprint for the entirety of the U.S. federal government. Within the congressional justifications for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are a […]
The housing priorities outlined by the White House and President Joe Biden last week before and during the State of the Union address are crucial for alleviating a serious burden facing many Americans, and the plan emphasizes actions that can be taken to impact the current housing market. This is according to comments shared with […]
The largest U.S. nonbank mortgage lenders continue to gain market share as the industry consolidates and a number of smaller players exit the space due to a lack of strong franchises to retain sufficient volume, Fitch Ratings reported Tuesday. Fitch expects additional consolidation in the industry as profitability remains constrained by a challenging origination environment. […]
In anticipation of Tuesday’s inflation reading, mortgage rates eased compared to last week. HousingWire’s Mortgage Rate Center showed the average 30-year fixed rate for conventional loans at 7.08% on Tuesday, down from 7.17% one week earlier. At the same time one year ago, the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.83%. Meanwhile, the 15-year fixed rate averaged […]
Mortgage capital markets tech firm Polly rolled out its Lender Intelligence platform, which leverages data and analytics to drive margin expansion and cost reduction. The new platform will enable lenders to track their volume trends, see how their loan pricing compares to competitors and gain insights into loan origination profit margins, Polly stated. Lender Intelligence […]
Wells Fargo-backed mortgage fintech Maxwell rolled out a point-of-sale (POS) feature that offers tailored workflows and integrations. The Blueprint Builder features more than 60 third-party integrations, allowing lending teams to connect with other pieces of their workflow, from credit and verifications to pricing and disclosures. Lenders can choose to integrate and configure many third-party services […]
I have been in the mortgage industry for more than two decades and have been working with reverse mortgages for about 12 of those years. Working in this space for so long, I thought I knew the ins and outs of a reverse mortgage, but it wasn’t until I experienced one firsthand that some things […]
Members of the reverse mortgage industry were surprised to learn that U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge announced on Monday that she would be resigning from her post effective March 22. HUD deputy secretary Adrianne Todman will serve as acting HUD secretary at that point, according to the White House. […]
Remote online notarization (RON) platform NotaryCam expanded its independent notary platform customer base by 46% in 2023, according to an announcement on Monday. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of title firm Stewart. In addition to expanding its notary platform customer base, NotaryCam also grew the number of loss-mitigation-related RON transactions it was part […]
Marcia Fudge, the 18th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), announced her resignation from office, according to an announcement released on Monday by HUD. Her last day will be March 22. Adrianne Todman, the current Deputy Secretary and HUD veteran, was named Acting Secretary. Fudge said that she felt “mixed […]
Digital mortgage automation solution provider Floify launched a mortgage point-of-sale (POS) platform for lenders. Configured to give independent mortgage banks, federally insured banks and credit unions the needed tools at an accessible price point, Floify Lender Edition aims to increase lender profitability through its automated processes and efficiency tools, the company said. Solutions within Floify […]
Peak 65 serves as an historic demographic milestone of the new paradigm shift that is changing every aspect of the housing market, finance, retirement planning process and the fragile supply/demand balance of housing inventory for real estate at large. We are living in a watershed moment in history. The new paradigm brings into question many […]
The spring homebuying season kicked off with a monthly jump in purchase mortgage locks despite rising interest rates. Rate lock volume rose 5% from January to February due to a notable 8.3% increase in purchase activity, data from Optimal Blue’s Originations Market Monitor report showed. The rise in purchase activity outpaced the decrease in refinancing […]
We survived jobs week and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell talking to Congress, with mortgage rates ending the week below 7%. But will mortgage rates keep heading lower? If so, what will this do to inventory levels? Let’s look at this week’s tracker data to get clues for the future. Mortgage rates and the 10-year […]
In remarks made Thursday to the Senate Banking Committee this week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said he expects some U.S. banks to fail in the coming months because of declining values and defaults in their commercial real estate loan portfolios. According to reporting by multiple outlets, including The Hill, Powell indicated that the risk […]
The Desjardins Group, a Quebec-based lender, is no longer issuing mortgages in high-risk flood areas, multiple media outlets reported this week. That is stoking concerns that similar measures could be taken in other places, including the U.S. According to the Insurance Bureau of Canada, roughly 1.5 million homes, representing about 10% of the nation’s housing […]
Women face a series of challenges that add up to make retirement prospects “pretty bleak,” including issues such as gender pay inequality, longer life spans and a lack of savings based on U.S. Census Bureau data. But Cindy Hounsell, founder and president of the Women’s Institute for a Secure Retirement, said during an event hosted […]
A former top executive at Summit Funding has sued the lender, claiming he was wrongfully terminated after confronting the company’s leadership about allegedly illegal business practices involving its founder and president, Todd Scrima. Ex-chief growth officer Brian Mitchell accuses Summit and Scrima of gaining illegal access to confidential information from its competitor Movement Mortgage to poach their employees and take their […]
President Joe Biden’s new plan to lower housing costs includes a pilot program that waives the requirement for lender’s title insurance on certain refinance transactions, according to the White House. The plan will be announced during his 2024 State of the Union address on Thursday night. However, that’s a controversial topic for the mortgage industry […]
The White House announced that President Joe Biden will call on lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate to address a series of housing issues in his State of the Union address, which will be delivered to a joint session of Congress and televised nationally on Thursday night. In the address, the president […]