A coalition of bipartisan lawmakers in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday introduced legislation targeting the practice of mortgage trigger leads. The bill, designated “S.3502,” is designed to “amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to prevent consumer reporting agencies from furnishing consumer reports under certain circumstances,” according to the bill’s language. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) […]
The holidays have come early for the mortgage industry. Mortgage rates fell below the 7% threshold this week as markets prepared for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s announcement on Wednesday. The 30-year, fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.95% for the week ending Dec. 14, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That’s down from last […]
Mortgage industry trade group Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) is urging government agencies to begin to have conversations surrounding the impact of the jury verdict and potential court ruling in the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit on lending practices. In a letter submitted Thursday to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Sandra Thompson, Federal Housing Administration Commissioner […]
Texas-based lender Thrive Mortgage plans to merge with digital multichannel rival Lower, which will create a unified lender with more than 650 loan officers and 120 active branches across the country. Financial details of the merger, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024, were not disclosed. Over the last 12 months, […]
The housing market cheered as the Federal Reserve signaled interest rate cuts next year after making a series of rapid rate hikes starting in 2022. While the central bank did not completely rule out the possibility of a rate increase in 2024, that action seems unlikely. Instead, fresh economic projections from central bank officials showed […]
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and the National Mortgage Servicing Association (NMSA) are expressing their views on a recently revised Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loss mitigation proposal, stating that it needs additional adjustments to effectively address the challenges it is designed to tackle. The proposed policy FHA in May submitted — and in November, updated […]
Government sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac has approved mortgage technology company Truv for both payroll verifications and consumer-permissioned income. With the new integration, lenders will have access to the Truv platform to obtain and transmit information and data required on Freddie Mac’s Loan Product Advisor platform for the income modeling assessment without needing a third-party verification. […]
The Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) held its short-term policy interest rate steady at a range of 5.25% to 5.5% at its last meeting of the year on Wednesday. It was the fourth pause recorded in 2023. Investors will parse Jerome Powell’s press conference this afternoon for clues about when and why the central bank […]
As 2023 winds to a close, so too does a brutal year for the housing market, a year marked by rising rates, steep home prices, scarce inventory and anemic mortgage originations, compared with the boom years of 2020 and 2021. It also has been a brutal year for the secondary market that creates liquidity for […]
As 2023 draws to a close, housing professionals hope for relief from the high mortgage rates, terrible inventory levels and slow sales that characterized the year. They may find that relief for mortgage rates next year, according to forecasts from various industry experts compiled by HousingWire. Sales, however, may see only mild improvement in the […]
PrimeLending, a Texas-based retail mortgage bank, added 12 new loan originators as it attempts to grow market share within its existing Texas footprint. Among the newly added LOs in the fall included two LOs — John Muhammad ($25.72 million) and Hugo Ortiz-Pulido ($21.21 million) with a production volume of more than $20 million year-to-date, according […]
California-based mortgage lender loanDepot on Tuesday announced the launch of its fully automated underwriting engine called melloNow. The new system, which has been in beta-testing for the last several quarters, delivers a fully conditional loan approval “in minutes rather than hours or days,” the company said in a statement. Jeff Walsh, loanDepot’s mortgage president, said in a […]
In the mortgage business, November typically represents the start of the slow season. While mortgage rates cooled down significantly from October, it wasn’t enough to overcome seasonal, historic trends and low levels of inventory. Lock volume declined 10% last month from October, driven by a 12% drop in purchase locks, according to Optimal Blue’s originations […]
Wells Fargo, once the largest mortgage lender in America, was accused of discrimination through the common industry practice of offering mortgage loan discounts to select borrowers, CNBC reported. The bank received Matter Requiring Attention (MRA) notice from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on problems with loan discounts, CNBC reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources. […]
After hitting a 23-year high of 8% in October, mortgage rates have cooled down to the lowest levels since July. Some borrowers are even getting quoted in the 6% range. A top-tier borrower with a 780 FICO score and a 25-30% down payment for a single-family vanilla 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was quoted 6.875% on Thursday, […]
The most underreported housing story I’ve seen this year is that even with mortgage rates rising to 8%, the number of homes that took price cuts before they sold was 4% below 2022 levels. This happened even with higher home prices and higher mortgage rates in 2023. Weekly housing inventory data We will start with […]
A former mortgage consultant who worked for Wells Fargo and ultimately brought a case against the company in a Southern California court over allegedly being fired for complaining about discriminatory lending practices has settled with the company, according to reporting from Los Angeles-based radio outlet KNX News. Attorneys for both parties jointly filed papers in […]
Incenter Mortgage Advisors (IMA) has rebranded and changed its leadership to reflect the offering of a broader set of capital markets services. The company, which helped organize over $2 trillion in mortgage-servicing rights (MSRs), changed its brand name to Incenter Capital Advisors. It will emphasize corporate strategy and capital markets activities in different asset classes, institutions and balance sheet types. […]
Mortgage rates continued their downward trajectory this week as the 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 4.2% for the first time since September, according to new data from Freddie Mac. The 30-year, fixed mortgage rate averaged 7.03% for the week ending Dec. 7, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That’s down significantly from last […]
Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Tom Cronkright, co-founder and executive chairman of CertifID and CEO of Sun Title, to talk about battling the latest frauds and scams as bad actors leverage a new arsenal of tech tools to wreak havoc on buyers and sellers of real estate. Sarah Wheeler: Can you give […]
California-based Pennymac Financial Services raised $750 million in unsecured debt with qualified institutional investors, 15% more than it initially expected, the company announced Thursday. Pennymac will use the proceeds of the offering to repay $650 million in debt due in October 2025. The remainder will be used for “other general corporate purposes,” the company said in an […]
Since the 2008 housing crisis, there have been significant changes that prompted the Treasury to place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under conservatorship. While the conservatorship has allowed for the mortgage market to be restored to its pre-crisis state and strengthened these two government-sponsored entities (GSEs), there are significant downsides to maintaining the status quo […]
Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) Freddie Mac on Wednesday announced further enhancements to its Condo Project Advisor tool that are designed to “streamline” such loan originations and to offer lenders “greater security” through a new designation, according to an announcement. “This designation, known as ‘project certified’ status for Project Assessment Requests (PAR), confirms that condo properties meet […]
CBC Mortgage Agency – a federally chartered housing finance agency – will offer two temporary rate buydown features for its down payment assistance (DPA) program for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans. The agency is the first to provide either a 2-1 rate buydown or a 1-0 rate buydown on a DPA program. “The addition of […]
Pennymac Financial Services is the latest mortgage company to issue debt in a challenging housing market. The California-based company announced on Wednesday it intends to offer a $650 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due in 2029. “Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay a portion of the Company’s secured term notes due […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) submitted a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) expressing its support for the use of attorney opinion letters (AOLs) on Wednesday. In the letter addressed to FHFA Director Sandra Thompson, the CHLA says that it supports the use of AOLs in lieu of title insurance, “in conjunction […]
The now defunct First Guaranty Mortgage Corporation (FGMC) and former employees – who sued the mortgage lender in a class-action suit after an abrupt layoff – are seeking a Delaware bankruptcy judge to settle a Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification (WARN) Act lawsuit for $1.75 million. In June 2022, laid off employees filed two separate district […]
Industry veteran Adam O’Daniel is transitioning to Guild Mortgage as senior vice president and chief marketing officer, a newly created role, after about two years at Open Mortgage, the company announced on Tuesday. “We’re going to expand Guild’s brand presence nationally, deliver best-in-class marketing tools, technology and support for our sales teams, and infuse a culture of creativity and collaboration […]
An arbitrator conclusion issued last week caps a four-year legal battle over allegations of trade secret theft involving two of the biggest companies in the housing industry, Black Knight Servicing Technologies and PennyMac Financial Services. In a 2019 lawsuit, Black Knight accused Pennymac of copying its mortgage servicing platform, MSP, to create its Servicing Systems Environment (SSE) platform. […]
When individual mortgages are originated by lenders like banks or credit unions, they maybundle groups of these mortgages together into financial vehicles called mortgage-backedsecurities (MBS) that are then sold to investors on a secondary market. This allows investors to gain exposure and returns from the mortgage market, while the lenders gain immediate capital to issue […]
FirstHome IQ, a nonprofit focused on homeownership and financial literacy education, has expanded its ambassador program and now has 60 mortgage and real estate professionals who donate a portion of every loan to further this mission. The nonprofit, founded by industry leaders Kristin Messerli, Dave Savage and Todd Bookspan, launched the beta version of its ambassador program in […]
Freddie Mac rolled out standardized subordinate lien documents for subordinate mortgages offered by down payment assistance (DPA) providers to facilitate easier and greater use of DPA program Historically, subordinate-lien documents for various DPA programs have been housing finance agency (HFA)-specific and worded differently, leaving room for confusion when interpreting terms and payment plans. “Saving for […]
Digital mortgage automation solution provider Floify launched a lending platform for mortgage brokers built on the foundation of the Floify point-of-sale (POS) platform. Florfy Broker Edition is designed to provide an intuitive loan management portal for borrowers and make managing loans simpler at an accessible price point while boosting operational efficiency, the company said. The […]
We’re writing today to address the unintended consequences that may result from the real estate agent commission dilemma stemming from recent lawsuits. As leaders of a non-profit, the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME), we advocate for over 65,000 wholesale mortgage brokers and homebuyers nationwide. There are multiple lawsuits challenging the prevailing structure of real […]
Rising home prices have pushed the third quarter’s tappable home equity amount near its 2022 peak, but interest rates are making homeowners reluctant to extract that wealth. Mortgage holders withdrew a mere 0.41% of tappable equity in Q3, about 55% below the average withdrawal rate seen in the 12 years leading up to the Federal […]
What a week! Mortgage rates almost fell below 7%, the 10-year yield is below 4.25% again, and people are seriously talking about Fed rate cuts in 2024. Times can change quickly, which is why we created the weekly tracker so you have the information you need in real-time. Purchase application data Hello, early Christmas present! […]
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director Rohit Chopra has made the rounds this week on Capitol Hill, providing testimony to Congress in their semi-annual reviews of the CFPB. On Thursday, Chopra took questions from members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, including one on the controversial topic of mortgage trigger […]
The latest baseline increase in conforming loan limits has enabled loan originator Dave Krichmar’s client to make a 5% down payment instead of 10%. The self-employed homebuyer found an $800,000 home in Texas, but with the conforming loan limit for 2023 being $726,200, the buyer needed a jumbo loan or a bank statement loan. Those […]
As the housing market continues to undergo a seismic shift, technology leaders like this year’s Tech Trendsetters stand as beacons, guiding the industry toward a future where innovation is not an option but an imperative for success. From cutting-edge fintech solutions to revolutionary proptech platforms, these leaders have demonstrated the ability to harness technology in […]
Mortgage originators will pay more to access consumer credit reports in 2024, reigniting complaints from mortgage lenders and trade associations. In 2024, Fair Isaac Corp. (FICO), the company that retains the rights to the market’s adopted methodology to measure consumer credit risk, will charge one price – higher than the current price – to all mortgage […]
After about a week of chaos at Fidelity National Financial (FNF) due to a cybersecurity attack, the firm said the incident was contained on Sunday, November 26. In an updated filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Fidelity disclosed the company became aware of a cybersecurity incident that impacted some of its systems […]
Mortgage rates headed lower this week as the 10-year Treasury yield dropped below 4.3% for the first time since September, according to new data from Freddie Mac. The 30-year, fixed mortgage rate averaged 7.22% for the week ending Nov. 30, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. That’s down significantly from last week’s 7.29% […]
Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Kenon Chen, executive vice president of strategy and growth at Clear Capital, to talk about appraisal modernization and how technology is just part of the solution. Sarah Wheeler: What are some of the biggest challenges right now? Kenon Chen: The challenge that’s in front of everyone continues […]
Government-owned corporation Ginnie Mae announced on Wednesday that it has revised its definition for high-balance loans, conforming to new limits announced earlier this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), according to All Participants Memorandum (APM) 23-13. “Under the new definition, effective for pools or loan packages submitted on or after Jan. 1, 2024, […]
Lower mortgage rates have brought increased mortgage demand. Total home loan applications increased 0.3% for the week ending Nov. 24 compared to the previous week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Mortgage rates for the 30-year fixed loan averaged 7.29% as of Nov. 22, falling 15 basis points in one week, according […]