Apprasial management company Valligent, which was recently acquired by enterprise risk management and collateral valuation services provider VerosTM, announced today that it has integrated with the ICE Mortgage Technology platform Encompass. The Encompass platform by Ice Mortgage Technology offers innovative solutions for the mortgage industry and provides seamless integration capabilities and a marketplace for various […]
As rates for most loan types increased, mortgage applications fell to their lowest level in a month last week. For the week that ended June 30, mortgage applications fell 4.4% from the prior week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. “As mortgage-Treasury spreads remained wide, the 30-year fixed rate increased to 6.85%, the […]
Now-defunct lender Homepoint is suing seven correspondent mortgage lenders, claiming they breached an agreement by either failing to cure the loan defects or repurchase the loan as required under the terms of the correspondent agreement. Homepoint was forced to repurchase 10 separate loans that didn’t conform to the GSE guidelines for delinquencies and misrepresentations from […]
HousingWire Annual is strategically placed in October to bring the greatest minds in housing together. At HW Annual, they will be mapping out their playbooks for the future. The event serves as a starting line for conquering next year. With less than 100 days left until these leaders meet in Austin, Texas at the Hyatt […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) sent a letter to U.S. Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.) this week that applauds the introduction of a bill to ban mortgage trigger leads outside of certain situations. The bill, House Resolution (H.R.) 4198, the “Protecting Consumers from Abusive Mortgage Leads Act,” would prohibit trigger leads for mortgages unless […]
Wells Fargo has been sued in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas by a group of current and former staffers from the company’s bilingual mortgage sales team alleging race-based discrimination. This is according to original reporting by Bloomberg and court documents reviewed by HousingWire. “Wells Fargo forces its employees on the Bilingual […]
The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2023 HW Vanguards are open until July 28, 2023. Click here to nominate someone from your organization today. The 2023 HW Vanguard awards are now open for nominations! This prestigious award recognizes the […]
PrimeLending, a Texas-based retail mortgage bank, aims to expand its market share by growing within its existing footprint in a margin-thinning environment. The lender brought on 100 loan officers in June, bringing the total number of LOs to about 800. Licensed in 23 states across the country, PrimeLending has 150 branches including satellite and primary […]
Housing inventory finally broke under 2022 levels last week. To give you an idea how different this year is from last year, last week in 2022, active listings grew 30,940 while this year they only grew 5,848. Mortgage rates rose last week after the better-than-anticipated jobless claims data but even with higher rates, we also […]
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published Mortgagee Letter (ML) 2023-14 this week, which increases the threshold from $75 million to $120 million for multifamily loans to be considered large loans. This marks the first major increase to the threshold since 2014. The goal of the increase is to “enable a greater number of transactions to […]
Chicago-based Guaranteed Rate, a top 10 U.S. mortgage lender, acquired Sirva’s shares at Premia Relocation Mortgage and now has full ownership of the business, the companies announced on Friday. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Premia, which provides a relocation mortgage service for employees moving across the country or to other countries, has a digital platform called […]
Brena Nath, Director of HW+ & Events at HW Media Seventy…give or take a few. This is how many speaking slots we created when we crafted this year’s HousingWire Annual agenda. And, we’ve put a lot of thought into who gets to be a part of this number. From Anywhere Brands Chief Marketing Officer Amory […]
Most borrowers who had a mortgage forbearance in March 2021, including disproportionately impacted borrowers of color, were either current or closed as of March 2023. This is according to data released this week by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Office of Research. In the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic’s onset, the Coronavirus […]
DocMagic, a provider of loan document generation and eMortgage services, announced this week the integration of its Total eClose platform with Finastra‘s MortgagebotLOS solution. This integration aims to deliver an enhanced customer experience for mortgage borrowers while streamlining the closing process. “We’ve demonstrated the power of Total eClose through our integration with Finastra’s MortgagebotLOS, creating […]
Mortgage rates little changed this week as investors assessed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s latest comments on rate hikes. To sum it up: a very strong labor market remains the main driver behind the Fed’s rate setting decisions and more tightening is still to come. The Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which focuses on conventional and conforming […]
loanDepot is accusing its competitor Movement Mortgage of damaging its business by hiring over 25 employees in three months and “effectively crippling” “now-depleted” branches. The poaching lawsuit, filed on June 22 at a federal district court in Delaware, states that South Carolina-based Movement recruited and hired its employees in late 2021 and early 2022 to take trade secrets […]
Most mortgage professionals have either started to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) or are at least aware of how it can be adopted to make the loan origination process more efficient. While it will take time to fully implement AI in the mortgage industry, the most practical use of AI in the mortgage process is document […]
California-based real estate investing platform Peer Street, Inc. and 14 affiliated debtors filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in a court in Delaware on Monday, citing a challenging mortgage market and struggles to raise capital with venture capital funds. “Through its bankruptcy filing, PeerStreet will seek to sell substantially all of […]
Roughly 80% of real estate investors surveyed are selling single-family homes at or above asking price after fully renovating the properties to make them habitable, according to a report from real estate marketplace New Western. “Investor sentiment is positive right now as they haven’t let the macroeconomic environment slow them down,” said Kurt Carlton, co-founder […]
This week, Fannie Mae published a new frequently asked questions (FAQ) document related to RefiNow, the refinancing product announced by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in 2021 that targets low-income borrowers with single-family mortgages backed by the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Fannie Mae explains in the document that RefiNow products are not limited to the […]
The easy choices have already been made: the low performers left about 16 months ago, the travel budgets have been slashed, and struggling branches have been sold to competitors or unceremoniously closed. For the mortgage industry, more often it’s about making the very hard choices these days – exiting a channel, deciding which star performer to let […]
Purchase mortgage applications increased for the third consecutive week, reaching the highest level of activity since early May, in spite of the 30-year fixed rate increasing slightly to 6.75%. For the week that ended June 23, mortgage applications climbed 3% from the prior week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. “Purchase applications increased […]
Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Middle Class Borrower Protection Act of 2023,” legislation sponsored by Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) that was designed to cancel controversial changes to loan-level pricing adjustments (LLPA). The LLPA changes were announced earlier this year by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The measure — which recently […]
A former high-ranking employee at nonbank The Change Company CDFI (TCC) filed a lawsuit in California accusing the company of retaliation after he notified executives of employees “mischaracterizing loans” to apparently skirt federal reporting requirements. The lawsuit, filed in Orange County, alleges that Adam Levine, the chief of staff to CEO Steven Sugarman, began reporting […]
New home sales in May rose 12.2% from April, which marks the third consecutive month of growth. Sales of new single‐family houses came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 763,000, according to estimates released jointly Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 20% above […]
Automated mortgage technology provider Lender Toolkit announced this week that it has integrated with Reggora, an appraisal management software company that focuses on modernizing residential real estate valuations for mortgage lenders. “We’re elated to partner with Reggora’s modern appraisal management platform, which has a well-documented open API that makes integrations easy to maintain,” said Brent […]
As the mortgage industry continues to reduce capacity amid shrinking volumes, mortgage professionals are reluctant to spend on tech, services or solutions. According to HousingWire‘s Q3 2023 LenderPulse survey, industry workers said they would cut down on marketing spend and tools, as well as reduce additional headcount, if they had to further contain costs. About […]
After a winter of dire housing market forecasts, the housing market regained its footing this spring, with home prices rising month-over-month for the third consecutive month in April, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which was released Tuesday. These increases came after seven consecutive months of decline. “The index tracks price changes from the […]
The mortgage delinquency rate fell 11 basis points to 3.10% in May, the second lowest national mortgage delinquency rate ever seen. In May, the number of borrowers just one payment behind improved by 94,000, erasing nearly half of April’s increase, according to Black Knight. (Delinquency numbers in April spiked because the month ended on a […]
Government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 58,268 foreclosure prevention actions during the first quarter of 2023, raising the total number of homeowners who have been helped to 6,771,101 since the start of conservatorships in September 2008. This is according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Q1 2023 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance […]
Current housing market dynamics continue to be fueled by the lack of existing homes available for sale, a trend that did not improve during the spring homebuying season, when more homes are typically put on the market. This has led Fannie Mae to revise its 2023 single-family originations forecast to $1.59 trillion, down from $1.65 […]
Need to empower the leadership at your organization? Want to increase efficiency in your mortgage business? Or, seeking guidance for mentoring new employees? Suzy Lindblom will speak to all of these topics when she takes the stage at HW Annual. Register for HW Annual today to catch Lindblom on stage alongside other powerful women of […]
Summer is here, and housing inventory is finally growing! The spring housing inventory was like a zombie rising from the grave, very slow, but the summer is showing some promise and let’s hope it continues. Purchase apps had a small week-to-week gain. Mortgage rates were again in a small range, hanging near 7%. Here’s a […]
The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2023 HW Insiders are open until the end of today, June 23, 2023. Click here to nominate someone from your organization today. Today marks the last day to submit a nomination for the […]
Some of the best performing stocks in America this year are from large, national homebuilders – strong consumer demand, limited competition from the existing home sales market, and an improving supply chain have boosted their outlooks. On Monday, homebuilder confidence moved into positive territory for the first time in nearly a year, while Census data on […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced late last year that it is replacing the Classic FICO credit model used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac with the FICO 10T and the VantageScore 4.0 credit score models and outlined the timeline for implementation. But a coalition of 17 associations, led by the Housing Policy Council […]
On June 1, Arizona-headquartered retail lender AmeriFirst Financial Inc. relaunched its forward mortgage originations. It ceased that business in December 2022 after rising mortgage rates wreaked havoc on the housing industry. Of the 400 employees scooped up by American Pacific Mortgage (APM) late last year, about 20 LOs have returned to AmeriFirst Financial. Eric Bowlby, […]
Wholesale mortgage lender The Loan Store (TLS) announced on Thursday the roll-out of its new home equity line of credit (HELOC) product, which is currently available in 25 states and Washington, D.C. The Loan Store’s HELOC product is a standalone, fixed-rate line of credit that allows borrowers to tap into the equity of their homes, […]
Mortgage rates declined again this week following the Federal Reserve‘s recent pause on monetary tightening. However, rates on home loans remain at elevated levels compared to last year and that pause looks temporary. What should we expect from the summer home-buying season? The Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey, which focuses on conventional and conforming loans with a 20% […]
Existing home sales marginally increased in May, but were still down significantly from a year prior, according to the latest report from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Total existing home sales rose 0.2% from April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.30 million in May. Year-over-year, sales dropped 20.4% from 5.40 million in […]
Home Point Capital surprised the market on April 7 when it announced that the acquirer of its struggling mortgage origination business was a small wholesale shop few had even heard of. The Loan Store, based in Arizona and accustomed to originating about $20 million a month, was picking up the pieces of the third-largest wholesale […]
On the heels of the Federal Reserve pausing its rate hikes, mortgage demand increased, but only slightly. For the week that ended June 21, mortgage applications only climbed 0.5% from the prior week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This slow growth highlights that while demand is there and rates have fallen for three consecutive […]
Housing starts are surging today and the builder’s confidence data is now in expansion territory. Does this mean the housing recession is over? As I have said many times over the last few months, the builders are efficient sellers and they’re taking advantage of an existing home sales market that is suffering from low inventory and […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has over 50 proposed rules in the pipeline in its section of the federal government’s 2023 spring regulatory agenda, released last week by the White House. Most of the 51 entries dedicated to HUD are in the “proposed rule stage,” the second of five stages involved […]
North Carolina-based Truist Financial Corporation announced on Tuesday that seasoned mortgage executive David Smith will be the head of Truist Mortgage effective July 31. Smith will replace the soon-to-be-retired Todd Chamberlain, who will assist with the transition. Smith, whose experience includes leadership roles at companies such as Keller Williams and CitiMortgage, will oversee the strategy and execution of originations, fulfillment, servicing […]