Profitability has been a sore spot for Robert Reffkin and his brokerage, Compass. In media interviews and on earnings calls, Reffkin is forced to defend Compass’s mounting losses and the underlying strength of its business – in 2022, Compass recorded a net loss of $601 million despite raking in revenue – up 6% to $6.02 billion. Reffkin […]
Mortgage lenders are fighting brutal market conditions, but lenders shouldn’t be pulling back on tech investments. That was the message mortgage and solutions executives emphasized on Sunday during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA’s) Technology Solutions Conference & Expo in San Jose, California. Consumers’ demand for a digitized mortgage experience that cuts time and costs is […]
Declining mortgage rates could have improved affordability for buyers in the housing market in February, but instead spurred a demand that, combined with a persistent lack of inventory across the U.S., put more pressure on home prices. According to the Black Knight’s mortgage monitor report, home prices rose 0.16% nationally in February compared to the month prior, marking the […]
The use-cases for AI-powered chatbots just keep growing. Big Purple Dot (BPD), a mortgage and real estate customer relationship management (CRM) and recruiting solutions company in Irvine, California, announced this week the integration of ChatGPT into its CRM ecosystem. According to Big Purple Dot, it is one of the first CRM companies in the mortgage […]
The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO), the real estate finance industry’s standards organization, is currently seeking public comment on the latest version of the MISMO Servicing Transfer Catalog (MSTC), according to an announcement on Thursday. According to MISMO, the catalog, which was created through the collaboration of the MISMO Servicing Transfers Development Workgroup, will support the […]
Donny Kirby, former vice president of national direct-to-consumer sales at Wyndham Capital Mortgage, spent more than 12 years at Charlotte, North Carolina-based company before leaving to start a mortgage broker shop, Cornerstone Home Loans. At Wyndham, Kirby led the expansion of the lender’s branches from Charlotte, North Carolina into Arizona, Texas, Utah and Missouri. When […]
Because the U.S. has no more exotic loan debt structures, we don’t have large-scale risk tied to homeowners and banks. Over time, the With the banking crisis spurring more talk of a recession, the question now is: What would housing credit look like in a recession? Many people predicted that the U.S. housing market would crash […]
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and 42 affiliated state banking associations are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to approve language that allows community banks to test out different consumer construction and construction-to-permanent loan disclosures, which the group describes as “a core offering of community banks in many local communities.” The […]
The demand for home-equity loans, particularly home-equity lines of credit (HELOCs) as well as shared-equity investment products, is now stronger than at any time since before the global financial crisis some 15 years ago. Securitization channels for those home-equity products, however, are only now starting to catch up to the growing demand for them. Homeowners […]
Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow borrowers facing financial hardships to defer up to six months of mortgage payments, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on Wednesday. The option was previously available for borrowers who fell behind on their mortgage payments due to the financial impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the enterprises will start offering it […]
Cenlar FSB, the nation’s second-largest mortgage servicer and largest subservicer, has named Rene Gonzales as its new chief technology officer (CTO), according to an announcement on Tuesday. Gonzales initially joined Cenlar in 2018 as its SVP of infrastructure and engineering. The new CTO will utilize his prior experience with managing programs and projects, addressing operational […]
Rocket Companies has rolled out its first credit card in order to attract potential homebuyers and existing homeowners into its ecosystem amid one of the most challenging mortgage markets in decades. Those looking to buy a home can earn 5% back by using the Rocket Visa Signature Card for up to $8,000 that can be […]
Home prices continued to cool at the start of the year, falling to a 3.8% annual price growth rate in January, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, released Tuesday. The annual growth rate in December was 4.4%. The index came in at a reading of 292.71 in January. On a month-over-month basis, the U.S. […]
Agile, a Philadelphia-based fintech company focused on mortgage-backed securities (MBS), announced on Monday the execution of the mortgage industry’s first fully-automated Assignment of Trade (AOT) transaction. AOT transactions involve three counterparties — a mortgage originator, a mortgage investor, and a broker dealer — and are designed to transfer loan collateral and hedge positions to a […]
Fannie Mae has projected that the recent bank failures may act as the catalyst that tips an already precarious economy into a recession — primarily due to the combination of tighter lending standards by small- and mid-sized regional banks. The ongoing banking instability may affect the availability of jumbo mortgages and residential construction loans due […]
Fannie Mae announced on Monday that it has executed two new Credit Insurance Risk Transfer (CIRT) deals: CIRT 2023-2 and CIRT 2023-3. The deals, which include over $31 billion in single-family mortgage loans, are designed to reduce risk to taxpayers by increasing the role of private capital in the mortgage market. These are the second […]
At a time of high mortgage rates and inflation, the federal government — along with government-sponsored enterprises — is understandably under pressure to lower costs and make homeownership more accessible. We share the goal of improving housing affordability. However, any effort to lower housing costs should be responsibly examined for potential risks to consumers, lenders […]
One piece of good news last week was that the new listing data, which saw a The financial and housing markets are still trying to sort out the banking crisis and whether we have seen the last Fed rate hike in this cycle. These events led to lower mortgage rates and increased purchase application data […]
ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm over the past few months. It took Netflix 3.5 years to reach one million users, Facebook ten months and Spotify five months. ChatGPT got to the first million users in five days. In two months after that, ChatGPT reached 100 million active monthly users. But […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released on Thursday its Fourth Quarter 2022 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report, stating that government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 52,469 foreclosure prevention actions in Q4 2022. That figure increases the total number of GSE-assisted homeowners to 6,712,833 since the start of the conservatorship in September […]
The ongoing tumult in the banking industry brought to light by the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — the second and third largest bank failures in U.S. history, respectively — also threatens liquidity channels for the independent mortgage banks (IMBs). Two banks that rank among the nation’s top warehouse lenders were recently singled out by Moody’s […]
The collapses of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the rescue of First Republic Bank and the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, brought turbulence to the financial markets that led to a decline in mortgage rates – despite the Federal Reserve hiking federal funds rate by 25 basis point on Wednesday. The […]
New home sales continued to rise in February, jumping 1.1% from January to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 640,000 homes, according to data published on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). On a year-over-year basis, however, new home sales are still down 19.0%. “New home sales increased in February for the third […]
Mortgage prepayment broke a four-month streak of record lows in February, with relief likely to extend as the spring home buying season takes hold, Black Knight’s mortgage performance data showed. “Prepayment activity ticking up slightly in February is an underlying indicator that both refinance and purchase origination volumes may have reached their cyclical lows,” Andy […]
The Federal Reserve‘s decision to raise the federal funds rate by 25 basis points on Wednesday signaled that officials are still focused on bringing down inflation to 2% while monitoring how much recent bank failures slow lending in the economy and cool demand. Mortgage rates, which climbed upward one day and went down the next […]
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced on Wednesday that it will lower the VA Native American Direct Loan (NADL) program interest rate from 6% to 2.5% in an effort to make housing loans more affordable for Native American military veterans. The program provides direct loans to Native American veterans and veterans who are […]
The Federal Reserve (Fed) has decided to forge ahead in its fight against inflation, despite several bank closures that have caused turbulence in the financial markets. On Wednesday, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) announced the decision to raise the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 4.75%-5%. “The U.S. banking system is sound […]
The typical homebuyer’s down payment was down 10% year over year in January 2023, according to a report released Wednesday by Redfin. The report is based on data collected by Redfin from county record across 40 of the most populous metropolitan areas. Redfin found that the typical U.S. homebuyer made a $42,375 down payment in […]
Consumer demand for home loans rose for the third consecutive week due to declining mortgage rates, following the turbulence in the financial markets caused by regional bank failures. But the same bank crisis is bringing volatility to the mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market, preventing mortgage rates from going down even further, according to industry experts. The 10-year U.S. […]
Existing home sales had a huge beat of estimates on Tuesday. This wasn’t shocking for people who follow how I track housing data. To understand why we had such a beat in sales, you only need to go back to Nov. 9, when mortgage rates started to fall from 7.37% to 5.99%. During November, December […]
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Monday released a new guidebook that highlights support for the expansion of high-speed broadband internet service to public housing authorities, multifamily owners and operators, and Native American tribal communities in urban and rural areas. The guidebook outlines the funding program mechanics and how these areas […]
Mortgage CRM company Daily AI has rebranded to Aidium Mortgage CRM and launched a new CRM product, the company announced on Monday. The company’s research and analysis suggested that a rebranding, which includes updates to core products, the company’s website, marketing and communications, will represent its goals and solutions for the mortgage industry, according to […]
Lender and appraisal management companies and other property data collection companies can now use Black Knight‘s Scout mobile property inspection as part of the value acceptance plus property data process. With the cloud-based Scout app, users can easily collect detailed interior and exterior property data using a mobile device, Black Knight said Tuesday. “By using […]
Retail lender Guild Mortgage announced Monday that Mary Ann McGarry is retiring from the CEO position in late June, remaining on the California-based lender’s board of directors after retirement. Terry Schmidt, Guild’s current president, is the successor. McGarry joined Guild in 1984 as a supervisor in internal audit and held several leadership positions until promoted to president […]
Cloud-based loan origination system LendingPad has integrated with Aduvo, which provides mortgage marketing automation solutions. “In planning for the launch of Aduvo, our team knew that a partnership with LendingPad would be a strategic move for our company,” said Aduvo founder Josh Bopp in a prepared statement. Users can choose to sign up with Aduvo, […]
Black Knight, Inc. on Monday announced that Frontwave Credit Union will now implement Empower, Black Knight’s cloud-based loan origination system, and its integrated solutions, for the expansion of its mortgage lending operations. The integration with Black Knight’s digital ecosystem will give Frontwave access to technology, data and analytics solutions. These include its Optimal Blue PPE; […]
Flagstar Bank, a top-20 U.S. mortgage lender owned by New York Community Bancorp, announced on Sunday that it has assumed most deposits and acquired certain assets, business lines and liabilities of Signature Bridge Bank, N.A. from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Signature Bank, a New York-based large multifamily lender that disastrously bet big on […]
The housing market was crazy again last week. Mortgage rates fell as the banking crisis got worse and purchase application data grew for the second week in a row, but the big question is: Did we hit the seasonal bottom in housing inventory? Here’s a quick rundown of the last week: The 10-year yield had […]
Candor Technology Inc., a mortgage artificial intelligence firm focused on automated mortgage underwriting decisions, has conducted layoffs as lenders rush to cut costs. “Candor is executing a change in strategy to address the ever-changing mortgage market and to pivot along with client operations,” Tom Showalter, CEO of Candor, said in an e-mailed response. With various […]
Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks spilled red ink in the fourth quarter of 2022 amid a jump in mortgage rates. These companies reported a net loss of $2,812 on each loan originated from October to December, an increase of more than four times the average per-loan loss of $624 in […]
California mortgage tech firm Blend Labs is focused on cutting costs and courting more users to its Blend Builder platform. The goal is to bring the firm to profitability after posting a net loss of $768.6 million in 2022. Blend’s net loss last year is more than four times the $171.3 million loss it incurred […]
A group of 11 U.S. banks has agreed to make $30 billion in deposits at First Republic Bank to avoid another regional bank failure. The rescue comes after Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank collapsed amid a liquidity crisis caused by a deposit run. “Today, 11 banks announced $30 billion in deposits […]
After increasing steadily for over a month, mortgage rates fell last week following a deposit run that provoked a liquidity crisis in regional U.S. financial institutions — and resulted in the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. But what is there to expect ahead for the housing market? Industry observers said that, at […]
How is today’s housing starts data, which beat expectations, good for mortgage rates? Typically good economic data is bad for rates, especially in this environment, when a Fed member will come out and say building or buying homes is bad for fighting inflation. The answer is simple: The best way to fight inflation long-term is […]
First Republic Bank, the fourth-largest non-agency jumbo lender in America, is exploring strategic options, including a sale and a capital infusion, and is expected to attract interest from larger rivals, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter. No decision has been made, and the bank can remain independent, people who requested anonymity […]