The average closing costs for a single-family home increased 12.3% during the first six months of 2021, according to a report published this week by analytics vendor ClosingCorp. And significantly higher home prices were the culprit. According to ClosingCorp, the average closing costs nationally came in at $6,837 including taxes and $3,836 excluding taxes. The […]
JPMorgan Chase originated $46.1 billion worth of mortgages from July to September, up 5% from the previous quarter and up 43% year-over-year, the bank announced on Wednesday. Jeremy Barnum, chief financial officer at Chase, said during the company’s third quarter earnings call that the increase reflects “record purchase volume and share gains in the refi […]
Mortgage application activity was largely flat for the week ending Oct. 8, despite mortgage rates reaching their highest level since June. That’s according to the latest mortgage application survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which said applications overall increased just 0.2% from the prior week. “An increase in home purchase applications offset a slight decline […]
PNC Bank allegedly breached Fannie Mae’s COVID-19 payment deferral agreement by continuing to charge homeowners who opted for the home retention option for past-due monthly principal and interest payments. A national class action-seeking lawsuit filed in Maryland federal court claims that PNC double-charged borrowers for their past-due principal payments and thus improperly increased the amount […]
Redwood Trust CEO Christopher Abate laid out a bold vision of growth for the real estate investment trust at an investor conference in New York City last month. Part of that vision included finding ways to tap into the nation’s multitrillion-dollar pool of home equity. To that end, Redwood Trust has partnered with Point, a […]
Mortgage credit availability increased for the third consecutive month in September, but is still 30% below the pre-pandemic level, according to a report released Tuesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Much of the growth in credit availability has come from loans that cater to self-employed borrowers, who were left in the cold by most […]
New Residential Investment Corp. announced Monday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Genesis Capital LLC, a fix-and-flip lender, from Goldman Sachs. New Residential said that it expects Genesis to originate close to $2 billion of loans in 2021 and that the fix-and-flip lender has originated over 12,000 loans since 2014. Michael […]
Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume declined at the fastest rate in a year, as mortgage holders exit COVID-19 plans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Exits are expected to pick up the pace in the weeks ahead due to economic improvement. The total number of loans in forbearance decreased by 27 basis points to 2.62% as of Oct. […]
Earlier in the month, PennyMac Financial and United Wholesale Mortgage publicly announced that they are each raising their conforming loan ceilings by 14%, nearly two months ahead of the Federal Housing Finance Agency‘s official decree in November. They’re not the only ones getting a jump on new conforming loan limits. Rocket Mortgage and Homepoint announced […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today settled a lawsuit against the nation’s largest reverse mortgage lender for allegedly sending consumers inflated home valuations. In a lawsuit filed today in the U.S. District Court of California’s Central District, the CFPB alleged that Irvine, California-based American Advisors Group (AAG) sent borrowers deceptive and inflated home estimates […]
The private-label residential mortgage-backed securities market has been resurrected from its near-death following the global financial crisis a decade and a half ago. This year it is on track to securitize loan volume approaching or even exceeding $100 billion, and driving a healthy share of that secondary market business is J.P. Morgan, the investment bank […]
FHFA Acting Director Sandra Thompson Editor’s note: This piece was originally featured in the Oct/Nov magazine and has been updated to reflect the latest changes and announcements at the FHFA. Nearly five years after the global financial crisis, lenders and the government-sponsored entities were still negotiating who would bear responsibility for defaulted loans. The negotiations […]
The investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), a subsidiary of Stifel Financial Corp., has bolstered its fintech and financial services group with the hire of three veterans from investment bank Berkery, Noyes & Co. John Guzzo and Jason White will be managing directors at KBW, with a focus on mortgage technology companies and related […]
A former marketing director at Residential Home Funding Corp. (RealFi), a nonbank mortgage lender based in New York, accused the company’s top male executives of creating a toxic workplace through repeated sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Georganne Youngclaus, the former marketing director at RealFi, filed a civil lawsuit against a group of top male executives […]
Fannie Mae announced Wednesday that, starting in 2022, it will allow third-parties to fulfill the homeownership education requirement on some affordable mortgages. Third-party homeownership education providers will still have to be aligned with the National Industry Standards for Homeownership Education and Counseling or with the Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Counseling Program, if […]
An amended S-4 filed by Aurora Acquisition Corp. with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week gave the mortgage industry a glimpse into how its partner Better.com fared in the second quarter. And it wasn’t great. The digital mortgage lender, which plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), reported a net […]
Mortgage application volume dropped 6.9% for the week ending Oct. 1, as higher rates reduced borrowers’ waning appetites for refis even further, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). On an unadjusted basis, the index fell 7% in the period. Pushing the decline was the refinance index, which dipped by 10% from the previous week […]
A heavyweight in the wholesale mortgage market, United Wholesale Mortgage, better known as UWM, has jumped headfirst into the private-label residential mortgage-backed securities market in 2021. The Pontiac, Michigan-based nonbank lender has ushered to market three private-label RMBS transactions so far this year involving securitized loan volume of nearly $1.2 billion. In addition, UWM has […]
Finance of America Mortgage (FAM), the multichannel lender, announced today that it is offering a refi product for homeowners with accessory dwelling units (ADUs). According to a statement issued by Finance of America, the refi option will allow homeowners to refinance the costs of the ADU by consolidating the ADU’s financing with their primary mortgage […]
Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume declined at a faster pace last week, as mortgage holders exit COVID-19 plans, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). And exits are expected to pick up the pace even more over the next few weeks. The total number of loans in forbearance decreased by seven basis points to 2.89% as […]
There is still ample opportunity in the market for lenders to rope in refi business, according to a quarterly report published Monday by Sales Boomerang. And the reason for this is two-fold. The report – which is compiled using data sourced from more than 150 residential mortgage lenders – found that one in 12 borrowers saw “significant […]
In several previous articles I have opined that an increase in mortgage rates may be our only hope for slowing the escalation of home prices that we’ve been experiencing for the past year. With mortgage rates hitting above 3% last week for the first time since June, it’s a good time to revisit this conversation […]
The secondary market for mortgage servicing rights, or MSRs, has been heating up recently as interest rates tick up, increasing the value of MSR assets, and as other revenue streams for lenders begin to slow — such as loan refinancing. It’s also the time of year that many nondepository lenders, also called nonbanks, typically will […]
PennyMac announced this week that it is upping conforming loan limits by almost 14% through broker and correspondent channels. According to PennyMac, for a one-unit property a borrower could receive $625,000, an increase of almost $75,000 from the maximum loan limit dictated by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). The 2021 baseline national conforming loan […]
Brena NathHW+ Managing Editor 2021 has been a year of transition. We’ve been transitioning to a new White House administration, transitioning away from a refinance market and cautiously transitioning back to meeting in person. And now, the year is almost over, with only one more magazine issue left until we cross over into 2022. But […]
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced this week that it is extending the timeframe for borrowers to request loan deferment. According to the VA’s circular, servicers may continue offering loan deferment until July 1, 2023, thus pushing the deadline nearly two additional years. The original expiration of this option was supposed to occur on Oct. […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused historic, unprecedented challenges for mortgage servicers. Forbearance deadlines get pushed back seemingly in perpetuity, and an unproven, inconsistent technology infrastructure has the potential to result in a series of foreclosure and loss mitigation crises. This was one contention made during a panel featuring leaders in the mortgage servicing profession held […]
The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rate rose 13 basis points to 3.01% for the week ending Sept. 30, according to Freddie Mac’s latest PMMS survey. Mortgage rates had been roughly flat for seven weeks, and this is the first time it rose above 3% since June. Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, said in a statement that rates […]
Agnes Standowicz, vice president, underwriting leader at United Wholesale Mortgage This year’s list of HousingWire Insiders radiate influence well beyond the walls of their individual companies, providing the infrastructure that upholds the whole industry. HousingWire decided to dive deeper into a few of our award winners to get a peek behind the curtain on what defines […]
When Brad Lawson and Fernando Escaffi founded Charlotte-based PrimeLine Capital in January 2019, they wanted their operation to be all about having fun. Their leadership style is based on treating broker team members like family and ensuring that everyone can have fun and bring their full selves into the office. This philosophy, not being driven […]
Mortgage companies must focus on bolstering cybersecurity infrastructure, and should report any and all incursions from bad actors who seek access to sensitive information or who plan to encrypt systems to hold for ransom. This was a core part of the thesis presented by Selim Aissi, cybersecurity expert and former CISO of ICE Mortgage Technologies […]
Mortgage application volume declined by 1.1% for the week ending Sept. 24, after a rebound in the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). Pushing the decline was the purchase index, which dipped by 1.2% from the previous week. Meanwhile, the refi activity decreased by 0.9% from the prior week, the trade group […]
Housing Market Crash image ” data-image-caption=”” data-medium-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?w=1024″ loading=”lazy” width=”1200″ height=”713″ src=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?w=1024″ alt=”Housing Market Crash image” class=”wp-image-283329″ srcset=”https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png 1200w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=150,89 150w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=300,178 300w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=768,456 768w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=1024,608 1024w, https://www.housingwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/house-row-HW.png?resize=600,357 600w” sizes=”(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px”> Investing in technology is not the be-all end-all when it comes to efficiency in mortgage origination. Lenders who adopt technology but don’t […]
Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume dropped last week to a level below 3.00% for the first time in 18 months. The total number of loans in forbearance decreased by four basis points to 2.96% as of Sept. 19, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The most notable decline was in the portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) category, dipping […]
United Wholesale Mortgage announced several new initiatives at the AIME Fuse conference on Saturday. In a keynote session about the future of mortgage, UWM CEO Mat Ishbia previewed Bolt, an underwriting system that he said would enable brokers to underwrite a loan in 15 minutes or less, which will go live on Monday, Sept. 27. […]
The raft of legislation designed to spur first-time homeownership in America seems to grow by the minute. Another bill joined the fray, and its sponsors propose creating a new 20-year-fixed-rate mortgage program through Ginnie Mae. The legislation, dubbed the “Low-income First Time Homebuyer (LIFT) Act,” would create a program through the Department of Housing and […]
Multifamily property owners who are struggling to make mortgage payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic now will have access to forbearance programs indefinitely in the case of loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced today. Forbearance options for multifamily mortgages backed by the GSEs were set to […]
Knowing where borrowers are at in their home-buying journey is key to any successful lending strategy, but it’s often overlooked in the busy operations of an origination shop. That’s why HousingWire invited Alex Kutsishin, CEO and co-founder of Sales Boomerang, to HW Annual Sept. 28 to discuss the easiest ways to keep borrowers on your radar, […]
Homeowners with mortgages gained $2.9 trillion in equity in the second quarter of 2021, a 29.3% year-over-year increase, according to a new report by CoreLogic released Wednesday. This marks an average gain of $51,500(!) per borrower since the second quarter of 2020. The amount of equity for a property is determined by comparting the estimated […]
A former executive at loanDepot dropped a bombshell on the mortgage industry late Wednesday, alleging in a lawsuit that the California-based nonbank lender, in a ploy to drum up money during the refi boom and in preparation for its initial public offering, closed thousands of loans without proper documentation. The suit, filed by Tammy Richards, […]
The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rose, ever so slightly, to 2.88% for the week ending Sept. 23, according to Freddie Mac‘s latest PMMS survey. Mortgage rates have been roughly flat for months now. “The slowdown in economic growth around the world has caused a flight to the quality of the U.S. financial markets,” said Sam Khater, […]
The Biden administration recently announced its efforts to address the lack of affordable housing in America by increasing funding for existing programs geared toward producing, financing and rehabilitating affordable housing. HousingWire invited Tai Christensen, director of government affairs for CBC Mortgage Agency, to HW Annual Sept 27-28 to discuss these recent efforts by the Biden […]
Sandra Madigan, digital product director, enterprise product strategy, servicing technologies at Black Knight This year’s list of HousingWire Insiders radiate influence well beyond the walls of their individual companies, providing the infrastructure that upholds the whole industry. HousingWire decided to dive deeper into a few of our award winners to get a peek behind the curtain […]
The week following Labor Day saw a flurry of mortgage loan application activity, with volume jumping by 4.9% for the seven days ending Sept. 17, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refis were on the front foot again. The increase in application activity is quite different from the MBA’s survey published in early September, which […]
A series of regulatory changes are taking place in housing due to a new political administration and the country’s reckoning with racial inequality in homeownership. That’s why HousingWire invited attorney Jeffrey Naimon, partner at the Buckley LLP Washington, D.C. office, to HW Annual to explain what these new regulations mean for the housing economy. Naimon […]