Summary List Placement The UK economy shrank 2.6% in November as an increase in coronavirus infections and fresh restrictions exacted a heavy toll, official figures have shown, putting the country on track for a double-dip recession. November’s drop meant the economy was 8.5% smaller than it was in February 2020, having been 6.1% smaller in […]
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Association issued a joint statement Thursday announcing they will not restructure the taxpayers’ stake in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In other words, the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) will not be exiting conservatorship under the current administration. In a statement establishing an agreement for ongoing […]
The National Association of Realtors and other industry trade groups are calling for the reform of the government-sponsored enterprises. They also want to see a change in the leadership structure at their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency. At a webinar hosted by NAR, panelists spoke about the next potential steps for removing Fannie Mae […]
The mortgage industry has not traditionally been the vanguard in the adoption of digital solutions particularly in data intelligence and applied machine learning. Investments in proper infrastructure, an innate fear of losing process control, and converting the workforce to a digitally savvy “knowledge force” have contributed to “digital apprehension” in the past. The COVID-19 pandemic served […]
Summary List Placement President-elect Joe Biden laid out his plan for another $1.9 trillion economic rescue package on Thursday. Biden’s proposal includes: A $1,400 top-up for stimulus checks which will bring the total distributed amount to $2,000. $130 billion in funds to reopen schools. $350 billion in state and local assistance. Biden faces a delicate […]
Summary List Placement Those worrying the Federal Reserve will prematurely rein in monetary stimulus have little to fear, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday. As COVID-19 vaccines roll out across the country, investors and economists have looked to Fed officials for any hints as to when its extremely accommodative policy stance could reach its conclusion. […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced on Thursday it has extended relaxed lending and appraisal standards put in place due to COVID-19 another month for both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The flexibilities surrounding alternative verifications of employment and appraisals were originally set to expire on Jan. 31, 2021, however, the government entity is now […]
Summary List Placement Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the incoming chair of the ranking Senate Finance Committee, suggested on Thursday in an exclusive interview that elements of President-elect Joe Biden’s forthcoming economic rescue package could be modified during Congressional negotiations — particularly on enhanced unemployment insurance. Wyden said he would press for a $600 federal […]
Summary List Placement President-elect Joe Biden plans to prioritize federal student loan debt forgiveness on the first day of his presidency, but questions still remain on the likelihood of carrying out his forgiveness plans. Last week, Biden’s transition official David Kamin told reporters that Biden will direct the Department of Education on day one to […]
Summary List Placement President-elect Joe Biden is expected to include expanded child benefits in his economic relief package that will be released on Thursday. As part of his core campaign promise to help the middle class, Biden will likely push for measures to provide $300 per month to households with a child under the age […]
It’s 6:30 in the morning on September 25, 2020, and a small team from The Home Loan Expert is beginning their long climb up Mount Elbert, the highest summit in the Rocky Mountains of North America and the highest point in Colorado. In a class commonly referred to as 14ers by those adventurous enough to […]
The average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan rose from its previous record low by 14 basis points this week to 2.79%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. This marks the first time mortgage rates have risen in almost two months. The 15-year fixed rate also rose slightly this week from 2.16% to […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits jumped last week as rising COVID-19 cases continued to cut into the labor market’s recovery. New US jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 965,000 for the week that ended Saturday, the Labor Department announced Thursday. That comes in well above the 800,000 claims expected by […]
Since the CARES Act was signed into law, homeowners across the U.S. have taken advantage of its mortgage relief provisions. In fact, as of November 2020, a total of 6.5 million borrowers had been, or still were, on a COVID-19-related forbearance plan, either through the CARES Act or another program. Fortunately, the forbearance programs and […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats are weighing whether to combine an infrastructure bill and coronavirus relief legislation into a single, massive multi-trillion-dollar package that could pass without Republican votes, two Democratic aides familiar with the discussions tell Insider. The ongoing talks reflect a desire among Democrats to swiftly capitalize on their new Senate majority with […]
Summary List Placement As the pandemic plunged America’s economy into turmoil last March, Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, rushed to prop it back up with a series of programs. A policy that the Fed pioneered during the 2008 Great Recession known as quantitative easing, in which the country essentially buys its own debt, worked by making […]
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) unveiled a new policy this week, telling brokers that appraisals will be completed within 10 business days or they’ll refund 50% of the appraisal cost back to the customer. The initiative, called “Appraisal Promise,” drops just a week before the wholesale lender’s Wall Street debut on Jan. 22. UWM is merging […]
Summary List Placement Achieving herd immunity and bringing the coronavirus in check won’t resolve all of the pandemic’s economic damage, Carmen Reinhart, chief economist at the World Bank, said Tuesday. What began as a health crisis is creating “your classic balance sheet problems” and risks plunging the world into a dire financial crisis, Reinhart said […]
It took a few years, but Victor Ciardelli has finally captured the one that got away. The founder and CEO of Guaranteed Rate, which originated $73 billion in mortgages last year, has made joint ventures and acquisitions a cornerstone of his growing business. In 2017, Guaranteed Rate struck a deal with the largest real estate brokerage […]
Mortgage applications jumped 16.7% after a 4.2% drop last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The jump underlines the seasonality behind last week’s decrease in mortgage rates, as well as the expectation of additional fiscal stimulus from the incoming administration, per MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting Joel Kan. “Booming refinance […]
Summary List Placement Senate Democrats are beginning to lay out their legislative agenda for the year as the party barrels toward a second impeachment of President Donald Trump in the final days of his term. “The nation is facing unprecedented challenges: the greatest economic crisis in seventy-five years, the greatest public health crisis in a […]
Appraisal software company Reggora today announced the completion of a $30 million Series B funding round, led by returning investor Spark Capital. Other investors included Shine Capital, Greenpoint Partners, Boston Seed and 1984. The company snagged $10 million in a February Series A funding round, bringing the company’s total capital to $45 billion. The company […]
Summary List Placement US job openings dipped in November as businesses continued to hire workers amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic. Openings dropped by 105,000 to about 6.5 million through November, according to Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, data published Tuesday. The reading met the 6.5 million openings forecasted by economists surveyed by […]
Summary List Placement A popular gauge of small-business confidence in the US sank to a seven-month low in December as stricter lockdown measures and climbing daily case counts cut into economic activity. The National Federation of Independent Businesses’ index of small-business optimism fell 5.5 points last month to 95.9, according to a Tuesday release. The […]
The moment has finally arrived: California-based lender loanDepot has filed an updated S-1 with the Securities and Exchanges Commission and plans to go public in 2021. The company, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Anthony Hsieh, said Monday that its affiliate loanDepot Inc. had confidentially filed paperwork, but it hasn’t determined how much stock will be sold […]
The U.S. forbearance rate fell seven basis points last week to 5.46% of servicer’s portfolio volume, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association on Monday. As of last week’s data set, forbearance portfolio share is now below numbers Black Knight reported in mid-April of 2020. Every investor class managed to see a decline in rate, […]
Rocket Homes Real Estate, a real estate affiliate of Rocket Companies, is being investigated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) for possibly violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) when it charged fees for referring Quicken’s mortgage clients to real estate agents, according to officials. Syndicated columnist Lew Sichelman reported Sunday that Dmitry […]
Even with total credit risk transfers (CRT) and non-QM lending trending down due to seasonality, some observers are predicting a strong beginning to 2021. Officials with dvo1, a lending markets analytics company, remain encouraged by low levels of new impairments, which reached pre-pandemic levels in both CRT and non-QM. Vadim Verkhoglyad, dv01 vice president and […]
Summary List Placement Lori Jay spent the past four years working as a rideshare driver in Maui. The 66-year-old was part of the gig economy, relying on a steady stream of tourists for her income. “We used to joke kiddingly to each other, everybody here, ‘What happens when the ships stop coming?’” Jay told Insider. […]
Summary List Placement The US posted a surprise decline in payrolls in December and all of the 140,000 jobs lost were held by women, according to data. Analysts had expected an uptick in employment in December but instead American businesses shed 140,000 nonfarm payroll. The country’s unemployment rate stayed steady at 6.7%, according to data […]
This is the fifth installment of our economist Q&A series, as we work to answer the top 2021 housing market questions for our HW+ members. Every Tuesday in December, HousingWire interviewed a top economist in the HW+ Slack channel. In each Q&A, we attempt to bring clarity to the top questions around housing supply shortages […]
Correspondent and wholesale lender Homepoint is the latest mortgage company to aim for an IPO. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based lender filed an S-1 with the Securities and Exchanges Commission on Friday afternoon. The company indicated in the S-1 that its price offering was $100 million, generally a placeholder for a larger offering. In its S-1, […]
Summary List Placement The United States lost 140,000 jobs in December. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the surprising dip in nonfarm payroll jobs on Friday. As Insider’s Ben Winck reported, economists had actually anticipated that 50,000 jobs would be added. It’s the first decline in a jobs report since April, showing how the recovery […]
For many of us, the start of a new year is usually synonymous with a renewed sense of professional self, focusing on new goals, new prospects for the year and, of course, the excitement for the upcoming spring real estate market. As we think about coming out of this first month of the year, we’ve […]
Months after taking over management of broker LOS platform ARIVE, mortgage software startup LendWize has finalized a deal to take complete ownership of the origination platform. LendWize took over management of the platform in early 2020 and integrated ARIVE’s software into its own technology stack. It launched a revised version of the ARIVE platform in […]
Summary List Placement The US economy saw a surprise decline in payrolls in December as stricter COVID-19 lockdown measures extended the nation’s unemployment crisis into the new year. American businesses shed 140,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The reading defies consensus economist estimates that foresaw 50,000 job additions, according […]
After three consecutive weeks of increases, the number of mortgage loans in active forbearance fell by 92,000 the first week of 2021, according to a Friday report from Black Knight. This was a 3% drop and the greatest week-over-week decline since early November, largely driven by quarterly forbearance plans reaching their expiration. Black Knight now estimates […]
Summary List Placement Taxpayers will foot the bill for damage caused to the US Capitol from Wednesday’s violent mob attack because the site isn’t covered by insurance, industry sources told Reuters. It’s unknown how much it cost to clean and repair damage to the building in Washington, DC, which was vandalized during the attack after […]
Summary List Placement Does it feel like a dollar buys less than it used to? You’re not imagining things. “It’s inflation,” people sigh. You probably have a rough idea of what inflation means. The cost of things is going up. But what is inflation really, what causes it, and how does it affect your finances? […]
2021 was supposed to be different. In the first days of the New Year, we have been dealing with a new strain of COVID, vaccinations aren’t going as planned and the political drama is hotter than ever. It was starting to seem like 2020 all over again. But it is different. On Jan. 5 the […]
Summary List Placement A top gauge of the US service sector unexpectedly improved in December as the holiday season brought an influx of new orders and boosted business activity. The Institute for Supply Management’s services index climbed to 57.2 from 55.9 last month, according to a Thursday press release. The reading is the highest since […]
The average U.S. mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan fell two basis points this week to 2.65% – the lowest rate in the Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey’s near 50-year history. This week’s mortgage rate broke the previous record set on Dec. 24. With this week’s record drop, there have now been 22 consecutive weeks when average mortgage […]
Summary List Placement The number of Americans filing for unemployment insurance dipped slightly last week as the coronavirus’s economic fallout dragged the unemployment crisis into the new year. New US jobless claims totaled an unadjusted 787,000 for the week that ended Saturday, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected 800,000 claims. The […]
Mortgage tech is already off to the races, with companies introducing new digital products early in 2021. Digital mortgage platformer Blend is back this week, announcing that they are furthering their Freddie Mac partnership by integrating the GSE’s automated underwriting system, Loan Product Advisor. With the integration, Blend will have access to the companies Dual […]
To generate buzz for its upcoming independent public offering, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is offering a special deal on conventional mortgage loans to select borrowers for the next two months. “We’re going to celebrate this exciting time by kickstarting 2021 with 61 basis points for the next 61 days on all of our conventional W2 […]