Housing Wire

OCTOBER 19, 2020

The U.S. forbearance rate measuring the share of mortgages with suspended payments fell to 5.92% last week, the lowest since mid-April, according to the Mortgage Banker Association. The rate dropped from 6.32% in the prior week, MBA said in a report on Monday. The decline was largely led by portfolio loans and private-label securities as their share of mortgages in forbearance fell to 8.86% from 10.06% the week prior.

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Simonson Real Estate

OCTOBER 23, 2020

As the impact of COVID continues to unfold and the real estate market grapples with rapidly changing information and market conditions – commercial appraisers have had to quickly adapt to a new way of gathering reliable and credible data to base their appraisal analysis from. At Simonson Appraisals, we have found great importance in real-time property-specific conversations to keep the available data ‘fresh’ and accurate.

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McKissock

OCTOBER 20, 2020

Looking for a career that doesn’t necessarily require a college degree? Consider becoming a real estate appraiser. Before you jump in, you probably have questions like, “What education and training are required?” and “Do you need a college degree to get licensed?” and “How much money can you make as an appraiser?” In this post, we provide answers to these questions and more.

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Aspen Appraisal Group

OCTOBER 23, 2020

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to do a land appraisal on a haunted forest? Have you ever tried to determine the value for 19th Century Victorian mansion that is also most likely very haunted? We wondered too! So we sent Appraiser, Andrew Crandall to American Fork to take a look at the acclaimed and very spooky Haunted Forest. In this video, you’ll see some of the things we look for when conducting an appraisal.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 22, 2020

The NAR existing home sales report released today blew out all estimates with 6,540,000 in existing home sales. This epic headline punctured any bubbles the 2020 bubble boys had left in their arsenal. But before we get too excited, keep in mind we are still down 0.2% year to date compared to 2019 levels. Still, this seems like a booming housing market, right?

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 22, 2020

The average U.S. mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan fell to 2.8% this week, another record low, Freddie Mac said in a report on Thursday. The rate fell one basis points from the week prior and is now six basis points lower than the original all-time low set in mid-September. The average fixed rate for a 15-year mortgage was 2.33%, falling from last week’s 2.35%.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Sales of existing homes took off in September, jumping 9.4% from August to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.54 million, the National Association of Realtors said in a report on Thursday. Compared to a year ago, sales are up 20.9%. “Home sales traditionally taper off toward the end of the year, but in September they surged beyond what we normally see during this season,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR’s chief economist.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 20, 2020

The leaders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sat down with Mortgage Bankers Association Chair-elect Kristy Fercho on Tuesday at the MBA Annual conference to discuss how the GSEs have managed the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. Freddie Mac’s David Brickman and Fannie Mae’s Hugh Frater also offered their takes on challenges with affordable housing, racial disparities with homeownership, expectations for 2021 and – yes, you knew it was coming – the 50 bps adverse market fee that’s due to hit lenders do

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2020

Just before its stock debuted at a disappointing $15 a share, Guild Mortgage settled a federal lawsuit that claimed the lender knowingly breached legal requirements when it originated and underwrote FHA loans. Guild agreed to settle the federal lawsuit, brought by the Department of Justice , for just under $25 million, the government said Thursday. It did not admit to any wrongdoing.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 19, 2020

The National Association of Realtors has launched a new ad campaign , an extension of its “That’s Who We R” effort, working with creative advertising agency Havas Chicago to create an omnichannel campaign to drive awareness of fair housing issues. NAR said, “this ad won’t end discrimination in real estate. People will,” and recommends that its members and the public report fair housing violations to HUD.gov.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2020

HousingWire recently spoke with Verse founder and CEO David Tal about the lead conversion gap and how Verse is helping lenders engage and nurture leads. HousingWire: What’s causing the gap between sales and marketing? David Tal: The massive gap between sales and marketing is caused by a number of factors and challenges faced by marketing and sales teams, and the difficulty for either of them to solve it.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2020

For the second week in a row, mortgage applications faltered slightly, falling 0.6% from the week prior, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Purchase applications also took a hit last week, falling 2% from the week prior, however, remained 26% higher than this same time last year. Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president of economic and industry forecasting, pointed to a rise in mortgage rates last week for why conventional and government purchase activity took a step back.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2020

Lender and servicer AmeriHome on Wednesday laid out the terms of its upcoming initial public offering. The company plans to raise roughly $250 million by offering over 14.7 million Class A shares priced between $16 and $18, according to the amended S-1. AmeriHome on Wednesday also revealed that mortgage investor Bayview Asset Management is prepared to purchase $50 million worth of shares in the offering, expected to price next week.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 20, 2020

Knock Home Swap has expanded into Orlando, Florida and Tampa, Florida, its first markets in the Sunshine State. Home Swap is offered exclusively through local real estate professionals who have been trained as Knock Certified Agents. In these markets Home Swap will be offered through Keller Williams Realty of Central Florida , Keller Williams LeHeup Group and Keller Williams Suburban Tampa – The Chadwick Group.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 22, 2020

The MBA ’s economic research team of Dr. Michael Fratantoni and his staff made national news at the MBA’s annual virtual convention, releasing a projection for 2020 of $3.18 trillion, the second-largest origination year in U.S. history next to 2003. It’s worth looking inside the numbers though as we head toward year-end and think about 2021 strategies.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2020

As the mortgage industry moves toward increasing adoption of remote online notarization, a panel of experts at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual conference said uniformity will be key. Speaking at the session titled “Strategy & Technology Track: COVID Hit. Social Distancing Followed. Is RON the Solution?,” panelists discussed the future of RON, and what must happen to see further adoption.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 20, 2020

From the beginning, co-founder and CEO John Paasonen has been clear about digital mortgage platform Maxwell’s mission: to make mortgages simpler and more accessible. Since channeling his frustrations with the mortgage borrowing process into co-founding Maxwell in 2015, Paasonen has been busy honing a technology-powered platform meant to delight borrowers with a streamlined experience for lenders.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 20, 2020

On Nov. 12, 2015, traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange witnessed the Dow suffer its worst one-day loss in six weeks, plunging 254 points. That afternoon, in Washington, D.C., members of the Federal Reserve’ s Federal Open Market Committee discussed hiking interest rates. And in Foothill Ranch, California, with the markets in chaos and an IPO expected that day , Anthony Hsieh, loanDepot chairman and CEO, made one of the biggest calls of his career: he would abort the potentia

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2020

At its Annual event Wednesday, Mortgage Bankers Association Chief Economist Mike Fratantoni forecast that interest rates could rise in the year to come, but that they will remain near all-time lows. Fratantoni pointed out that the job losses seen in 2020 have been unprecedented, even when compared to the Great Recession. “Yes, it’s come down to 10 million, but look at how that compares again to the peak in 2009 of 6.6 million,” he said.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2020

Kicking off people movers for the week, Opendoor announced it hired a new chief investment officer, naming Daniel Morillo to lead the iBuyer’s pricing and data science efforts. As chief investment officer, Morillo will oversee the strategy and development of the company’s pricing capabilities, as well as its data science initiative, tapping into his experience in risk, modeling and asset management at some of the world’s biggest investment companies to help grow Opendoor.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Credit reporting agency TransUnion announced on Monday that it was making an equity investment in FinLocker ’s $20 million Series A round, inking a partnership agreement designed to give consumers more control and access to their credit data while letting lenders and servicers leverage FinLocker for lead nurturing and conversion. With the partnership, TransUnion will provide credit report information to FinLocker and provide updated credit and consumer information through its lead generation and

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Investment guidance and financial wellness resources are now available to all 1.4 million members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) , through a partnership with Morgan Stanley. According to NAR, this guidance will be uniquely designed to fit the needs of individual Realtors. The tools include the support of a dedicated Morgan Stanley financial advisor for college savings, retirement and estate planning.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 20, 2020

At a session during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Annual event , Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Kathy Kraninger announced the extension of the Qualified Mortgage Patch until a new QM Patch is decided on. “To make it clear to the market that we are going to have a smooth transition to the new QM, the patch will be available until the mandatory compliance date for the new QM,” Kraninger said.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2020

Lone Star Funds ‘ residential mortgage lender Caliber Home Loans hopes to raise up to $538 million at its highly anticipated public debut next week, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchanges Commission on Wednesday. Caliber , based in Coppell, Texas, plans to raise upwards of $423 million by selling over 26.4 million Class A sales, plus $115 million in preferred stock, according to the amended S-1.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 23, 2020

Stone Point Capital has purchased Vista Equity Partners’ stake in real estate software company Lone Wolf Technologies. Stone Point will become Lone Wolf’s lead institutional investor, powering the next phase of its growth and expanding its product offering, the company said. The investment by Stone Point, a financial services-focused private equity firm, will help Lone Wolf streamline its end-to-end experience for agents and brokers and accelerate organic and inorganic product develo

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Stewart Appraisal Management , a subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp., announced on Thursday it acquired valuation services company Pro Teck Valuation Intelligence. Stewart is looking to strengthen and expand its scale in the appraisal and valuation solutions space. With more than 40 years of residential real estate experience, Pro Teck provides property valuation services and recently released its technology Valuation Intelligence, a cloud-based fulfillment platform that provides re

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Earlier this year, First American made its latest move toward a fully digital mortgage with its purchase of mortgage tech firm Docutech. Now, that purchase is driving up the company’s revenues. The company rebranded to First American Docutech in September after the purchase for $350 million in February this year. In the third quarter of 2020, First American’s information and other revenues were $282.7 million, up 38% compared with the same quarter last year.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 19, 2020

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced at this year’s Mortgage Bankers Association Annual event that it is proposing a new rule for activities and products from the government-sponsored enterprises. The proposed rule replaces an interim rule from 2009 and would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to provide advance notice to the FHFA on any new activities and obtain prior approval before launching new products.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2020

Tucked right into the end of the home-buying process is the unique opportunity for title companies to connect with borrowers on how they can give back to the community together. Title companies and agents are often the last people to see borrowers before their highly-anticipated move into their new home, and they’re also invested in the well-being of the community.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 19, 2020

Jonathan Corr served as president and chief executive officer at Ellie Mae before announcing his retirement in September after the company was acquired by Intercontinental Exchange. Joe Tyrrell, Ellie Mae’s chief operating officer, succeeded Corr as president of ICE. HousingWire sat down with Corr and Tyrrell for an exclusive look back at the changes in the company and in the mortgage industry during the last two decades, as well as what’s ahead.

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McKissock

OCTOBER 23, 2020

There are many types of litigation where real estate appraisers can be helpful in providing evidence to the court. Many of these will require engaging the appraiser to perform an appraisal specifically for the case. Others will simply rely on a previous appraisal and call the appraiser to testify about it. Here are twelve types of expert witness assignments for appraisers. 1.

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McKissock

OCTOBER 21, 2020

Some buyers are very green when it comes to purchasing real estate. Some believe they are experts in the field. Many are confused. A few terrified. Others are incredibly stubborn. Regardless of their real estate experience, it’s up to you to guide them. As their agent, you are there to help them make the right decisions so that they stand a fighting chance in a highly competitive housing market.

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McKissock

OCTOBER 19, 2020

At McKissock Learning, we want our customers to have all the resources they need to be successful in real estate. That’s why we’ve teamed up with RISMedia , the leading provider of the most relevant and up-to-date information related to the residential real estate market. As their Strategic Education Partner, we are able to give our customers free access to the digital edition of the RISMedia monthly magazine.

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Housing Wire

OCTOBER 21, 2020

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appears to have lost an opportunity to correct a nagging issue in its definition of a qualified mortgage. The current rule provides safe harbor protection to lenders from potential litigation brought by borrowers for loans having debt-to-income ratios of 43% or less. A proposal in June by the CFPB to replace the 43% DTI limit with a rate-based definition of a qualified mortgage still misses the mark by a country mile.

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