The American homebuyer’s “typical mortgage payment” is up 12 percent over last year, and the trend is expected to continue in the year ahead, according to a new report from CoreLogic.
Although the stock market remains in the stratosphere, the share price of LendingTree Inc., Charlotte, has been smacked around the past few weeks, and is now trading at an 8.0 percent discount to its January high of $404.40.
Is pre-approval truly the first step in loan origination? The folks at Churchill Mortgage do not think so. There is a common misconception about “pre-approval” and its importance in the lending process, says Matt Clarke, Churchill’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer. He views pre-approval as nothing more than taking a mortgage loan application and approving it for underwriting. …
It’s been a few months since hurricanes Irma and Harvey pounded coastal areas of the U.S. mainland, but the storms are continuing to wreak havoc on many affected homeowners. The latest data from Black Knight, in Jacksonville, finds that 90-day delinquencies have jumped due to the hurricanes’ impact.
Reforming the housing-finance system under the plan from Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, includes having at least a handful of guarantors, winding down the GSEs and establishing a mortgage insurance fund with private capital, according to a leaked draft making the rounds this week. The 80-page document seeks to promote competition in the marketplace by having five or six guarantors of conventional mortgage-backed securities, with none of them getting more than 20 percent to 25 percent of the market. Those new guarantors would be expected to launch within two years. Section 809 of the legislation spells out that “as promptly as practicable” the FHFA can greenlight Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “sell or transfer” their assets.
In the event that Congress can’t come to an agreement on fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the department can take matters into its own hands. But he would rather leave it up to the lawmakers. “There are certain administrative options that we have,” he said, adding, “These entities are very complicated, and I would just say my strong preference would be to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis to reach a long-term solution.” Mnuchin reaffirmed his commitment to reforming the housing-finance system and support for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage while testifying at a Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing Tuesday morning.
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