With interest rates up 75 basis points since the election – and staying there, at least for now – residential production is likely to slip in the quarters ahead, leading to layoffs, especially at firms that focus on refinancings. “It’s coming,” said industry consultant Don Henig, a former top sales executive for loanDepot, a top-10 ranked originator. “Maybe we haven’t seen too many layoffs quite yet, but just look at volume numbers and do the math.” Henig added: “Right now, a lot of shops ...
The recent run-up in mortgage rates appears to have suppressed short-term home purchase expectations among prospective homebuyers, who nonetheless otherwise feel optimistic about the housing market over the longer term, according to new data from government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae. Fannie’s latest Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI), released earlier this week, dipped 0.5 points to 80.7, the fifth consecutive monthly decline. The index is down ...
The New York Department of Financial Services made some concessions to industry participants by revising proposed cybersecurity standards. Some mortgage-industry officials were happy with the revisions while reiterating concerns about the proposed standards. The NYDFS first proposed cybersecurity standards in September. The proposal was the first of its kind from a state regulator and more prescriptive than guidance from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination ...
While mortgage interest rates remain at historic lows, an increase of even one percentage point is not going to have a dramatic effect on affordability and any negative homebuyer response to rising rates is likely to be short-lived, according to a new Redfin survey. Even if mortgage rates climb to 5 percent, homebuyers would lower their expectations and shop for less expensive homes, said 49 percent of the 827 Redfin real estate agents who responded to the survey. Redfin conducted ...
Black Knight Financial Services is developing a mortgage-specific credit score that could be more useful for lenders than traditional credit scores. It’s not clear how much traction the score will gain, considering that Fair Isaac’s FICO score remains the dominant metric for assessing the creditworthiness of mortgage borrowers. Wesley Winter, a senior modeler at Black Knight, said a traditional credit score may not be the best predictor of mortgage default. “The FICO score is trying to ...
Mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs accounted for 29.4 percent of insured home loans securitized in the agency mortgage-backed securities market in the fourth quarter of 2016, a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals. That was up from a 27.2 percent share for the VA during the third quarter. The home-loan guaranty program has become a refinance dynamo, accounting for a whopping 44.6 percent of insured refi loans ... [Includes one data chart]
As Fannie Mae prepares to vacate its iconic headquarters with a move to downtown Washington in 2018, the buyers of the colonial-style building are mulling over plans on what to do with the four-story, close to 250,000 square-foot property. Roadside Development, in a partnership with Sekisui House, bought the building situated on about 10 acres last month.Before making plans on what to do with the property, Roadside is seeking public input in the form of community meetings and online outreach. Roadside founding Principal Richard Lake said the firm wants to sit with the community and spend time with them to get ideas, just as they did in other nearby development projects.
The GSE figures suggest that private MIs saw a measurable drop in new insurance written in the final three months of 2016, but ended the year with a significant increase in volume compared to 2015.
According to exclusive survey figures from Inside Mortgage Finance, the wholesale/broker market share increased to 10.2 percent in the third quarter, its highest reading of the year.
RSS