The end of a long-term decline in interest rates will trigger a resurgence of the second-lien market and alter the mortgage market in other areas as well, according to a working paper published by the Urban Institute. How much mortgage rates will rise is unclear, but the 35-year secular decline in interest rates is over, author Laurie Goodman maintained in her preliminary study, “The Impact of Higher Interest Rates on the Mortgage Market.” Goodman, co-director of UI’s Housing Finance ...

The volume of purchase mortgages being originated isn’t as strong as it could be because of the amount of home sales completed solely with cash, according to economists at Freddie Mac. The cash share of home sales is declining, but it remains well above historic levels. The economists projected that about 6.2 million homes will be sold this year. With the cash share of home sales around 20 percent, Freddie projects that $1.38 trillion in purchase mortgages will be originated this year. If the cash share was at the norm of 10 percent, an additional $172.0 billion in purchase mortgages would be originated in 2017, according to the government-sponsored enterprise. Before the financial crisis, about 10 percent of home sales were...

Mortgage brokers saw their market share top 11.0 percent in the second quarter, the highest reading in quite some time, Inside Mortgage Finance found…

As a result, the closing disclosure can generally only be used to reset tolerances based on events that occur within seven days of closing…

In earlier funding rounds, Blend's backers have included businessman Peter Thiel, who co-founded PayPal...

Senate Democrats opposing the administration’s proposed cuts to HUD’s FY 2018 spending bill have reportedly placed a hold on Pantenaude’s nomination...

Publicly traded lenders that could benefit from the trend include First Republic Bank, Flagstar Bank, Nationstar Mortgage and U.S. Bank…

The wholesale-broker market saw a surge in origination volume during the second quarter of 2017, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. All three primary-market production channels recorded big gains in the second quarter, but mortgage brokers posted the biggest increase, a 35.1 percent jump in first-lien mortgage originations to an estimated $50.0 billion. Most of the top wholesale funders in the sector reported similarly big increases in production. One reason the broker share of originations rose in the second quarter was...[Includes four data tables]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has begun receiving public comments in response to its proposal to close the so-called black hole in its integrated disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. Interviews this week found that top experts dealing with the issue are pleased the bureau is addressing the problem, which is among the most significant issues related to the new disclosure regime. “Although the ‘black hole’ is highly technical, the impacts on lenders are significant,” noted former CFPB official Benjamin Olson, now a partner with the BuckleySandler law firm in Washington, DC. He noted...

Loans originated on or after Oct. 1, 2017, are eligible for new high loan-to-value streamlined refinance programs being rolled out by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And one analyst said despite more investor exposure to defaults, he views the programs as a good move in the event home prices begin to trend downward. A year after the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s initial announcement about the streamlined refi program, the regulator set the eligibility date and provided more program details last week. “The eligibility date was...