A mini-price war from UWM and it’s not even March. As one warehouse veteran put it: “It’s a little like the old Rockefeller tactic of pricing out the competition. It seems to work, but at a cost.”
Banking regulators appear to be taking criticism of their capital requirements proposal to heart. The impact the proposal would have on the mortgage market remains a major issue.
The MBA is taking its concerns about rising costs associated with obtaining credit scores to the FHFA, CFPB and FTC. A CFPB official said the regulator is willing to consider looking into the issue.
Five Democrats in the Senate wrote to the Fed this week pushing for a reduction in interest rates. The senators made their case by citing high costs for mortgages and a limited supply of homes for sale.
Very few lenders managed to increase loan production in the fourth quarter, while quite a few saw declines of 20% or more. First-lien mortgage originations in 2023 marked the lowest annual output since 2014. (Includes two data tables.)
Freddie Mac’s pilot program could dramatically reduce the frustrations lenders face due to repurchase requests for performing loans. For now, the initiative covers 15 lenders.
Counterintuitively, the bi-merge will increase the number of credit pulls necessary to complete the average mortgage loan application. Consumers will ultimately pay for those extra pulls.