Mat Ishbia’s UWM now has bragging rights to being the largest home lender in the land. His view on the market: up to 15 more months of tough sledding. As for profit margins, he may have to drive them lower.
It’s been a roller coaster ride for Finance of America and its shareholders. Rising rates have hammered its business lines and it’s anticipated the company will exit the MSR arena. FoA went public just over 18 months ago.
UWM’s CEO, a former college basketball player, is contemplating making a bid on the NFL Commanders franchise. Will it come to pass? Meanwhile, one large non-QM shop is ready to make retail cuts.
Some of the nation's largest direct-to-consumer lenders are taking a peek at FoA’s retail network to see if they can pick up some ancillary locations. FoA is in the midst of a massive and costly restructuring brought on by the production downturn.
Not a total surprise, but the central bank hiked short-term rates by 75 basis points this week. Mortgage rates hardly budged but residential finance professionals are worried about the quarters ahead. Meanwhile, more lenders are heading for the exits.
United Wholesale Mortgage appeared to emerge as the top lender in the third quarter, though Rocket was still ahead on a year-to-date basis. With total originations slumping 22% in the third quarter, a handful of lenders managed to boost production. (Includes three data charts.)
The Federal Housing Finance Agency will eliminate certain upfront loan-level price adjustments while implementing “targeted” increases for most cash-out refinance transactions. The agency also approved two new credit scoring models for Fannie and Freddie.
With all the layoffs this year, it stands to reason that finding loan officer talent would be an easy task. But that’s not necessarily the case. Overall, the LO landscape remains competitive.
As bad as originations were this year, 2023 is projected to be worse. Purchase-mortgage business is expected to decline even as mortgage rates come down and home prices level off.
RSS