Some 30.0 percent of homes purchased in March avoided the use of mortgage financing, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. While mostly associated with investors, a fair share of current homeowners rely on cash for home purchases as a way to avoid the hassles associated with mortgage closings. The cash share of home-purchase financing has increased fairly steadily since August, when 26.5 percent of home purchases ...
The Dodd-Frank Act prompted major changes for mortgage joint ventures, with some firms striking out on their own and others sticking with the smaller market.
Some industry analysts suggest that originations of purchase mortgages have been held back by potential borrowers’ debt-to-income ratios, which have increased along with rises in home prices. However, originations of purchase mortgages have increased in the past year as home prices have risen and it’s more than DTI ratios shutting certain borrowers out of the purchase market. Even though interest rates on mortgages remain at relatively low levels, housing affordability has been an increasing concern due to trends in home prices. Borrowers in parts of California, as well as Denver, Miami and Portland, could have difficulty qualifying for a purchase mortgage, according to a recent analysis by Zillow. Based on income, mortgage and home-value data for the fourth quarter of 2013, Zillow found...
Purchase mortgages securitized by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie in the first quarter of 2014 were down by 76.3 percent compared with the first quarter of 2013.
The outage of Ellie Mae's Encompass systems at the end of the first quarter appears to be due to a malfunction on Ellie Mae's end, not a malicious attack.