The share of non-homeowners that expect to purchase a home in the foreseeable future is down significantly compared with two years ago, according to a new poll by Gallup. However, a survey commissioned by JPMorgan Chase suggests that potential homebuyers are ready to “get off the sidelines” before interest rates increase. In April 2013, Gallup found that 31 percent of non-homeowners didn’t expect to purchase a home in the foreseeable future. In a survey conducted this month, the share of non-homeowners that don’t expect to buy a house in the foreseeable future increased to 41 percent. Art Swift, managing editor at Gallup, noted...
Mortgage banking appeared to become somewhat more profitable during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports filed by a diverse group of 19 publicly-traded companies. The group – all but one of them banks – reported a total of $3.496 billion in mortgage banking income during the first quarter. That was up 10.2 percent from the end of last year. It also represented a 23.0 percent increase over the first quarter of 2014, one of the ...
PHH Corp., the largest publicly traded nonbank mortgage originator in the nation, is a company that has perplexed investors and analysts for years. In business for decades, it survived the subprime crisis by never originating a “B” or “C” loan. It stuck to its knitting as the largest private-label funder and servicer in America. In 2007, it was almost bought by Countrywide Financial Corp., a sale which would have been disastrous for management and employees, given what happened to CFC ...
Most lenders already doing business with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expect to offer the new low-downpayment options available from the government-sponsored enterprises, though few expect to see much pickup in their originations. A new Fannie survey found 81 percent of lenders intend to offer the 97 percent loan-to-value ratio mortgage sometime this year. About 8 percent said they’re not interested and the rest weren’t sure. But of those planning to offer the product, only ...