Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia, which operates as Scotiabank, has hired a group of JPMorgan Chase Bank executives to lead a new mortgage capital markets business that expects to launch this fall.Industry veteran Thanh Roettele, who spent more than 28 years at JPMorgan and was the managing directo

Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Lofty CTO Henry Li to talk about the boundaries of artificial intelligence and how it’s reshaping his company’s roadmap. Sarah Wheeler: What differentiates Lofty’s technology?Henry Li: Lofty is a platform product — that’s been our vision from day one. We w

Attorneys for the U.S. government, working on behalf of Ginnie Mae and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), last week filed a slew of new documents in their court case against Texas Capital Bank (TCB). These were primarily in response to the bank’s prior motion for a partial s

Sky-high home prices and elevated mortgage rates are putting increasing strain on homeowners. That’s the takeaway from two reports released this week showing that foreclosure activity and mortgage delinquencies are rising.According to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the second-quarter 2024 d

Swiss bank UBS Group AG has decided to sell Credit Suisse’s mortgage servicing company, Select Portfolio Servicing (SPS), to a group of investors led by Sixth Street, HousingWire has learned. Investment firm Davidson Kempner Capital Management is a co-investor. Representatives at Credit Suisse, Davi

The new rules mandated by the National Association of Realtors‘ (NAR) settlement of class-action lawsuits related to buyer agent commissions take effect in just two days, and brokerages and MLSs are scrambling to find the best ways to implement them.The Real Brokerage is going all out to prepare its

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has warned the agency that it has serious network security deficiencies that leave its computer systems vulnerable to hacking, based on “penetration testing” the OIG performed. This is according to a report issued by the

Onity Group, parent company of top five reverse mortgage lender and servicer Liberty Reverse Mortgage, will acquire reverse mortgage assets from Mortgage Assets Management, LLC (MAM), a subsidiary of investment funds managed by Waterfall Asset Management.The deal, initially announced by Onity during

The American Land Title Association is making it clear that it won’t have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau making drastic changes to title insurance without first at least hearing the trade groups thoughts on the issue.In a 15-page letter sent to CFPB Director Rohit Chopra on Aug. 2, the tra

As more brokerages and agents contemplate moving away from a cooperative compensation model, many are grappling with some tough questions, the most vexing probably being: What do I do if a seller is only willing to contribute part of the buyer broker’s fees, or none at all?According to Anthony Lamac

As an academic and consultant, Mike DelPrete wears many hats. He can now add “sting operative” to his resume.DelPrete managed a team of undercover “secret home shoppers” to test the responsiveness of brokerages to online inquiries on home listings. His team conducted 100 such tests and found signifi

As many as half of surveyed U.S. adults said that retiring at age 65 is “unrealistic,” instead saying that age 74 is a more attainable goal to reach full retirement. This is according to a survey conducted by Equitable, a financial services provider.“Equitable’s survey revealed that nearly half of c

Influential housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners this week submitted a comment letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) regarding the Duty to Serve (DTS) plans submitted by the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.In its letter, the organization re

Construction of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) is taking off, but is it bringing down housing costs?A new report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting casts doubt on it, citing uneven geographic distribution of deregulations and the high cost of construction. As a result, the most impactful ADUs a

Kiavi, a San Francisco-based lender for residential real estate investors, announced on Tuesday the closing of a $400 million rated securitization of residential transition loans (RTLs) in an “oversubscribed” transaction. The deal marked Kiavi’s 19th securitization, elevating its total issuance to o

Talk of a potential recession and the impending business practice changes were the overarching themes of the opening session of Keller Williams’ 2024 Mega Agent Camp Tuesday morning.Despite these harsh realities, Gary Keller, the executive chairman and co-founder of the firm, still had a reassuring

California-based HighTechLending, a top-10 lender in the reverse mortgage industry, recently announced that it was rebranding its wholesale channel to American Senior Lending Wholesale Division in an effort to better align its identity with key business lines designed to serve older borrowers.One of

Mortgage rates fell two weeks ago, then climbed steadily again last week. Is it enough to motivate any new seller activity or are we looking at 2025 before home sales finally recover?From a total inventory perspective, we haven’t seen any pickup in demand in the past couple of weeks as mortgage rate

Piggyback mortgages — those involving a first and second lien at origination — are on the rise among first-time and low- to moderate-income borrowers who face affordability challenges. This is according to a CoreLogic report published on Monday.The share of piggybacked Federal Housing Administration