We saw a big jump in mortgage rates last week. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage, according to the HousingWire Mortgage Rates Center, is now over 7.2% — that’s 50 basis points above where we were at the start of the year. At that time, most of the voices in the media assumed that mortgage rates had pe

Keller Williams was named to an additional class-action lawsuit this week that takes issue with alterations made to the brokerage’s profit-sharing program. In the past few weeks, 11 agents formerly affiliated with Keller Williams — Jerri Moulder, David Bueker, Robert Hill, Kevin Ortiz, Edward Fordyc

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo (R) has submitted a letter to President Joe Biden, urging him to decrease federal spending and to take action on affordable housing issues.“A particularly acute concern to Nevadans is the housing market, which is reeling from the combined effects of high inflation and intere

Last week’s above-consensus inflation figures brought the mortgage market back to a sour reality: The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate, an index closely watched by industry experts, may be close to or even above the 7% level for longer than previously expected.If this scenario unfolds, analysts a

Although more agents are fielding questions about the commission lawsuits than they were a quarter ago, they also remain optimistic about where the housing market is headed in the second quarter of 2024, according to the RealTrends Q2 2024 AgentPulse survey.The survey, which was conducted between th

Mortgage rates headed higher last week after the CPI inflation report, but now, with news of a wider war in the Middle East, should we expect even higher rates? Some argue that money will go into the safety of the bond market, while others say a wider war can lead to higher inflation and higher rate

Job recruiters in the South are facing hurdles to attract skilled professionals from the Midwest despite offering competitive compensation packages, according to a Bloomberg report published Friday. That’s because many of these potential hires are locked into super-low 30-year mortgages.During the f

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced the appointment of Andrew Lofton on Friday as its new administrator for the Northwest region, encompassing the states of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.In this role, Lofton will “serve as HUD’s liaison to mayors, city manager

Ginnie Mae announced this week that it is adding a new pool-level, low-to-moderate income (LMI) disclosure to its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM)-backed Securities (HMBS) program.The move is part of an ongoing effort by the company to improve its securities disclosures, something that began i

The ongoing lack of housing affordability is prompting more renters to doubt their ability to become homeowners. According to a recent Redfin survey, nearly 40% of U.S. renters don’t believe in their ability to ever own a home, up from roughly 27% less than a year ago.While lack of affordability is

Reverse mortgage industry professionals have spoken for months about the consequences of high interest rates on their ability to pursue business, and now AARP has taken a closer look at the impacts.While higher rates are bad news for the mortgage industry in a broad sense, the impact on reverse lend

As artificial intelligence continues to grow in prominence, mortgage professionals “must carefully evaluate and manage” their use of AI and “focus on deriving the benefits while avoiding potentially catastrophic risks.”That’s one of the key conclusions reached by the BlackFin Group in a recently pub

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase usually open the quarterly earnings seasons in the mortgage space, giving analysts something to chew on before nonbanks release their financial reports. In the first quarter of 2024, the big banks showed a challenging reality for originations.  The banks’ Q1 2024 earni

The HousingWire award spotlight series highlights the individuals and organizations that have been recognized through our Editors’ Choice Awards. Nominations for HousingWire’s 2024 Marketing Leaders are open until April 30, 2024. Click here to nominate someone from your organization today.If there’s

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this week published a blog illustrating that appraisal gaps between white, Hispanic/Latino and Black households have diminished since the 2022 announcement of the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) action plan, which the

The Multidistrict Litigation panel has denied a motion for nine of the commission lawsuits to consolidate.In a decision filed on Friday, Judge Karen Caldwell, who is the chair of the MDL panel, wrote that after hearing arguments from all parties involved, the panel concluded that “centralization is

California-based multichannel mortgage lender CMG Financial announced on Thursday that it acquired Norcom Mortgage’s retail assets, expanding its operations in the Northeast with the addition of 25 branches from Maryland to Maine. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. “Norcom Mortgag

Property preservation company MCS announced last month that it had entered the reverse mortgage business after acquiring Five Brothers Asset Management Solutions. In part one of RMD’s interview with MCS CEO Craig Torrance, he explained his company’s interest in the reverse space.In the second part o

Foreclosures remained relatively stable in the first quarter of 2024 and homeowners continue to hold significant equity.In March, there were 32,878 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing, down less than 1% from the previous month and down 10% from a year ago. Meanwhile, 23,312 U.S. properties sta