Master the art of continuous learning in real estate in 5 steps

In order to successfully navigate the real estate landscape, adaptability and education are paramount for long term success. Dan Harris, President of The CE Shop, states, “Real Estate professionals will have to make continual learning part of their skill set.” To thrive amid rapid technological adva
Read MoreSouth River president on reverse mortgage business, data science and priorities

According to the most recent Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsement data compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI), Annapolis, Maryland-based South River Mortgage is the ninth-largest reverse mortgage lender in the country with 496 endorsements in the 12-month period ending May 31.After h
Read MoreTwo major reverse mortgage lenders to sponsor financial planner conference

The Alliance of Comprehensive Planners (ACP), a trade association for financial planners, will be holding its annual conference this October in Savannah, Georgia, and the event will feature two of the nation’s leading reverse mortgage lenders as key sponsors.Plano, Texas-based Finance of America (FO
Read MoreNAF rebrands initiative designed to boost Black homeownership

Multichannel mortgage lender New American Funding (NAF) announced this week the relaunch of its initiative designed to recruit, educate and expand loan officer understanding around issues faced by borrowers of color as “NAF Black Impact.”This replaces the previous branding, “NAF Dream,” to emphasize
Read MoreNAHREP recognizes top 250 Latino mortgage originators

The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) this week released the 10th edition of its annual Top 250 Latino Mortgage Originators rankings, honoring the top-performing Latino mortgage originators across the country.For the second year running, DHI Mortgage earned the top
Read MoreRate-and-term refi locks jump 25.6% in May: Optimal Blue

Rate-and-term refinances rose 25.6% in May as mortgage rates trended down, according to a new report by Optimal Blue. The spike was a response to a modest drop in the 30-year conforming mortgage rate, which dropped to 6.8% on May 15 but ultimately ended the month at 7.02% on the Optimal Blue Mortgag
Read MoreWhen will the Fed’s moves alleviate the lock-in effect?

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. housing situation is a “complicated one” and that “bringing inflation down” is the best thing officials can do to help. Cooling inflation will eventually allow the Fed to cut rates and alleviate the current lock-in effe
Read MoreAmazon commits additional $1.4B to affordable housing fund

Online retail giant Amazon announced this week that it is committing an additional $1.4 billion to its Housing Equity Fund that will go toward the creation and preservation of roughly 14,000 affordable housing units across three major metropolitan areas in which it maintains a corporate presence.The
Read More-

With each year, technology helps us to work smarter in some ways but not so smart in other ways. One critical area as generative AI becomes increasingly our personal assistant is to not outsource the upholding of fair housing laws. Why?If you did not know, generative AI already has instances of cont
Read More Mortgage underwriting algorithm at heart of Wells Fargo’s racial disparity lawsuit

Wells Fargo‘s internal credit-scoring algorithm is at the center of a lawsuit that plaintiffs say resulted in more than 100,000 disparately impacted minority applicants. The lawsuit stems from a 2022 Bloomberg investigation that found Wells Fargo was the only large bank to deny more Black applicants
Read MoreNew homes remain in demand as mortgage applications rise in May

New-home purchase mortgage applications rose 1% month over month and 13.8% year over year in May, according to data released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).The data is derived from the trade group’s survey of homebuilders. The MBA also estimated that sales of new single-family ho
Read MoreInflation and Fed day: A crucial moment for the housing market
Today’s double event of the CPI inflation report and the Fed meeting gave us something that I have been waiting for: a hint from Fed Chairman Jay Powell that the labor market has softened. Today he acknowledged what I have been talking about for months: the Fed’s key data lines are at pre-COVID-19 l
Read MoreFHFA seeks public comment on GSEs’ underserved markets plans

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) this week issued a public request for information for plans submitted by government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the Duty to Serve (DTS) program that aims to serve underserved markets from 2025 through 2027.Established by the
Read MoreGovernment requests more time in Ginnie Mae/TCB lawsuit

Lawyers for the U.S. government have requested an extension of deadlines related to discovery in the case brought by Texas Capital Bank (TCB) against Ginnie Mae over the extinguishment of a priority lien tied to the loan portfolio collateral of Reverse Mortgage Funding (RMF), according to court docu
Read MoreNew Zealand mayor slammed for recommending reverse mortgages

A mayor in a region of New Zealand, who recently suggested using reverse mortgages to fund various cost-of-living increases faced by the nation’s retirees, is pushing back against the backlash his comments created.Tim Cadogan, who serves as mayor of the Central Otago district in south central New Ze
Read MoreOriginations forecast through 2026 ‘dampened’ by inflation, GDP and labor market growth

Persistent economic trends that include inflation, a strong labor market and real gross domestic product (GDP) growth will continue to “dampen” mortgage origination activity through at least the end of 2026, according to the newest U.S. mortgage originations outlook from financial services forecasti
Read MoreEasyKnock partners with FinLocker to bolster consumer financial health

Home equity solutions and sale-leaseback platform EasyKnock announced a partnership on Tuesday with financial fitness and homeownership platform FinLocker that will make FinLocker’s tools available free of charge to EasyKnock customers.The FinLocker app includes a “personalized suite of tools“ desig
Read MoreFed holds rates steady amid mixed economic signals

As expected by virtually all market participants, the Federal Reserve maintained its short-term policy interest rate between 5.25% and 5.5% at its June meeting that concluded Wednesday afternoon.That’s the seventh consecutive time policymakers with the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) kept the
Read MoreRefi business is picking up on falling mortgage rates

Mortgage applications shot up 15.6% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly application survey for the week ending June 7.On an unadjusted basis, the market composite index increased 26% compared with the previous week. The refinance index increa
Read MoreShould we be worried about the number of underwater homes?

Should we be concerned about the number of homeowners who are underwater on their homes? Recent data from Attom showed that 1 out of every 37 homes were severely underwater, something I talked about on CNBC recently, but CoreLogic data provides a reality check on this topic. Let’s dig in.One of the
Read More
Categories
Recent Posts











