• Judges deny plaintiffs’ request to consolidate commission lawsuits

    Judges deny plaintiffs’ request to consolidate commission lawsuits,Brooklee Han

    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

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  • CMG acquires Norcom Mortgage’s retail assets

    CMG acquires Norcom Mortgage’s retail assets,Flávia Furlan Nunes

    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

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  • MCS CEO: Adding reverse mortgages creates value for property preservation business

    MCS CEO: Adding reverse mortgages creates value for property preservation business,Chris Clow

    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

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  • U.S. foreclosure activity stabilized in March: Attom

    U.S. foreclosure activity stabilized in March: Attom,Sarah Marx

    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

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  • Optimal Blue CEO Scott Smith on making the right tech investments

    Optimal Blue CEO Scott Smith on making the right tech investments,Sarah Wheeler

    Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler sat down with Scott Smith, interim CEO at Optimal Blue, to talk about the right tech investments to make now and how the company plans on keeping its customers for life. Sarah Wheeler: What differentiates your tech?Scott Smith: I think a differentiator is our position i

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  • Caregiving experts say aging in place will be ‘a challenge for generations’

    Caregiving experts say aging in place will be ‘a challenge for generations’,Chris Clow

    Experts from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Georgia are weighing in on recent federal attention that senior caregivers have received after President Joe Biden highlighted these issues in his State of the Union address last month. The experts say that adequately serving senio

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  • Many homebuyers lack knowledge about agent compensation: Redfin 

    Many homebuyers lack knowledge about agent compensation: Redfin ,Sarah Marx

    As the real estate industry undergoes a significant shift in its commission structure, a recent Redfin survey reveals a lack of knowledge among homebuyers regarding their agents’ compensation. According to the findings, a significant portion of recent homebuyers remain in the dark about crucial aspe

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  • Kevin Sears discusses changes and challenges at NAR

    Kevin Sears discusses changes and challenges at NAR,Brooklee Han

    Nothing was off the table when National Association of Realtors (NAR) President Kevin Sears joined NextHome CEO James Dwiggins and chief strategy officer Keith Robinson on this week’s episode of their “Real Estate Insiders Unfiltered” podcast. During the hour-long episode, they discussed everything

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  • HUD, Indianapolis take control of local housing agency to ‘restore public confidence’

    HUD, Indianapolis take control of local housing agency to ‘restore public confidence’,Chris Clow

    The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced on Wednesday that it had entered into a cooperative endeavor agreement (CEA) to take control of the Indianapolis Housing Agency (IHA) alongside the City of Indianapolis. The move, which will effectively allow local and federal auth

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  • Jamie Dimon calls for “mortgage regulatory simplification”

    Jamie Dimon calls for “mortgage regulatory simplification”,James Kleimann

    Jamie Dimon evidently believes in the KISS principle when it comes to mortgage — keep it simple, stupid. In his annual letter to shareholders, the influential head of JPMorgan Chase wrote that “we can fix the housing and mortgage” markets. “For example, mortgage regulations around origination, servi

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  • Chief information officer Brian Woodring to leave Rocket

    Chief information officer Brian Woodring to leave Rocket,Flávia Furlan Nunes

    Rocket Mortgage Chief Information Officer Brian Woodring is departing the company to pursue other opportunities, multiple sources told HousingWire. The decision comes as the lender shifts its business strategy to embrace artificial intelligence (AI). Woodring joined Rocket in 2017 as chief technolog

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  • How the CPI data took one Fed rate cut off the table for 2024 

    How the CPI data took one Fed rate cut off the table for 2024 ,Logan Mohtashami

    Mortgage rates shot up today as the CPI data came in just a bit hotter today — 0.1% more than estimates on a month-to-month basis. That’s not much, but it’s high enough to take away one of the rate cuts we expected in 2024. I view rate-cut pricing being tied more to the 2-year yield than the 10-year

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  • FAR parent updates investors on AAG integration, business performance

    FAR parent updates investors on AAG integration, business performance,Chris Clow

    Finance of America Companies (FOA), parent company of industry-leading reverse mortgage lender Finance of America Reverse (FAR), released a new “investor update” this week to update shareholders and other stakeholders on different elements of its reverse mortgage business including its strategic ini

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  • NAR alternative now has 3,800 members 

    NAR alternative now has 3,800 members ,Sarah Marx

    R New York, a brokerage boasting approximately 800 agents, has joined the American Real Estate Association, an alternative to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), according to The Real Deal. The American Real Estate Association’s membership increased by nearly 30% after the absorption of R Ne

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  • CEO of Canada’s leading reverse mortgage lender announces retirement

    CEO of Canada’s leading reverse mortgage lender announces retirement,Chris Clow

    HomeEquity Bank, the leading reverse mortgage lender in Canada and a Schedule I federal bank in the country, announced on Wednesday that its longtime president and CEO Steven Ranson will retire effective June 30.“We have achieved what I set out to achieve many years ago; to establish reverse mortgag

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  • FDIC finds banks violated RESPA on mortgage brokerage payments

    FDIC finds banks violated RESPA on mortgage brokerage payments,Flávia Furlan Nunes

    Mortgage brokers’ compensation is in the spotlight after a recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) test concluded that some financial institutions failed to prove that payments were “reasonably related” to the value of services provided. In its March Supervisory Highlights, the FDIC stat

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  • Spotlighting HousingWire’s Marketing Leaders

    Spotlighting HousingWire’s Marketing Leaders,Lesley Collins

    Nominations for the 2024 Marketing Leaders award are open now through April 30. This prestigious accolade recognizes the visionaries, innovators and strategists who have set new standards of marketing excellence in mortgage and real estate. HousingWire is proud to have recognized a slew of industry

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  • Mortgage demand increased for the first time in a month

    Mortgage demand increased for the first time in a month,Sarah Marx

    Mortgage demand increased slightly for the first time in four weeks, with a modest uptick in refinance applications leading the way. But don’t expect it to continue.Mortgage applications increased by 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis during the week ending April 5, according to the Mortgage Banker

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  • State financial regulators and FHFA enter mortgage information sharing agreement

    State financial regulators and FHFA enter mortgage information sharing agreement,Chris Clow

    The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) have signed onto a memorandum of understanding to formally share information between each other related to nonbank mortgage companies.“The [MOU] establishes substantive information sharing protocols between

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  • VA unveils new program to buy defaulted mortgages

    VA unveils new program to buy defaulted mortgages,Flávia Furlan Nunes

    The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs (V.A.) announced on Wednesday morning a program to purchase defaulted V.A. loans from mortgage services and place them in its portfolio at a fixed 2.5% interest rate. The Veteran Affairs Servicing Purchase (VASP) program attempts to prevent foreclosure actions

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