The stronger-than-expected employment report is the catalyst for ending a five-week streak of declining mortgage rates, Freddie Mac reported. The 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 6.72% as of July 10, a gain of 5 basis points compared with the prior week when it averaged 6.67%, the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey reported. But it […]
Mortgage rates turn upward on strong jobs data Read More »
Union Home Mortgage announced Tuesday the expansion of its footprint in the Midwest. A team of 16 employees, led by two former UMortgage managers, will join UHM’s existing team in Cincinnati, Ohio, according to a news release. Ravi Patel and Justin Allen, who spent more than two years at mortgage brokerage UMortgage, will both serve
Union Home nabs branch led by ex-UMortgage team Read More »
The surge in adjustable-rate mortgages this decade led their share of the market to more than triple over four years at the nation’s largest banks, according to a new Federal Reserve report. Conventional ARM originations at the financial institutions overseen by the Fed accounted for 25.1% of their mortgage originations in the first quarter this
ARMs tripled at banks over past decade Read More »
Black Americans have long faced an uphill struggle to homeownership, and new data suggests that those problems aren’t going away anytime soon. Black homebuyers are 1.7 times more likely to be denied a mortgage than other races, according to the latest report from Lendingtree. In 2024, 19% of Black applicants were denied mortgages, significantly higher
Black Americans still struggle to get mortgages, study finds Read More »
Even though Keefe, Bruyette & Woods has downgraded the stock rating on three of the five private mortgage insurers it covers, its analysts are still relatively bullish on the segment. Radian, Essent and NMI Holdings have all been dropped to a market perform rating from outperform in large measure because of their strong performance year-to-date,
KBW cuts ratings on mortgage insurers Read More »
US mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped to the highest level since early 2023 last week, even as borrowing costs barely budged. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of home-purchase applications advanced 9.4% in the week ended July 4, according to data out Wednesday. MBA’s measure of refinancing jumped by a similar amount to the
Mortgage applications to buy a home jump to two-year high Read More »
The larger of two influential government-related mortgage buyers has made clear that even non depository mortgage companies not governed by the Bank Secrecy Act still have certain anti-money laundering responsibilities. “If a seller/servicer is not subject to the BSA’s AML provisions, it must establish a suspicious activity identification program,” Fannie Mae said in a bulletin,
Fannie updates AML rules, Freddie adds a buydown option Read More »
Capital One confirmed it is closing the home equity lending business it acquired in the purchase of Discover. The news first appeared in a Reddit thread last week and then in Home Equity Lending News on July 1. That thread noted the company already notified affected employees of the decision to close the business known
Capital One confirms Discover home equity shutdown Read More »
For the first time since mid-April mortgage rates fell below 6.7%, but the data doesn’t take into account the diminished likelihood the Federal Open Market Committee will reduce short-term rates at this month’s meeting. It is a result of this morning’s jobs report coming in hotter than expected, with observers now postulating the Fed is
Mortgage rates drop again but chance of Fed cut also falls Read More »
Mortgage bankers and brokers have been engaging in cautious hiring and they might want to remain careful about it given the complications the latest job numbers add to the rate outlook. At 266,700, nondepositories in the industry added an estimated 1,300 positions during the May homebuying season when compared to revised April numbers as total
Mortgage jobs, others inch up, as rate cut tensions grow Read More »