Origination

The Wall Street giant has more than $14 billion of real estate investments, and it took a $1.15 billion hit during the second quarter from writedowns of those bets.

Even as some observers are reducing their expectations for an economic downturn, the government-sponsored enterprise changed the expected time frame that one could occur.

Declining rates contributed to a surge in refinances, but a sluggish market is capping purchase activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Residential starts fell 8% last month to a 1.43 million annualized rate, according to government data released Wednesday.

About 14 out of every 1,000 US homes changed hands during this period, down from 19 in the same period during 2019, according to the real estate brokerage's report examining housing turnover since the pandemic.

More than 50 percent of transactions analyzed were risk-prone, a report published by FundingShield found.

While multifamily late payments were flat, hotel properties continued to improve but office performance deteriorated significantly from the first quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Despite the improvement in sentiment, the homebuilder index remains below end-of-2021 levels, when mortgage rates were lower

The nearly 8% growth on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis is well above the historical average, according to the government-sponsored enterprise.

While the divestment alleviates one of the concerns the Federal Trade Commission had regarding the combination with Intercontinental Exchange, question marks abound.