Origination

This move comes at a time when the largest HECM producer sold its operations to a rival and another filed for bankruptcy.

Despite 2022's slew of interest-rate hikes from Chair Powell and colleagues, financial conditions are the loosest since last February as investors bet fading inflation will allow the central bank to soon cease raising borrowing costs and then cut them later this year.

The bank holding company is taking the business purpose lender into the corporate fold and out of its own silo, executives said.

The National Association of Realtors index of contract signings to purchase previously owned homes increased 2.5% in December to 76.9, according to a release Friday.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency will be looking at the government-sponsored enterprises as a means of doing more to address renter affordability challenges.

Despite the significant annual increase, home buyers saw signs of affordability returning in the latter months of the year.

But several recent news developments are creating the perception that the risk of a recession is on the wane and that could end the downward pressure on rates.

Sales of new U.S. homes rose for a third month in December, wrapping up an otherwise disappointing year in which soaring borrowing costs stifled demand and weighed on the economy.

The U.S. economy expanded at a healthy pace in the fourth quarter, though an extended salvo of Federal Reserve interest-rate hikes is seen jeopardizing growth prospects this year.

Approximately 20 million U.S. residents – the majority of which were Gen Zers – took out their first debt product between the start of 2019 and mid-2022, a TransUnion study found.