Origination

It has all the trappings of a routine mortgage refinance closing. The mortgage broker, the lawyer and the homeowner, all signing off on the paperwork that will cut the interest rate on a home.

Mark Calabria said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are currently equipped to handle elevated delinquencies, but they might need congressional or Federal Reserve help if fallout from the coronavirus persists.

A number of proposals have been floated for debt payment holidays and other types of moratoria, but such approaches offer solutions that are worse than the problems.

Southern California's 2020 housing market got off to a good start before the pandemic shook the economy in mid-February, CoreLogic figures show, with both prices and home sales up in the six-county region from February 2019 levels.

Mortgage rates rose sharply this week as originators looked to manage the overwhelming demand from consumers, according to Freddie Mac.

The Bradenton-Sarasota, Fla., area has been a red-hot housing market with the median price at or above $300,000 for the past year, providing job opportunities for 7,000 real estate agents.

A proposal to tighten financial requirements for government-sponsored enterprise counterparties that sought to lower risk in a volatile market should be suspended, a group representing smaller lenders said, arguing it would aggravate current distress.

New-home construction exceeded forecasts in February, underscoring momentum in the industry a month before the coronavirus pandemic injected uncertainty into the economy.

Mortgage industry technology providers are adjusting their processes to allow for originations to keep flowing through the system as the nation combats the coronavirus.

Mortgage application volume decreased 8.4% compared with one week earlier as lenders managed activity by raising rates even as 10-year Treasury yields fell below 1%, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.