Origination

While the haggling tapered off slightly alongside the housing market’s seasonal slowdown, home sales remained five times more competitive than the year before, according to Redfin.

The deadline for inclusion in Ginnie mortgage-backed securities has been extended and an exception will be made for some participations.

Economic instability during the quarter drove the increase in findings regarding income and employment, Aces Quality Management reported.

Homebuilder confidence eased slightly in December to the second-best level on record following the prior month’s peak, signaling that low mortgage rates are still giving the industry a major boost.

Mortgage applications increased 1.1% from one week earlier as a decline in rates to yet another low point brought consumers into the market, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Home sales in the San Antonio area rose for the sixth straight month as prices continued increasing and the inventory of available houses kept tightening.

Applications for loans on newly built homes are still up considerably from a year ago, but they were down a little from October in the Mortgage Bankers Association’s latest survey.

The $425 million loan securitization is among two single-asset, commercial-mortgage deals launching this week. Brookfield Asset Management's global real estate arm is also tapping investors to finance an $825 million loan backed by a downtown Manhattan office building.

With coronavirus inoculations underway and government stimulus likely to come, the outlook for next year’s housing market and lending environment grew more optimistic in December.

The affordable housing nonprofit's Equitable Path Forward initiative seeks to eliminate "the deep-rooted legacy of racism in housing."