Economy

With infection rates rising and unemployment claims increasing since Thanksgiving, mortgages in coronavirus-related forbearance rose by 37,000 last week, according to Black Knight.

Fiscal policy concerns, rather than economic data, are driving rate changes right now, economist says

Single-family starts rose for a seventh month to a 1.186 million annualized rate that was the highest since 2007.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has all but ruled out letting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac exit U.S. control before he steps down, leaving it to the Biden administration to decide the fates of the mortgage giants.

Last year, smaller lenders were put at a slight disadvantage in terms of what they were charged in guarantee fees when they sold loans for cash.

While 12,000 mortgages exited forbearance, the most borrowers entered forbearance protection in a week since early September, according to Black Knight.

But late payments for all other investor types rose compared with the second quarter.

The consumer bureau's revamp of criteria for "qualified mortgages," a special regulatory class of loans free from liability, emphasizes pricing instead of a borrower's debt-to-income ratio.

The Biden administration could curtail federal support for farmers, even with bankruptcies and requests for loan workouts on the rise. Banks are hoping that increases in crop prices and exports to China could help avert a credit crisis.

The average per-loan profit margin remains incredibly strong, but the share of senior executives expecting it to fall has risen markedly.

Employment worries and the pandemic's ongoing obstacles for home buying wore down consumer confidence in November, according to Fannie Mae.

Even with a slight downward revision to September’s numbers, employment in the industry remained incredibly high through October as home-loan refinancing continued to surge.

The economic fallout from COVID-19 has highlighted systemic concerns about commercial real estate exposure, business debt and short-term wholesale funding, the Financial Stability Oversight Council said in an annual report.

Troubled Veteran’s Administration “no-bid” loans could bankrupt servicers in the near future, says Morgan Snyder of CAllc Research Publications.

Even government-sponsored enterprise loans, which have seen forbearance rates drop for 24 weeks in a row, saw a slight uptick.

A new report from California shows that less-regulated mortgage lenders may be doing a better than banks of serving Black and Latino homebuyers. But consumer advocates say the data bolsters the case for tougher supervision of nonbanks.

The price increase illustrates the extent to which federal rescue programs and a supply-demand imbalance have been counterweights to economic pressures from the pandemic.

The Structured Finance Association fears Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin may release the government-sponsored enterprises from conservatorship ahead of the change in administration, and that doing so could disrupt the mortgage-backed securities market.

Gelt Financial looks to troubled sectors, including retail, for prospective deals.

To truly manage risk, banks must invest in more sophisticated modeling, reporting and analytics to track market movements and ultimately maximize profitability, Vice Capital Markets’ Christopher Bennett says.