Home equity loans

Lowe's Cos. said its sales will fall further this year as consumers continue to hold off from sprucing up their homes amid higher mortgage rates and a drop in new construction projects.

Comparable sales fell 3.5% in its fiscal fourth quarter, Home Depot said Tuesday.

The top five banks and thrifts have nearly $96 billion in combined home equity loan portfolios as of September 30, 2023.

The outstanding amount that people ages 62 and up hold represented a nearly $15.4 billion gain in property value offset by a record $2.32 billion in borrowing.

Black, Hispanic and Asian homeowners had a 44%, 32% and 30% denial rate for HELOC products, while white homeowners had a 23% denial rate, an analysis of HMDA data by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found.

As the leading player in a specialized niche within the consolidating mortgage market, Finance of America is being watched closely.

Home equity investment (HEI) agreements homeowners receive upfront cash payments in exchange for giving an investor a stake in the property and the right to collect returns.

Homeowners have over $29.3 trillion in combined home equity, yet accessing it is becoming less attractive, Point's report said.

High mortgage rates and little inventory explain why over 60% of homeowners did or will perform a repair project in the next year, a LendingTree survey found.

The provider of home-equity loan products will partner with Cerberus Residential Opportunities, an affiliate of the capital management firm, with CEO Jerry Schiano at the helm.

Volumes dropped below 900,000 in the first three months this year, while the cumulative loan balance nationwide also declined on a quarterly basis for the first time since 2015.

Equity-rich mortgages — those that have a loan-to value ratio of 50% or lower, meaning the mortgage holder's equity stake is at least half the property's worth — made up some 49% of the national total in the second quarter of this year, according to a report by Attom, a real estate data provider.

Households saw an average annual decrease of $5,400 earlier this year, but recent price trends point to some of that value returning, according to a new CoreLogic report.

Home Depot Inc. cut its outlook for the year after first-quarter sales dropped more than expected, a sign that economic uncertainty is leading to a pullback in home-improvement spending.

The loans increased their share to more than 20% of home lending volume in the fourth quarter, compared to just 7% a year earlier.

Purchase and refinance mortgages continued their slide as total origination volume was $475.5 billion during the final months of 2022, down 56% from the end of 2021.

Lenders are seeking to capture homeowner interest amid higher living costs, but home values have collectively fallen from their record-high last summer.

Despite slowing originations, the shift to a purchase-oriented market contributed to growth, while outstanding HELOC amounts also surged to its largest in over a decade, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found.

While reverse mortgages allow older homeowners the opportunity to draw on home equity with minimal risk, problems arising from flaws in program structure are causing headaches for borrowers and issuers alike, according to recent reports.

After volumes peaked at their highest in over a decade in March, the reverse mortgage market ended the year with a bankruptcy and merger involving its largest companies.