Mortgages

In the wake of the Surfside condo collapse, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae instituted stricter rules regarding the soundness of this crucial form of housing stock as it ages. In response to complaints about a lack of clarity on buildings deemed unfit for financing, the GSE unveiled plans to improve transparency for both homeowners associations and lenders. 

At the same time, the Hilltop Holdings unit expects its gain-on-sale margins to remain pressured in the coming year.

The National Association of Realtors' index of contract signings increased 8.3% to 77.3 after holding at a record low a month earlier, according to data out Friday.

Purchases of new single-family homes increased 8% to a 664,000 annual pace last month, after an upward revision to November's figure, government data showed Thursday.

Connecticut issued a cease and desist order, alleging that Loansnap used unlicensed originators to solicit borrowers and accept loan applications in violation of multiple federal laws.

Even with the 9 basis point rise this week, they have remained at the same level since mid-December, and that should bring people into the market, Freddie Mac said.

Loan criteria such as credit scores, loan types and loan-to-value ratios are all weaker than those included in 2022 deals, Fitch said.

Having the opportunity to customize their own tech stacks was a key reason behind many top producers' success, according to a new Floify survey.

Home buying demand propelled overall volumes to a third straight weekly gain, as refinances fell, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Slightly more than one-fourth of borrowers with it experienced pandemic-related challenges, the Mortgage Bankers Association found.

While becoming more popular in the past year as mortgage rates have increased, the differential is small between those that did and didn't pay points for a permanent buydown, Freddie Mac said.

The real estate markets where prices are expected to rise the most this year will see an average increase of 5.14%.

In the quarter, 80% of the homebuilder's mortgage customers used the rate buy-down incentive, the company said on a call with analysts.

Though the rate of growth for these conversions has slowed due to higher financing costs and long lead times associated with zoning and permitting, the trend is here to stay.

Fannie Mae claims its pilot program, which the loan origination system is utilizing, has aided over 5,000 mortgage applicants in the past two years.

Its January forecast reverses the call first made in April 2022 that the U.S. economy would slip into an extended downturn.

The prepayment metric on the single-family issuer operational performance profile had been displaying outdated information.

The number of homeowners spending more than 30% of income on housing costs jumped 18% from pre-pandemic 2019, according to a new Harvard analysis.

The defendants are seeking more detailed information about what the bureau found as far as the extent of the alleged staff licensing violations.

With many already living in aging properties, the millennial generation could be stuck with the costs, a Leaf Home/Morning Consult survey claimed.