Mortgages

The title company was also attacked in 2019 and joins Fidelity National and Mr. Cooper among recent victims.

Recent pullbacks in interest rates have lowered monthly payments, but amounts needed still make home buying unaffordable by most standards, according to new reports.

Rates that have been below 7% for two consecutive weeks have given originators a gift at what's typically a slow time of year, Freddie Mac said.

Even if lower rates boost inventory and shift sales from new to existing homes, these companies are well-positioned to deal with the change, analysts said.

The effects of expected lower mortgage interest rates are boosting a lot of different facets of the housing market.

With a tough winter predicted for lenders, servicers may struggle making timely principal and interest payments to investors, industry stakeholders warn.

The Justice Department and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are suing a real estate developer over an alleged bait-and-switch land-sale scheme near Houston. The developer used TikTok and other social media sites to lure Hispanic immigrants into predatory loans, the government alleges.

Indicators are starting to align, that with falling interest rates and prices, buyers and sellers will return to the housing market in 2024, a trio of interested parties commented.

Activity fell despite an ongoing slide in rates, but elevated interest in VA loans, particularly refinances, managed to lift the government-sponsored index higher by a fraction, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Contract closings increased 0.8% from a month earlier to a 3.82 million annualized rate, according to the National Association of Realtors, and ahead of estimates of 3.78 million units.

Industry leaders share their thoughts on some of the forecasts that fizzled.

Over 200 employees will be let go as of Feb. 16, 2024, according to an Illinois WARN notice.

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.

Loans for new homes are up 22% while overall purchase volume is down 20%, the Mortgage Bankers Association found.

Construction of single-family houses jumped 18% to the highest level since April 2022, while starts of multifamily projects increased 6.9%.

Relying on hope, as implied in the "survive until '25" slogan, is not a business strategy that will get a company through the year.

The lawsuit accuses Navy Federal of violating the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act after a CNN report that the lender approved a lower percentage of Black and Latino mortgage applicants.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is appealing a lower court ruling that the agency exceeded its authority in bringing an anti-discrimination enforcement action against a Chicago mortgage lender after he made disparaging remarks about Blacks and Hispanics.

Both past and present customers were impacted by the data breach.

Lawyers for the plaintiff maintain the companies should have been on notice of inadequate security measures after a reported data breach in 2022.