Reverse mortgages

Live Well Financial, a reverse and traditional mortgage lender that abruptly stopped originating on May 3, will lay off 103 employees, according to a Virginia Employment Commission filing.

Lower interest rates caused mortgage serving rights runoff plus a charge to the fair value of that portfolio and led to Ocwen Financial posting a first-quarter loss.

Homeowners in Chicago cheated by a mortgage fraud scheme are seeking to form a committee to protect their interests in the bankruptcy of Ditech Holding Corp., the company that owns their loans.

University Bancorp gained a number of offices from Huron Valley Financial. It also hired lenders and staff with experience in reverse mortgages and wholesale lending.

A pair of professors with industry ties say reverse mortgages deserve a second look, partly because of a series of federal reforms in recent years designed to protect taxpayers and consumers.

While millennials comprise the largest cohort of homebuyers, the aging baby boomer generation has created 7.86 million more homeowners and 2.82 million renters age 60 and older — growth rates higher than any other demographic.

Home equity loans the Federal Housing Administration offers to older borrowers are in a better position now that the government shutdown has temporarily ended.

While most single-family Federal Housing Administration lending is somewhat insulated from the government shutdown, the impasse is doing more to hurt funding in niches like nursing home loans and reverse mortgages.

Liquidity, products and pricing are the main concerns for the secondary mortgage market in 2019.

Class Valuation, a Troy, Mich.-based appraisal management company, acquired Landmark Network, which specializes in providing valuation services for reverse mortgages.