Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
The nation’s mortgage insurance companies are warning about a new pilot program that enables Freddie Mac to bypass traditional mortgage insurance.
The McLean, Virginia-based secondary mortgage lender has launched a pilot program known as Integrated Mortgage Insurance, or IMAGIN.
A newly created U.S. subsidiary or Hamilton, Bermuda-based Arch Capital Group LTD — Arch MRT — has agreed to insure Freddie then transfer 100 percent of the risk to re-insurers.
From:: Financing
A modest weekly drop in new mortgage business was led by adjustable-rate mortgages. Government share widened, as did refinance share thanks to a gain in cashouts that more than offset a record-low rate-term share.
The Mortgage Daily U.S. Mortgage Market Index for the week ended March 16 drifted lower by 4 percent from the previous seven-day period. Seasonal factors are not considered in the index.
Even worse was the year-over-year performance, with the MMI tumbling 26 percent from the week ended March 17, 2017. The index reflects potential upcoming loan originations based on average rate locks per user at clients of OpenClose.
From:: Financing
On Sept. 29, 2017, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 2, the Building Homes and Jobs Act, authored by Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego).
The act creates a new source of funding for affordable homes by charging a $75 fee for recording certain types of real estate documents. It is estimated that the new fee will generate $250 million each year.
The act, which became effective immediately, is part of a comprehensive package of legislation that aims to address California’s housing dilemma by imposing a new duty on counties to send quarterly revenues from this fee, after deduction of administrative costs, to the state controller for deposit in the Building Homes and Jobs Fund, created within the State Treasury.
From:: Financing
Multifamily activity drove down overall housing permits and new construction last month, though there was an increase in completed apartment buildings. Construction activity in the Northeast was exceptionally strong.
In places where housing permits are issued, there were preliminarily 90,500 privately owned housing units authorized during February, bringing the year-to-date total to 187,200.
Last month’s activity worked out to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.298 million, slowing from a downwardly revised 1.377 million one month previous.
From:: Financing
Monthly refinances of government-sponsored enterprise mortgages plunged to the lowest level in six months as government-supported refinance volume fell to a new low.
Primary originators of single-family loans closed 123,170 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac refinances during the first month of this year — the fewest since there were 109,199 in July 2017.
GSE mortgage refinances numbered 155,910 in the final month of last year, while the total came to 208,699 during the first month of 2017.
From:: Financing
For the first time this year, fixed interest rates on residential loans turned lower. But the story was different for adjustable-rate mortgages.
During the seven-day period that concluded on March 15, thirty-year fixed rates averaged 4.44 percent, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey.
Long-term rates retreated by 2 basis points from the preceding week — marking the first time this year that a week-over-week decline was recorded for the 30 year.
From:: Financing
A company that subservices residential loans has opened a new office in Missouri and plans to add hundreds of new employees by the end of this year.
The company, Cenlar FSB, has opened an office in O’Fallon, Missouri. Cenlar is an employee-owned federally chartered wholesale bank.
Cenlar, which maintains its headquarters in Ewing, New Jersey, claims that it is “the nation’s leading residential mortgage subservicer.”
From:: Financing
A massive judgment has been awarded by a jury in a lawsuit accusing a title insurance company affiliated with Quicken Loans Inc. of misappropriating valuation technology.
Detroit-based Amrock Inc., which recently re-branded from Title Source Inc., says it is the exclusive title company within the Quicken family of companies.
Amrock claims to be “the largest independent provider of title insurance, property valuations and settlement services nationwide,” according to its website.
From:: Financing
Slowing buyer traffic drove U.S. home builder confidence to the lowest level in four months, though the degree of confidence still remains solid. The Midwest deteriorated most.
As of March, the seasonally adjusted Housing Market Index, a gauge of builder perceptions of current single-family home sales and sales expectations, was 70.
That put the index at its lowest level since November 2017, when it came in at a downwardly revised 69. Still, an index of more than 50 indicates more builders view conditions as good than poor.
From:: Financing
The nation’s real estate agents and brokers are reporting that millennials are finally starting to make the transition from renters to owners en masse.
During 2017, millennials — generally those who were born from the early eighties through the turn of the century — accounted for more than a third of home sales.
That gave the group, who have been slow to make the move to homeownership, the biggest share of any group last year.
From:: Financing