Tag: finance

Concerns about inflation, or the lack thereof, helped to pull down long-term rates on home loans to the lowest level since last year. Signs point to little or no change in the next report.

Thirty-year fixed rates on single-family loans averaged 3.86 percent in Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey for the week ended Aug. 24.

That was the lowest average for long-term rates on residential loan since the week ended Nov. 10, 2016, when 30-year rates were reported at 3.57 percent.

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From:: Financing

Inventory shortages were a factor in a slowdown of existing home sales last month. The decline was driven by the Midwest and the Northeast.

July 2017 saw a preliminary 513,000 existing residential properties sold. That brought sales to 3.204 million during the seven months ended July 31.

The activity that was reported is reflective of the sales of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-operatives.

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From:: Financing

Although there was month-over-month deterioration in residential loan delinquency, the number of mortgages in foreclosure retreated to a level not seen in a decade.

Single-family mortgages that were at least 30 days past due or in the foreclosure process numbered 2.384 million as of the end of July.

The total was comprised of 1.986 million mortgages past due at least 30 days and 398,000 loans in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory — the first time it has been less than 400,000 since February 2007.

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From:: Financing

Federal regulators of financial institutions have issued new examination procedures for compliance with the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.

On Tuesday, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council issued HMDA examiner transaction testing guidelines to help assess the accuracy of the HMDA data reported by financial institutions.

FFIEC’s guidelines come ahead of the January 2018 implementation date for mortgage lenders to complete new fields in their HMDA reporting.

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From:: Financing

Last month, the annual rate of new home sales dropped to the lowest level since last year. Activity in the Northeast led the decline.

Sales of new single-family properties totaled 49,000 during July. The metric is preliminary and could be subsequently revised.

The latest activity brought to 378,000 the number of new U.S. residential properties that were sold between Jan. 1, 2017, and July 31.

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From:: Financing

A newly released report indicates that mortgage production last year rose 15 percent from the previous year. Leading the gain was refinancing activity.

Home lenders originated nearly 8 million residential loans for nearly $2 trillion during the period beginning on Jan. 1, 2016, and concluding on Dec. 31, 2016.

Industry-wide mortgage production moved up compared to the preceding year, when single-family loan originations came to an estimated 7.3 million loans for $1.7 trillion.

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From:: Financing

For the second week in a row, an increase in mortgage refinance applications was more than offset by a decrease in applications for loans to finance a home purchase.

A seasonally adjusted less than 1 percent drop from a week prior was recorded for new mortgage applications based on the Market Composite Index.

The week-over-week decline increased to 2 percent when no seasonal adjustments are made to the index, a measure of residential retail loan application volume.

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From:: Financing

A trio of senior executives at a New York mortgage banking firm have been arrested for allegedly defrauding warehouse lenders.

Matthew T. Voss, 42, was chief operating officer of Vanguard Funding LLC during the period from August 2016 through March 2017.

Also on the senior management team of the Long Island lender during that time were chief financial officer Edward J. Sypher Jr., 40, and president of sales Edward E. Bohm, 39.

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From:: Financing

After peaking in the second quarter, the nation’s mortgage bankers predict that loan originations will decline each of the following three quarters.

Industry-wide mortgage production is expected to fall from $463 billion in the second quarter to $455 billion in the current three-month period.

Home lending is then projected to continue dropping, to $348 billion in the final quarter of this year and $345 billion in the first-three months of next year.

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From:: Financing

After recently adding more than a hundred jobs in its mortgage division in St. Louis, U.S. Bank, N.A., plans to add hundreds more.

While U.S. Bank Home Mortgage is based in Minneapolis, it operates offices in the St. Louis area, where its president, Tom Wind, is based.

Thanks to 6.1 percent year-over-year growth in residential mortgages, the division has added more than 150 St. Louis-area jobs over the past year.

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From:: Financing