Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
Mortgage rates made a modest weekly ascension. While the long-term economic outlook has interest rates on residential loans climbing, the short-term forecast is for a sharp drop.
Thirty-year fixed rates on conforming mortgages that were utilized to finance a home purchase and closed during January averaged 4.19 percent.
While it wasn’t much of a bump, long-term interest rates on single-family loans have ascended 2 basis points from their reading the preceding month.
From:: Financing
New weekly applications for home loans increased, and the escalation in activity was due to an increase in home purchase financing. Government share was the widest it’s been in five weeks.
In the week that ended on Feb. 23, the Market Composite Index, a measure of retail residential loan application volume, rose a seasonally adjusted 3 percent from a week earlier.
But when seasonal factors are set aside, the index moved lower by 6 percent when compared to the seven days that finished up on Feb. 16.
From:: Financing
For the second time in the past six months, a unit of Berkshire Hathaway is making an acquisition that includes a home-lending operation.
In September 2017, Berkshire-affiliate HomeServices of America Inc. announced that it acquired The Long & Foster Companies Inc.
One of the divisions of Chantilly, Virginia-based Long & Foster is Prosperity Home Mortgage LLC, a $3 billion a year originator.
From:: Financing
Enhancements have been made to the Federal National Mortgage Association program for purchase and refinance loans that include funds for home improvements.
The Washington-based secondary mortgage lender reports that interest in renovation financing has increased. So it is enhancing its HomeStyle Renovation program.
HomeStyle mortgages enable borrowers to include funds for home improvements in home purchase financing or in refinances of existing home loans.
From:: Financing
While Washington’s largest city continues to dominate home-price gains, Colorado, Nevada and New York are all showing signs of strength.
At 204.45 as of December 2017, the Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Home Price Index was 0.2 percent higher than it was just one month previous.
Compared to the end of 2016, the index — a value-weighted average of 20 metropolitan area indices — indicates that U.S. home prices have appreciated by 6.3 percent.
From:: Financing
A former Texas mortgage broker has received a prison sentence for his role in deceiving wholesale lenders on more than a dozen transactions.
Alfer Rodenburg was a mortgage broker in Houston. He arranged first and second mortgages between prospective borrowers and wholesale mortgage lenders.
On 14 of those loans, Rodenburg, 65, is accused of conspiring with co-defendant Walter Woldt to deceive the wholesalers into making the loans.
From:: Financing
New home sales in the Northeast led a national month-over-month decrease last month. While opinions vary on why sales were down, the outlook is optimistic. The supply of new homes for sales was the greatest since 2014.
The sale of new single-family houses numbered a preliminary 44,000 during all of January. That turned out to be the fewest units sold since there were 38,000 in December 2016.
Last month’s new U.S. home sales worked out to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000, tumbling from an upwardly revised 643,000 in December 2017.
From:: Financing
Although quarterly and annual mortgage production was down at Citizens Financial Group Inc., the residential asset and servicing portfolios have grown.
Prior to income tax expense, the Providence, Rhode Island-based organization earned a $503 million profit, according to its fourth-quarter earnings report.
Earnings improved from the same-three months during 2016, when pre-tax income was $414 million. But a $10 million decline was recorded versus the previous quarter.
From:: Financing
Over the past month, mortgage bankers have grown more optimistic about the volume of refinances that will be originated during the first-three months of this year.
Total single-family production by all U.S. lenders, including purchase financing and refinances, is forecasted to reach $346 billion during the first-quarter 2018.
Mortgage originations are then projected to jump to $450 billion during both the following three months and during the third quarter.
From:: Financing
A pool of non-owner occupied home loans with a three-state concentration are being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
Bids are being taken on a pool of roughly 780 performing residential loans that have an aggregate unpaid principal balance of $39 million.
The non-recourse mortgages are investor transactions. No losses have been recorded for the portfolio since the program began.
From:: Financing