Author: Michael Gersitz

Mortgage applications decreased 2.7% from two weeks earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association survey for the week ending Dec. 31, 2021. The results include adjustments to account for the holidays. The holiday adjusted Refinance Index decreased 2% from two

Some Federal Housing Administration-approved mortgage servicers have routinely flouted the agency’s loan modification program, according to Washington, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine and 20 other state attorneys general. The attorneys general wrote in a Dec. 21 letter that a number

The Federal Housing Finance Agency introduced new upfront fees on Wednesday for some high-balance and second-home loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Upfront fees for high balance loans will increase between 0.25% and 0.75%, tiered by loan-to-value ratio.

Reverse Mortgage Funding, LLC (RMF) has acquired a portfolio of mortgage servicing rights (MSRs) and other assets from industry-leading lender American Advisors Group (AAG), which consists of more than 75,000 loans totaling $12.1 billion in unpaid principal balance (UPB). This

SitusAMC CEO Michael Franco SitusAMC subsidiary Securent is expanding its reach into the private-label market with plans to soon introduce a loan-defect insurance product for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) transactions, according to executives from both companies.  The initial focus of Securent, which was

loanDepot announced this week that it will begin servicing Ginnie Mae loans in-house, following a 2021 decision to do the same for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac-backed loans. The top-ranked nonbank lender said in a press release that servicing Ginnie

The most wonderful time of the year, as the song would have us believe, comes to a close with Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas, Jan. 6. I do hope everyone had a joyous holiday season, spending some relaxing time

For well over a decade, the industry has made steady progress in digitizing mortgage closings. As a result, closings today fall on a spectrum of digitization, with benefits that increase with each component that is digitized and each document that

Pontiac, Michigan-based United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) capitalized on a booming private-label market in 2021 by sponsoring its inaugural securities transaction this past May, a prime jumbo deal involving 508 mortgages with an aggregate principal balance of $351.9 million. That was the start

As Zillow tries to swiftly disentangle itself from iBuying, a one-time competitor may borrow over $600 million more to radically increase its instant home-buying purchases. Offerpad, a Chandler, Arizona-based iBuyer, snared $500 million in a revolving credit facility from an

Appraisal management company Clear Capital, in the latest effort to revamp the appraisal process, hopes to automate property photo reviews to ensure data and photo consistency with its photo review product, ClearPhoto. Clear Capital’s data science team developed the product

Homeownership continues to swerve into unaffordable territory, with median-priced single-family homes becoming less affordable in three-quarters of the nation’s market, a report published by ATTOM Data Solutions last week said. Per the report, between October to December 2021, median home

This article is part of our HousingWire 2022 forecast series. After the series wraps early next year, join us on February 8 for the HW+ Virtual 2022 Forecast Event. Bringing together some of the top economists and researchers in housing,

This week’s HW+ member spotlight features Sarah DeCiantis, chief marketing officer at United Wholesale Mortgage. As a 2019 Vanguard and Women of Influence, DeCiantis is the catalyst behind United Wholesale Mortgage’s strategic approach to marketing, which has helped the company