Author: Michael Gersitz

MAXEX, which last month re-introduced its Jumbo Express loan program, announced today that it is has been approved as a direct seller to Fannie Mae and is expanding its conforming loan program. MAXEX’s Chairman and CEO Tom Pearce announced the

As fires and a hurricane threaten communities across the U.S. this week, residents of low-income housing are at an especially high risk of financial and other loss resulting from the natural disasters, the Urban Institute has shown. For one community

In January, our team at Knox Financial felt like we had the wind at our backs. Knox was approaching its first full year in business, and every month more homeowners and landlords were putting their properties onto our platform that

The last two times Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac instituted an adverse-market fee to compensate for a riskier lending environment, during the run-up to the financial crisis more than a dozen years ago, lenders got plenty of warning. The announcements

Despite mortgage rates that continue to hover around 3%, mortgage applications fell 6.5% last week, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Associations. As the industry continued its dialogue regarding the proposed refinance fee, the refinance index fell 10%

Sales of new homes rose to an annualized rate of 901,000 in July – a near 13.5 year high for the second month in a row, according to the Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to the

This story has been updated with reaction from industry trade groups. The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Tuesday it is postponing the date it will begin implementing its adverse market refinance fee to Dec. 1. The FHFA directed Fannie Mae

From retail to restaurants, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken out tens of thousands of businesses nationwide. But minority-owned companies have fared much worse than their white counterparts, largely due to limited access to capital. The number of active business owners

The Census Bureau‘s new home sales report released Tuesday hailed another defeat to the housing bears’ doom and gloom predictions for 2020 after COVID-19 hit our economy. There may have never been another time in the history of America when the bears

Mortgage lending this year likely will total $3.4 trillion, about $1 trillion higher than 2019, as low rates boost refinancings, Fannie Mae said in a forecast. That would be the highest level of originations since 2003’s $3.8 trillion, according to

HousingWire spoke with Altisource Vice President of Product Ben Hall about the increased adoption of remote online notarization (RON) and how Altisource supports lenders looking to move to full eClosings. HousingWire: The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the conversation around wider

Note: This is part four of a five-part series. Over the following weeks, Todd Duncan, sales entrepreneur and New York Times best-selling author, will showcase principles for mortgage and real estate professionals to embrace for success. Find more advice in

Almost 80% of economists say there’s at least a one-in-four chance of a double-dip recession, following a record 32.9% plunge in GDP in the second quarter, according to a survey released on Monday from the National Association for Business Economics.

The U.S. forbearance rate declined for the second consecutive week, falling to the lowest level since mid-April, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The share of mortgages with agreements to suspend payments fell to 7.2% from 7.21%, MBA said in

In a letter addressed to congressional leaders, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Treasury and the National Economic Council, a coalition of 31 housing organizations and industry trade associations urged the administration to immediately restart negotiating

e-Closing platform Pavaso announced on Monday it has been awarded the Remote Online Notarization Compliance Certification through the Mortgage Industry Standard Maintenance Organization – making it the fourth company to receive the specialized certification. Originally introduced in April, the MISMO

A Denver-based real estate agent has been fired after removing Black Lives Matter signs from front yards, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. It all started when a resident in a Denver neighborhood was walking his dog and noticed the

James Kleimann is joining HousingWire as Mortgage Editor to help the company sharpen coverage in housing finance, while also expanding into other housing verticals like real estate, title/escrow and appraisal. Working alongside HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler, Kleimann will

Operations have become increasingly important in today’s environment, and some companies have even offered sign-on bonuses for these roles as the need for them heightens. Many of the 2020 HW Insiders are from these operations roles, and their talent was