If you have been thinking about selling your home, you may be wondering which home improvements you should tackle to increase your home’s value before it goes on the market. While there are many home renovations that can add appeal
9 Affordable Miami Suburbs to Live In
Beautiful beaches, warm temperatures, and rich culture are only a few of many reasons why Miami, Florida is a great place to live. Sometimes called “the Magic City,” it’s no surprise that almost 443K people live in Miami. For those
How to Calculate the Square Footage of a House
A house that sounds roomy and spacious online may actually have 800 of its total square feet contained in a four-foot-tall dirt-floor basement. What’s up with that? In cities like Washington DC, homebuyers are often confused about the square footage
10 Day Trips From Houston You Need to Take
Houston, TX, the “Space City,” is the largest city in Texas and is known for its vibrant culture, fantastic sports teams, and being a prominent hub of space exploration. From watching a Houston Astros game at Minute Maid Park to
Mortgage applications slide 2.7% in last week of 2021
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
20 state attorneys general take aim at mortgage servicers
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
FHFA hikes fees for high-balance and second-home loans
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.
RMF acquires AAG reverse mortgage servicing portfolio
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 creating safety net for the private-label market
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 brings Ginnie Mae loan servicing in-house
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
Opinion: Mortgage industry will shed 100K jobs this year
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
Heated Floors: Everything You Need to Know
Picture this – it’s a chilly winter morning and when you step into your kitchen to make yourself a cup of coffee, your bare feet are warmed by the floor beneath you. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Heated floors are a
Richmond Virginia Housing Market: Prices & Forecasts 2022
Buying real estate in Richmond, VA can be a worthy investment for 2022. Forbes ranked Richmond #55 as the best place for business and careers in the U.S. Richmond’s real estate market remains brisk, with buyers willing to pay more
What is a Ranch Style House? All About the Rambler
As one of the most popular home styles across the country, ranch-style houses are versatile and appeal to a variety of homebuyers. With their minimalist exterior, open-concept interior, and relative affordability, you might just consider bumping a ranch house to
What’s holding the industry back from broad-scale digital closing adoption?
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
UWM is bullish on the resurgent private-label market
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
Offerpad lands $600M more in credit to power iBuying
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
Cape Cod House Style: Simplicity Meets Timeless Charm
When kids are asked to draw a picture of a house in elementary school, they invariably respond with a rectangular shape that features a door in the center, with a window on each side. This simple – but timeless and
Atlanta Real Estate Market: Prices | Trends | Forecasts 2022
This article has been updated to reflect the most recent Atlanta real estate market trends. By and large, the Metro Atlanta housing market has recovered smoothly. Despite unemployment and uncertainty, the Atlanta residential real estate market performed exceptionally well in
Clear Capital launches appraisal tool to speed photo review
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
Irvine Housing Market: Prices | Trends | Forecasts 2022
Real estate is booming in California year-over-year. Irvine, California is overshadowed by Los Angeles located forty miles to the northwest. It is, however, a suburb of that rapidly expanding housing market and a niche housing market in its own right.
Home affordability plummeted in fourth quarter
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
Top of the list: An interview with Ben Caballero
Ben Caballero Each year RealTrends releases its list of the highest performing real estate agents in the country, and, like clockwork, Ben Caballero of Dallas-based HomesUSA tops the list. In 2020, Cabellero reported 6,409 transaction sides — or 18 home
The “Big Four” take on the upstarts in title insurance
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,