housing wire

For the 18th straight week, servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume fell. It dropped four basis points to 3.87% last week, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association.  The MBA estimates 1.9 million homeowners are still in some form of a forbearance plan. The share

It’s that time of year again — the 2021 HousingWire Vanguard awards just opened for nominations. The HW Vanguard Award recognizes leaders of businesses contributing to the growth of the housing economy and its various sectors, including origination, real estate and fintech.

The most recent pending home sales report that soundly beat estimates after a downtrend in the previous months caused some serious head-scratching. Pending home sales were up a healthy 8% from April and just over 13% compared to the same

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has fully walked back a settlement agreement it reached with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) in the waning months of the Trump administration regarding anti-trust claims, the agency announced Thursday. In a statement,

Title insurance provider First American Financial Corporation announced the acquisition of Texas-based Georgetown Title, a company with roots planted in the Lone Star State over 125 years ago. Georgetown Title will become part of the direct operations of First American’s largest

Hiring in the U.S. picked up steam in June, as employers added 850,000 jobs amid declining COVID-19 cases and a reopening economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday. After a lackluster April and May, June’s employment gains totaled 100,000 more

With the forbearance moratorium expiring at the end of July and the CFPB’s new foreclosure rule taking effect in August, servicers have a lot to consider when working with borrowers on forbearance exits and loss mitigation strategies. HousingWire recently spoke

“The thing we need in real estate is more buzzwords about tech,” deadpanned Craig McClelland, vice-president and chief operating officer of BHGRE Metro Brokers in Atlanta. So began one of the more compelling panels at RealTrends’ “Gathering of Eagles” conference

We all love the feeling of a refreshed, renovated home, and being able to enjoy it instills a sense of pride in its owner. That’s partly why people are spending significant time, energy and money on home renovation projects these

If there’s one common characteristic that HousingWire saw the brightest marketing leaders and minds in the housing industry wield last year, it was being agile. When the world shifted to work from home, marketers stepped in with new messaging and

The beauty and lore of Savannah, Georgia is familiar to most Americans — even if they don’t know it. Savannah, with its lush trees and at-home hospitality, was the principle filming location for the 1994 Academy Award-winning movie “Forrest Gump.”

The average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell four basis points from the week prior to 2.98%, according to data released Thursday by Freddie Mac‘s PMMS. Within the past almost three months, mortgage rates have only peaked above 3% one time. “Economic growth remains steady

Black Americans continue to face greater financial and generational barriers to homeownership than white Americans, with a recent study finding that only 45.1% of Black Americans bought or own their home as of the first quarter of 2021 — against

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac servicers to follow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) new foreclosure rule a full month before it goes into effect. The move clarifies how servicers should approach

The threat of natural hazard risk in United States is on the rise. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, there were 22 weather and climate disasters in 2020 which cost over $1 billion. This is nearly 150% more

With the July 4th weekend nearly upon us, it’s time to reflect all that we have been through in the past year and how, as a country, we have overcome so many daunting obstacles, including what we have been through

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today released extensive mortgage servicing regulations it hopes will prevent “unwelcome surprises” for borrowers exiting forbearance. Across more than 200 pages, the CFPB laid out the rules for mortgage servicers to follow in the

Home prices in April saw an annual gain of 14.6% in April — up from a 13.3% increase in March, per the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index. Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) found that house prices across the nation rose 16% from April 2020 to April 2021. From March to April, house prices across the nation rose 1.8%, surpassing the previous month’s 1.6% increase. Three regions

Ginnie Mae is set to introduce a new 40-year mortgage term for its issuers on the heels of administrative shake ups at the top of the housing industry. Only modified loans with terms greater than 361 months and less than

Servicers’ forbearance portfolio volume fell two basis points last week to 3.91%, according to a survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA estimates two million homeowners are still in some form of a forbearance plan. Broken down by investor type, the share of

After attending the eponymous university of pioneering televangelist Oral Roberts, David DeZarn decided that his life’s calling was to be a pastor. DeZarn became an ordained minister – “I married them and I buried them,” he said – and immersed

New York-based Kensington Vanguard National Land Services recently acquired Hometown Title and Escrow, a title company based in Virginia. Hometown Title and Escrow is led by industry veteran Sharon Keegan and serves both residential and commercial transactions in the Northern

The housing market is no stranger to supply constraints. A toxic combination of wildly inflated lumber prices, a lack of new and existing homes, and the sheer number of borrowers willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars over ask