housing wire

We all have our own prominent COVID-19 memory from 2020. Mine was on Sunday, March 15. I sat at home that morning typing out an employee memo that effective immediately all team members would be expected to work from home

In this HousingWire Daily episode, HW+ Managing Editor Brena Nath covers the recent COVID-19 forbearance extensions. In February, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it had extended COVID-19 foreclosure and forbearance moratoriums for FHA and USDA loans to June 30,

Zillow is putting their money where their Zestimate is, at least to a point. The “Zestimate,” Zillow’s catchy (and soapy) name for estimated home values, will sometimes be used as the initial offer Zillow plans to pay to purchase a

Finicity, an open-banking solutions provider that was acquired by Mastercard in October, announced that it is dipping further into the mortgage space. Finicity’s latest product, dubbed its “mortgage verification service,” will allow prospective borrowers to provide certain permissions that allow

Nikolaos Pavlou, product marketing manager at Blend, will sit down with other housing luminaries to discuss what mortgage tech is solving now at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Pavlou will be joined by Finicity’s Senior Vice President of Product

Borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be eligible for an additional forbearance extension of up to six months, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Thursday. On Feb. 9, the FHFA extended forbearance plans an additional three months past beyond their initial

It’s like the Yogi Berra quote – nobody goes there anymore, it’s too crowded. For the fifth consecutive month, U.S. pending home sales dipped – this time, down 2.8% in January from December, according to a report from the National Association

Rocket Companies, the parent company of Rocket Mortgage, cleared another $2.48 billion in profits during the fourth quarter, giving the nation’s biggest mortgage lender a total of $9.5 billion in profits for 2020. Rocket originated $107.2 billion in mortgages, with

Debbie Thayer, executive vice president of default administration at Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, will speak on a panel titled Servicing Challenges During a Pandemic Period at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Thayer will be joined on the panel by Courtney Thompson to

The average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan is now just 3 basis points away from 3%, after a 16 basis point jump last week pushed mortgage rates to 2.97%, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. The average mortgage rate

Digital notary startup Notarize is now offering free notarizations in an effort to eliminate racial covenants in title insurance documents. The issue came to light after real estate brokerage Windermere Real Estate earlier this month publicized the existence of title documents

HousingWire recently spoke with Propertybase CEO Vance Loiselle about real estate tech and how the past year has accelerated the need for digital collaboration tools across the entire customer journey. HousingWire: What role has the increase in technology played for both

Title insurance upstart States Title announced this week $150 million in debt financing from HSCM Bermuda, which will go towards developing a more modern home closing experience. CEO Max Simkoff said the financing will held them “wipe the system clean” and

The first-time homebuyer process is a lengthy one, and if you’re not careful, there’s a lot that can throw you off-track. From low appraisals to surprise credit checks, a number of hurdles could slow your purchase or even derail it

Courtney Thompson, senior vice president of default mortgage at Flagstar Bank, will speak on a panel titled Servicing Challenges in a Pandemic Period at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. Thompson leads Flagstar’s default mortgage operations team, delivering industry-leading transparency into the

United Wholesale Mortgage has filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by three independent mortgage brokers last year whom the lender accused of “churning.” The Pontiac, Michigan-based wholesale mortgage lender filed a motion this week saying that the three

Tech giant Blend‘s CEO and Co-founder Nima Ghamsari will join other housing luminaries at HousingWire’s  Spring Summit March 4 to discuss mortgage disruption and what’s coming down the road for those in housing. Even in the midst of a banner

This year has brought plenty of disruption to mortgage servicing, from regulatory and economic uncertainties, to a long-term shift toward remote work environments. Meanwhile, the past decade has seen an explosion of digital solutions in mortgage origination, and servicing will

Fannie Mae, the largest mortgage financier in the U.S., said Friday that its net income in the fourth quarter of 2020 checked in at $4.6 billion – up 8% from the third quarter. The government-sponsored entity’s total net income for

Tai Christensen, CBC Mortgage Agency’s director of government affairs, will join other housing luminaries to discuss how lenders can increase their diversity to impact minority homeownership at HousingWire’s Spring Summit on March 4. The homeownership gap between white and Black Americans is

It wasn’t long ago that scribes were writing the obituary of the mortgage underwriter. And yet, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the underwriter has become the most sought-after professional in the mortgage industry. Some underwriters were commanding five-figure bonuses on top

Realogy announced Thursday that it has centralized its lead programs under one roof, yet another example of streamlining and reorganization at the brokerage conglomerate over the past year. Effective immediately, the move hands the lead generation process at all franchises

Online retail lender loanDepot raised just $54 million by offering 3.9 million shares at $14 on Thursday, far below the range of $19 to $21 it initially had sought. The downsized offering follows a theme that’s afflicted almost all of

“Big Four” title insurer First American Financial Corp. announced a healthy $7.1 billion in total 2020 revenue in its annual earnings report, released Thursday. That’s a 14% rise year over year, according to officials. Net income was $696.4 million last