housing wire

President-elect Joe Biden is creating transition teams as he prepares for Inauguration Day in January, and there is a very familiar name at the top of the transition team for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Leandra English, the hand-picked successor

If you’re thinking about buying a home, then boosting your FICO score should be at the top of your to-do list.  Not only does a prime credit score improve your chances of getting approved for a mortgage, but it also

You can understand Jay Farner’s frustration: Rocket Companies just had the most productive quarter in the history of residential mortgage lending. It thumped competitors with a record $89 billion in originations in the third quarter, and made $3 billion in

In April, with the coronavirus pandemic raging across the country, leaders at JPMorgan Chase made the call: the bank was going to significantly tighten mortgage lending standards. Borrowers weren’t going to get a new mortgage without a 700 or higher

The average U.S. mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan rose this week to 2.84%, Freddie Mac said in a report on Thursday – up 6 basis points from the previous all-time record low set last week. The average fixed rate for a 15-year mortgage also

The Association of Independent Mortgage Experts isn’t done helping others.  After announcing the creation of Spark in September – a vertical aimed at creating paths for women and minorities in the mortgage industry – AIME’s newest program, Military in Mortgage,

Despite foreclosure moratoria holding steady in several states, a recent foreclosure report from ATTOM Data Solutions revealed a total of 6,042 U.S properties began the foreclosure process in October. That number is up 21% from a month ago, but still

Mobile-first title and escrow company, Endpoint, has announced it received an additional investment of $40 million from its parent company, First American Financial Corporation. This investment brings the total funding received to date to $70 million. Endpoint said that this

Mortgage applications decreased 0.5% last week after a 3.8% jump at the end of October, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). That’s despite the 30-year fixed rate decreasing to 2.89% — an all-time survey low. The refinance index,

After a dramatic false start in 2015, California-based lender loanDepot says it’s finally going public. The company, founded by billionaire entrepreneur Anthony Hsieh, said Wednesday morning that its newly formed affiliate loanDepot Inc. had confidentially filed paperwork with the Securities

Back in September, executives at Rocket Companies bragged about delivering a record third quarter, the kind of origination volume no observer or analyst had ever seen before. They weren’t kidding. Thanks to unprecedented market conditions, shifting demographics and historically low

Mark Dodson was having a promising start to the year. His corner of the Atlanta mortgage market – high-value home loans that wouldn’t be bought by the GSEs – was booming. But by March there were whispers that the non-QM

With just a week before the official meeting takes place, the battle for CoreLogic’s board of directors continued on Monday as CoreLogic issued an open letter that urged shareholders to vote against the Cannae Holdings and Senator Investment Group proposals

Anyone who read the Mortgage Bankers Association’s recent 2021 forecast knows that refinance volume is soon to slow down. Purchase originations are expected to grow 8.5% to a new record of $1.54 trillion in 2021. Refinance originations are predicted to

Online mortgage lender Better.com revealed it raised $200 million in a series D financing that put the New York-based startup at a $4 billion valuation, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg. The Monday news of Better’s new funding

The low interest rates this year have led to increased revenue and high loan volumes. Unfortunately, the threat of wire and title fraud risk has also increased.  As companies and their workforces continue to adjust to a work-from-home system in

After winning a majority of the electoral college, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are presumed to be the current president-elect and vice president-elect of the U.S. The housing industry took the opportunity to welcome the new administration and remind it

As of this writing, it looks like the Republicans will hold the Senate while the Democrats will have the White House and a majority of the House of Representatives. Assuming these results stick, I offer here some informed speculation regarding

Just weeks away from its anticipated $16.1 billion IPO, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) closed on the sale of $800 million in senior notes. The bond sale, which closed this week, gave the Detroit-based mortgage giant $791 million in proceeds. The

Non-QM lending took a brief pause earlier this year due to the pandemic causing a flight to cash in the bond market, but the non-QM borrowers and investors haven’t disappeared. While 2020 has seen record volumes, low rates and profits,