housing wire

JMAC Lending restarted its jumbo program on Monday, a week before the target date the company set in March when it suspended funding the bigger mortgages as the COVID-19 pandemic began hitting the U.S. economy. The revived jumbo program is

The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to influence rent prices across the country. California is seeing rents decrease in several areas. According to RealPage, operators in Los Angeles cut rents by 3.3% in May 2020 compared to May

RenoFi, a fintech platform that aims to empower lenders to offer a “next generation” of renovation loans, has raised $6.4 million in Series A round of funding, the company has told HousingWire exclusively. Canaan Partners led the financing, which also

This story has been updated with comments from Finicity Credit card giant Mastercard announced this morning its plans to acquire Finicity, a provider of real-time financial data aggregation and insights, for $825 million. As part of the agreement, Finicity’s existing

Sales of new houses jumped 16.6% in May as low mortgage rates and a shortage of inventory in the existing-home market enticed Americans released from stay-at-home orders to buy from builders. Purchases of new single-family houses rose to 676,000 at

Since stay-at-home orders and self-quarantines began in March, more businesses have moved to digital solutions and that’s been particularly true for parts of the real estate transaction. A survey from Qualia revealed that there was a nearly 40% surge in

In a survey from LendingHome, house flippers, landlords and real estate investment brokers explained their view of the market before, during and after COVID-19. “There was more optimism than we expected, and we were a bit surprised,” said Matt Humphrey,

The share of mortgage loans in forbearance plans fell to 8.48% last week from 8.55% the week prior, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Forbearance and Call Volume survey. This marks the first time the total number of loans in

Monday’s existing home sales report showed a significant decline in the year-over-year metric for May. This May report showed sales were down 26.6%, the lowest sales print since the housing bust years at just over 3.9 million. The stay-at-home orders

Sprout Mortgage is adding enhancements to its recently unveiled suite of non-QM programs. Last week, the lender announced the release of three modifications to complement its May 27 non-QM program release after a short freeze on non-QM lending.  With an

If you’re in the mortgage business, expect to have your busiest year in 2020 since the height of the housing bubble in 2006. Combined lending for home purchases and mortgage refinancings probably will total $2.65 trillion this year, the most

As states slowly reopen, real estate agents are once again able to conduct in-person home tours. While good for business, the return of in-person showings also means more safety risk for Realtors, as seen this weekend when a Keller Williams

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is under the microscope as the Supreme Court prepares to issue a major ruling, expected this week, on whether the agency’s single-director structure is constitutional. The decision is seen as also impacting the Federal Housing

The hashtag #cancelrent was trending on Twitter Monday morning as protesters in New York City called for an extension on eviction moratoriums. Try and take our homes? We’ll take over the streets. @NYGovCuomo, extend the real eviction moratorium and #cancelrent

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Monday two notices of proposed rulemaking surrounding what’s commonly known as the QM Patch. One of those rulemakings would remove the debt-to-income requirement from qualified mortgages. Back in January, CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger sent

The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate rose to 7.76% in May as Americans struggled to pay their bills during the worst public health crisis in more than a century. The rate rose from 6.45% in April and was 3.39% in March,

U.S. existing home sales tumbled 9.7% in May to the lowest level since late 2010 as COVID-19 plunged the nation into recession and chilled transactions. Sales of single-family houses, condominiums and cooperatively owned apartments fell to a seasonally adjusted and

The Federal Reserve is urging its examiners to go easy on banks offering forbearance to borrowers impacted by COVID-19, and will be issuing additional guidance on the issue, Chairman Jerome Powell told Congress on Wednesday. Powell’s statement came in response

Housing starts gained 4.3% in May as construction crews returned to building sites amid an easing of COVID-19 restrictions, according to a government report published on Wednesday. Builders broke ground on 974,000 homes last month, from an upwardly revised 934,000

Summer homebuying season continues to heat up. In new data released by realtor.com on Wednesday, listing views in suburban ZIP codes grew 13% in May, nearly doubling the pace of growth in urban areas. Suburban listing views in May 2020

May housing activity declined year over year “across the board” according to a report by Buildfax, a property condition data service provider. However, the report states positive homebuilder sentiment and an increase in construction hiring suggests these slowdowns will eventually

On Wednesday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the Federal Housing Administration is providing a two-month extension of its foreclosure and eviction moratorium through August 31, 2020. This is the second extension the FHA has enacted since

The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Wednesday extended the foreclosure and eviction moratorium for borrowers with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac until “at least” Aug. 31, the federal watchdog said. “During this national health emergency no one

The COVID-19 pandemic upended just about everything this year, and that includes much of the home-buying process. A new study from Clever revealed that homebuyers who bought between January and May this year are twice as likely to have anxiety