Category: Top National News

Mortgage Daily, Aug. 6. 2018A severe shortage of real estate appraisers has North Dakota officials making a request to waive appraisal reports, at least temporarily, on some residential loans. Banking regulators see the move as necessary.

Wall Street Journal, Aug. 7, 2018–Laura Kusisto (subscription)The initiative acts similar to rent control-which has been gaining traction in many parts of the country-by keeping units in private hands and controlling the rate of rent increases. But it comes with less political baggage because it is voluntary.

HousingWire, Aug. 6, 2018–Kelsey RamirezMany Americans, about 40%, say buying a new home is the most stressful event in modern life, according to a survey of 2,000 Americans by Homes.com. Another 44% said they felt nervous throughout the home-buying process.

American Banker, Aug. 6, 2018–Kate Berry (subscription)The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving quickly on a fintech sandbox to remove the regulatory cloud from new firms, but the effort is about more than just fostering innovation.

Bloomberg BNA, Aug. 3, 2018–Allyson Versprille, Lydia O’NealMortgage banks are among dozens of specialized businesses hoping soon-to-be-released guidance will give them a slice of the new tax break for pass-through businesses. “Congress specifically left out financing,” Fran Mordi, the Mortgage Bankers Association’s associate vice president for financial management, tax and accounting policy said. The law’s language, she said, “is really not addressing what mortgage banking institutions do.”

Mortgage Professional America, Aug. 3, 2018–Ryan SmithCapital One is planning to slash another 286 mortgage-related jobs as it exits its mortgage lending business. That’s in addition to the 950 employees the bank laid off in November. The employees all work at the bank’s Plano, Texas, campus.

National Mortgage News, Aug. 3, 2018–Brad Finkelstein (subscription)National MI deliberately dropped some of its customers in the second quarter, resulting in flat new insurance growth compared with the first quarter and a lower increase versus one year prior.

HousingWire, Aug. 3, 2018–Ben LaneRealPage announced late Thursday that it is planning to acquire LeaseLabs, a provider of digital marketing services and software to approximately 800,000 units in the multifamily housing industry, in a $100+ million deal.

UExpress, Aug. 3, 2018–Lew SichelmanHundreds, if not thousands, of undocumented immigrants are still using Individual Taxpayer Idenification Numbers to buy houses.

Reuters, Aug. 3, 2018–Lauren Tara LaCapra, Pete SchroederThe $8 million accrual is intended for roughly 625 borrowers who should have qualified for a loan modification under a program the Treasury Department set up in 2009 to help Americans who were struggling to make mortgage payments. An error in Wells Fargo’s underwriting tool improperly excluded those borrowers, 400 of whom eventually had their homes foreclosed upon, the bank said.