Category: Top National News

Mortgage Daily, Apr. 2, 2018Citigroup Inc. has appointed a new team of executives to oversee its drastically downsized mortgage banking business. The mortgage chief had only been on the job less than a year.

Mortgage Daily, Apr. 2, 2018The U.S. Mortgage Market Index from Mortgage Daily, a tool to forecast mortgage originations, declined 5 percent in the seven days ended March 30 from the prior week.

Mortgage Professional America, Apr. 3, 2018–Steve RandallThe paper, “Liquidity Crises in the Mortgage Market,” highlights that many nonbank lenders failed during the housing bust but the sector has been growing since as the result of banks and others pulling back their exposure and tightening underwriting conditions.

National Mortgage News, Apr. 2, 2018–Rachel Witkowski (subscription)The rule raises the threshold from $250,000 to $500,000 for commercial real estate transactions. Under the new rule, more transactions are exempt from a long-standing requirement to get an appraisal. Instead, banks can simply get an evaluation of the real property collateral.

Bloomberg, Apr. 2, 2018–Oshrat CarmielHome sales in Manhattan plunged by the most since the recession as buyers at all price levels drove hard bargains and were in no rush to close deals.

MarketWatch, Mar. 30, 2018–Andrea RiquierAs of the fourth quarter of last year, the share of all refinances that were cash-outs rose to the highest since 2008, according to Freddie Mac data. Rates have churned higher since the presidential election in late 2016, though they spent much of 2017 reversing the immediate post-election surge.

HousingWire, Mar. 30, 2018–Kelsey RamirezThe bureau is seeking comments and information from interested parties to assist in assessing the overall effectiveness and accessibility of its guidance materials and activities, including implementation support.

HousingWire, Mar. 30, 2018–Ben LaneThe report, published recently by the HUD Office of Inspector General, found that in 2016, the FHA insured an estimated 9,507 borrowers who were actually ineligible for FHA insurance because the borrowers had either delinquent federal debt or who were subject to federal administrative offset for delinquent child support.

HousingWire, Mar. 30, 2018–Sarah WheelerThe TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule was conceived as part of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s noble goal of giving consumers information about their total loan costs before they signed documents that bound them in a 30-year contract. But for all the good intentions behind this rule, it’s just not practical.

UExpress, Mar. 30, 2018–Lew SichelmanAccording to preliminary data from the Census Bureau, the square footage of new single-family homes in last year’s final quarter continued its downward trend after years of marching ever higher.