Category: Top National News

Mortgage Daily, Apr. 2, 2018A month-over-month decline to a new 2-year low in agency issuance was led by Fannie Mae, even though Ginnie Mae’s securitizations fell to a three-year low.

Mortgage Daily, Apr. 2, 2018–Sam GarciaIn addition to senior management appointments at several mortgage banking organizations, two companies have hired executives to head up their construction lending divisions.

Wall Street Journal, Apr. 1, 2018–Peter Grant (subscription)Empty space in regional shopping malls reached a six-year high in the first quarter, adding further stress to regions being hit by a retail earthquake that is shaking up the job market across the U.S.

Los Angeles Times, Apr. 1, 2018–Roger VincentLast year, Chinese investors interested in buying or developing property in Southern California peppered World Trade Center Los Angeles officials with questions about how best to break into the market. But questions such as those have nearly ceased as China’s feared pullback from overseas investments has been borne out.

Bloomberg News, Mar. 29, 2018The U.S. Department of Justice has reached an agreement with Barclays Capital and affiliates to settle a civil action filed in 2016 related to the mis-selling of residential mortgage-backed securities.

National Mortgage Professional, Mar. 29, 2018–Phil HallRay Williams is Vice President of Business Development at MortgageBanc, a branch of Fairway Independent Mortgage in Birmingham, Ala., and current President of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Alabama.

Washington Post, Mar. 29, 2018–Kathy OrtonAccording to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate average slipped to 4.44 percent with an average 0.5 point. It was 4.45 percent a week ago and 4.14 percent a year ago.

Wall Street Journal, Mar. 29, 2018–Rolfe Winkler (subscription)Open Door Labs Inc., which buys and resells houses, is in talks with investors to raise at least $200 million at a roughly $2 billion valuation, a deal that would help it purchase more homes and expand to new cities.

HousingWire, Mar. 29, 2018–Jason FrazierWeb 2.0, a.k.a social media, a.k.a “the current state of the Internet” (credit: Gary Vaynerchuk) has won the war. In fact, it won a couple of years ago. Why are we talking about this? Because I am tired of Loan Officers and Agents asking me for statistics, net ROI, or any other transactional measurement that the old guard thinks matters. Guess what? It doesn’t.

Mortgage Daily, Mar. 29, 2018First American Financial Corp. said risk of fraud on home-loan applications says that risk on loans with adjustable rates is lower than on fixed-rate mortgages. The report indicated a year-over-year rise in overall risk.