Industry Briefs July 7, 2020

CoreLogic Launches OneHome Collaborative Platform

CoreLogic, Irvine, Calif., launched OneHome, a virtual, collaborative platform for real estate agents and their clients looking to buy, sell or make improvements to a home. Following a launch with Ohio-based Yes-MLS, OneHome is expected to be nationally available by the end of 2020 to the more than 850,000 real estate agents in North America who currently use CoreLogic’s multiple listing platform.

OneHome combines multiple features designed to create a frictionless homebuying process. This includes a digital collaboration platform for real estate agents and their clients, artificial intelligence-enabled search to find the right home, an intuitive guide for the homebuyer and agent throughout the process and a virtual marketplace that seamlessly connects homebuyers to mortgage, property and casualty insurance and home improvement options.

Black Knight: Home in Forbearance See Sharp Drop

Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla., reported the number of active forbearance plans fell by 104,000 during the last week of June to the lowest weekly total active forbearances seen since the first week of May.

Black Knight said as of the end of June, one-fourth of homeowners in forbearance had remitted their June payment, compared to 46% in April and 30% in May. The report said 4.58 million homeowners are in forbearance plans, representing 8.6% of all active mortgages, down from 8.8% last week. Together, they represent just under $1 trillion in unpaid principal. 

Fitch Ratings Updates U.S. RMBS Surveillance Report

Fitch Ratings, New York, published an updated cross-sector surveillance report with performance records tracked through May of all active U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities sectors, including Prime 2.0, Expanded Prime 2.0, Non-Prime 2.0, Reperforming Loan (RPL) 2.0, GSE Credit Risk Transfer and outstanding pre-crisis prime, Alt-A and subprime sectors.

The report said coronavirus pandemic and subsequent shutdown of large sectors of the U.S. economy has led to a sharp increase in observed delinquency across all U.S. RMBS sectors. Post crisis, sectors’ observed delinquencies have spiked to a level higher than they have ever been. Additionally, a large number of borrowers have enrolled in forbearance plans or have deferred payments on their mortgage to later months. Home prices have thus far continued to appreciate despite the current economic environment, largely driven by more favorable mortgage rates to home buyers and tighter supply caused by temporary lockdowns.

Fitch: Unemployment Drives Highest US Home Price Overvaluation Since Financial Crisis

Fitch Ratings, New York, said elevated unemployment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic will likely translate to frothier markets throughout the U.S. over time, even though U.S. home prices posted their largest quarterly gain since 2018 pre-pandemic in 1Q20.

Fitch said national home prices, which grew 5.7% annually in 1Q20, are currently more than 6.1% overvalued as per Fitch’s calculations. Rising home prices, elevated unemployment and lower income and rents will increase the vulnerability of the housing market. Fitch expects downward pressure on home prices for the next several months even with lower projections for unemployment in 2020 (10.3% per Fitch estimates) and 2021 (7.8%).

“The magnitude of the rise in unemployment is having an outsized impact on Fitch’s home price overvaluation estimate for this quarter,” said Senior Director Suzanne Mistretta. “As a result, the next several months will be critical for home prices. To what degree housing markets become more overvalued will depend on the trajectory of both unemployment and nominal income, both of which have a lasting impact in our estimates.”

Fitch said should home price growth remain at 4% for 2020, the downside economic scenario could push home price overvaluation to 8.6% by end of this year, the highest rate of overvaluation in more than a decade. However, if the unemployment rate forecast is revised lower, but still elevated, and home prices finish out the year at 4% growth, Fitch’s home price overvaluation would be around 7% at the end of 2020.

C Squared Social, OptifiNow Announce Partnership

C Squared Social, San Diego, announced a partnership and integration with OptifiNow (https://www.optifinow.com), Seal Beach, Calif. The collaboration pairs the targeted digital lead generation expertise of C Squared Social with the enterprise platforms designed to deliver sales support and management at every point in the customer life cycle from OptifiNow.

C Squared Social is a targeted audience building and Social Media advertising company that has constructed successful partnerships with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, LinkedIn and the Audience Network. OptifiNow is a platform designed to help client’s convert leads into more closed deals and improve ROI with an all-in sales enterprise product.

MBA’s Broeksmit to Speak at #NEXTDC20

NEXT Mortgage Events LLC, Edmond, Okla., and Housing Finance Strategies, Washington, D.C., announced #NEXTDC20, a virtual executive summit that will take place November 10.

Speakers include: Brian Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency, OCC; Terry Sullivan, Founder, Firehouse Strategies; Bill Emerson, Vice Chairman, Quicken Loans and Rock Holdings Inc.; Lisa Rice, CEO of National Fair Housing Alliance; Bob Broeksmit, CMB, President and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association; Lindsey Johnson, President, USMI; Jay Bray, President, CEO and Chairman, Mr. Cooper; Sanjiv Das, CEO, Caliber Home Loans; Bernadette Kogler, CEO, RiskSpan; Stan Middleman, CEO of Freedom Mortgage; Diane Yentel, President and CEO of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition; and Brent Chandler, CEO and founder, FormFree.

Registration is open at no cost to housing industry professionals at https://nextmortgagenews.com/nextdc20.  

RICOH Tours Announces Rebrand, New Product Offerings and Global Launch

RICOH Tours, Cupertino, Calif., announced the company’s rebranding as RICOH360 Tours to further expand globally. RICOH360 Tours is a cloud-based software service that allows anyone who has a RICOH THETA 360 camera and RICOH360 Tours mobile app to create a virtual tour without any special skills or expensive equipment, enabling facilities management and real estate agents to provide high-quality property viewings virtually.

RICOH360 Tours also released both a manual and auto-cropping feature. With auto-cropping users have the ability to allow the RICOH360 Tours AI-based image processing technology to generate the best 2D stills automatically from every 360 image in a virtual tour ready for publishing to an MLS.

Ginnie Mae Announces Temporary Pooling Restrictions for Re-performing Mortgage Loans

Ginnie Mae, Washington, D.C., issued an All Participants Memorandum 20-07 (APM 20-07) that immediately implements pooling eligibility restrictions on re-performing mortgage loans that were bought out of Ginnie Mae pools.

Ginnie Mae I MBS are modified pass-through mortgage-backed securities on which registered holders receive separate principal and interest payments on each of their certificates. Ginnie Mae I securities can include single-family, multifamily, manufactured home and project construction loans.

Ginnie Mae II MBS are modified pass-through mortgage-backed securities for which registered holders receive an aggregate principal and interest payment from a central paying agent. An Issuer may participate in the Ginnie Mae II MBS either by issuing custom, single-Issuer pools or through participation in the issuance of multiple-Issuer pools, which combine loans with similar characteristics.

This temporary action continues to provide for buyout transactions that are appropriate and necessary, while maintaining market confidence in Ginnie Mae securities. For more information on the policy change, see APM 20-07 and Ginnie in Brief.

Deepak Chopra, Nely Galán to Headline NAHREP at L’ATTITUDE Live Broadcasted Conference

NAHREP, Sn Diego, the 2020 NAHREP Sales Mastery, Real Estate and Wealth Conference at L’ATTITUDE, which will be broadcast live September 24-27, 2020.

Speakers include Deepak Chopra, pioneer in mindset and personal transformation; Nely Galán, Media & Real Estate Entrepreneur; Mike Ferry, Founder and CEO of The Mike Ferry Organization; Matthew Ferry, Master Life Coach, Spiritual Teacher, Best-Selling Author; and Tom Ferry, CEO of Ferry International.

For more information, visit www.nahrep.org/conference.

Fannie Mae: Lenders, Servicers Seek Clarity in Forbearance Options

Fannie, Mae, Washington, D.C., said feedback from nearly 200 senior mortgage executives found top challenges identified by lenders, in order, were gaining clarity from secondary-market investors around updates to loan eligibility guidelines and navigating supply chain disruptions.

For mortgage servicers, the leading challenge cited was “understanding and navigating post-forbearance options for distressed borrowers.” For the fourth year in a row, respondents cited “business process streamlining” and “consumer-facing technology” as the two most important business priorities for the year. However, in 2020, the importance of “business process streamlining” rose significantly, and is now clearly lenders’ most important priority.

CFPB, OCC Host Virtual Innovation Office Hours

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced joint, virtual Innovation Office Hours, July 29-30, as part of the American Consumer Financial Innovation Network. Participants will have the opportunity to discuss issues that touch upon both consumer protection and prudential regulation.

Office Hours are one-on-one meetings with representatives from the OCC and CFPB Offices of Innovation to discuss financial technology, new products or services, partnering with a bank or fintech company or other matters related to responsible innovation in financial services. Each meeting will last no longer than one hour. Interested parties should request a virtual office hours session by July 17, and are asked to provide information on the topic(s) they are interested in discussing with the Offices of Innovation.

Related Links:

• CFPB’s Office of Innovation web page
• OCC Responsible Innovation web page
• OCC Office of Innovation: A General Guide

Walker & Dunlop Launches Internship Program for Underserved Youth

Walker & Dunlop launched a paid summer internship program for high school and college students from diverse backgrounds in partnership with Project Destined, REPLI and REIRail.

The six-week program pairs students with commercial real estate firms, where live transactions will help participants gain real-world experience in digital marketing. The program is administered by Project Destined, which trains underserved youth. Property tech company REPLI and real estate lead generation and business education platform REIRail will also participate.

As part of the program, interns will dedicate eight hours per week to working within the commercial real estate industry. Students will also participate in weekly team-based competitions. The weekly competitions will include presentations on multifamily transactions, allowing students to collaborate with real estate professionals on real-world scenarios. The program will culminate in a Shark Tank-style finale, in which each team of interns will present a digital marketing plan to industry leaders.

JLL Re-Opens Chicago Headquarters

As local governments lift restrictions to allow companies to bring employees back into workplaces, JLL has re-opened more than 75 offices in the United States, more than half its total portfolio, including its flagship headquarters at the Aon Center in Chicago. The company said it is on track to re-open nearly 100 U.S. offices by the end of July. 

JLL is implementing shifts to reduce the number of employees in the office at one time. For example, at Aon Center the firm is bringing back no more than 25 percent of employees during Phase 1.

Over the past few years, JLL’s annual Occupancy Benchmarking Report has shown that organizations have allocated less square footage to individual desks. But the current need for social distancing has led to the requirement of greater “de-densification” of office space, the report said.

As of mid-May, the JLL occupancy planning team had developed social distancing plans for nearly 150 million square feet of client space, with nearly half of those clients reporting a loss of 50 percent capacity or more for their floors.

“Ultimately, it could be the need to de-densify space, combined with office worker’s desire for human interaction, that drives the ‘next normal’ of offices around the country in the near-term, as longer term needs are being assessed,” said JLL Markets CEO John Gates.