Category: Top National News

Bloomberg, Sept. 20, 2019–Arianne CohenA 2018 Columbia University study found that healthy adults who reside in multigenerational housing live longer. And a Pew Research Center analysis last year found that Americans are increasingly residing multigenerationally-20% of Americans live in a home that includes adults from two or more generations, up from 12% in 1980. Developers have taken note.

Wall Street Journal, Sept. 22, 2019–Andrew Ackerman (subscription)Mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to start keeping their earnings as early as this week, pausing a yearslong arrangement in which they handed nearly all of their profits to the Treasury Department.

U.S. commercial real estate remains a favored asset class even as economic uncertainty looms, said the Urban Land Institute and PwC.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 19, 2019–Hannah Lang (subscription)In its vision for the future of housing finance, the Trump administration foresees a smaller role for the Federal Housing Administration. Yet many of the ideas outlined for the FHA in a Sept. 5 report by HUD have raised eyebrows and have some former FHA officials concerned.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 19, 2019–Brad Finkelstein (subscription)Flagstar Bank expects to recover $1 million of its loan to defunct reverse mortgage lender Live Well Financial following the sale of the collateral that secured it.

HousingWire, Sept. 19, 2019–Ben LanePretium, an investment management firm that already owns one of the nation’s largest single-family rental operators and buys non-performing loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the truckload, is now in the non-Qualified Mortgage lending business after acquiring Deephaven Mortgage.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 18, 2019–Kate Berry (subscription)The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ratcheted up investigations and enforcement actions in the past few months, an apparent shift by the agency under Director Kathy Kraninger, who had initially signaled that supervision would be the primary focus in her tenure.

Bloomberg, Sept. 18, 2019–Christopher MaloneyMortgage investors are unlikely to see a net supply surge even should interest rates continue to move lower, if only because the pace of new home construction is far slower than it used to be.

HousingWire, Sept. 17, 2019–Kelsey RamírezLife insurance companies are set to create a surge in multifamily lending in 2020, according to a new study from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

HousingWire, Sept. 17, 2019–Kelsey RamirezA rule that allows government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sidestep stricter mortgage underwriting requirements is set to expire in 2021, and while that may seem like a ways away, its pending removal has sparked widespread debate throughout the industry. (MBA mention)