Category: News and Trends

The Mortgage Bankers Association and nearly a dozen disparate trade associations offered the Federal Communications Commission a series of recommendations on curbing unlawful “robocalls” while preserving the ability of businesses to legitimately conduct vital business and customer services by phone.

The national homeownership rate fell slightly in the second quarter to 64.1 percent, the Census Bureau reported yesterday.

Ginnie Mae this week published a Request for Input on the analytical framework it is developing to assess Issuer financial performance under a variety of economic environments.

Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla., issued its June ‘First Look’ Mortgage Monitor, noting a seasonal quirk resulted in a spike in mortgage delinquencies from May’s record low.

The commercial mortgage-backed securities special servicing rate settled down in June after two “roller coaster” months, but drilling deeper reveals an interesting trend, reported Trepp, New York.

Growth in residential remodeling, which until recently had experienced steady if unspectacular growth, is showing signs of a longer-term slowdown, according to several reports.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report yesterday saying more than one in four consumers with a credit report have at least one debt in collection by third-party debt collectors.

Fitch Ratings, New York, said U.S. life insurers’ exposure to mortgages increased to nearly 13 percent of invested assets at year-end 2018, up from 12.4 percent a year ago.

The House Financial Services Committee last week began a markup session on a number of housing finance-related bills. Ahead of the first votes, the Mortgage Bankers Association sent a letter to Committee leadership offering views of several bills of interest to MBA membership.

Two reports from Fitch Ratings, New York, offer positive news on the status of U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities.