Category: News and Trends

DALLAS–Your borrowers are watching, says Joseph Dombrowski, Director of Product Management & Chief Mortgage Strategist with Fiserv, Brookfield, Wis.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.17 percent of all loans outstanding at the end of the fourth quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported yesterday.

Ahead of the Mortgage Bankers Association’ National Delinquency Survey release, ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif., said 9.3 percent of all U.S. properties with a mortgage were seriously underwater (LTV of 125+) at the end of the fourth quarter, down from 9.6 percent a year ago.

Loan application defects, fraud and misrepresentation increased by more than 20 percent in 2017, and that figure could rise in 2018 as mortgage interest rates rise, said First American Financial Corp., Santa Ana, Calif.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday published a final rule that establishes new housing goals for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for 2018 through 2020.

The Mortgage Bankers Association and nearly a dozen industry trade groups called on the House to pass a pending bill that would provide consumers with greater choice in mortgage and settlement services.

The Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., projects homeowner spending on improvements and repairs will approach $340 billion in 2018, an increase of 7.5 percent from estimated 2017 spending.

Despite a triple whammy of summer hurricanes, along with California wildfires that drove up mortgage delinquencies toward year-end, the overall rate of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures fell in 2017, said Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla.

A survey from LendEDU, Hoboken, N.J., found little more than half of consumers who take out home equity loans use those funds for home improvement projects.

A bill introduced this week in the Senate would restore captive insurance companies’ membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank system, a provision strongly supported by the Mortgage Bankers Association.