The Council of Multiple Listing Services announced its new board of director members for 2024 on Tuesday. The MLS trade group said the new directors will assume their roles starting Jan. 1, 2024. The two new directors elected to the board are Justin Haag, the general counsel and incoming president and CEO from Northwest MLS, […]
California-based mortgage lender loanDepot on Tuesday announced the launch of its fully automated underwriting engine called melloNow. The new system, which has been in beta-testing for the last several quarters, delivers a fully conditional loan approval “in minutes rather than hours or days,” the company said in a statement. Jeff Walsh, loanDepot’s mortgage president, said in a […]
The copycat commission lawsuits have made it to the West Coast. A home seller plaintiff in California filed an antitrust lawsuit on Friday in U.S. District Court for Northern California, accusing the real estate industry of colluding to artificially inflate real estate agent commissions. The lawsuit was filed by Christina Grace, who sold a house […]
Homeowners are increasingly concerned with flood insurance premium hikes impacting affordability, Fannie Mae‘s latest national flood survey showed. Despite people’s personal flooding experience, consumers have a poor understanding of the flood risk of their residence, particularly for those in high-risk zones, according to survey results. Fannie Mae conducted an online survey in late 2022 among […]
Inflation continued to edge down in November on a monthly basis, reinforcing the likelihood that the Federal Reserve holds interest rates steady at its final meeting of the year on Wednesday. Consumer prices were up 3.1% in November from a year earlier, down from 3.2% in October, according to data released by the Bureau of […]
In the mortgage business, November typically represents the start of the slow season. While mortgage rates cooled down significantly from October, it wasn’t enough to overcome seasonal, historic trends and low levels of inventory. Lock volume declined 10% last month from October, driven by a 12% drop in purchase locks, according to Optimal Blue’s originations […]
While sellers of existing homes have struggled with rising rates and softening demand, homebuilders have not only survived, but thrived in this market thanks to the use of mortgage rate buydowns, a tool more widely used by builders since their business is selling homes and clearing inventory. Research from the AEI Housing Center found that […]
Wells Fargo, once the largest mortgage lender in America, was accused of discrimination through the common industry practice of offering mortgage loan discounts to select borrowers, CNBC reported. The bank received Matter Requiring Attention (MRA) notice from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on problems with loan discounts, CNBC reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources. […]
Cleveland, Ohio-based fintech Upright has launched a debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) rental loan to investors, the company announced on Monday. DSCR rental loans are non-qualifying mortgages (non-QMs) used by real estate investors to qualify for a loan based on their property’s cash flow without personal income verification. “Many customers at first come to us for our […]
A few months ago I published a video where we asked, “How much will home prices gain by the end of the year?” Using a headline like that should come with a trigger warning. We could see that home prices were inching up, but there are many who think that home prices are currently falling. […]
A former account executive is accusing United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), the top mortgage lender in the country, of racial discrimination, hostile workplace environment, harassment and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed on Dec. 8 in a district court in Michigan. Corey Tucker, a Black man who began at UWM in December 2021, claims that shortly after his […]
RE/MAX has seen a steady stream of agents and new franchisees over the past three weeks. In late November, the firm announced that Elizabeth Ruehrwein, a top agent in the Rehoboth, Massachusetts area joined RE/MAX Integrity, leaving Lamacchia Realty, previously known as Keystone Property Group. Ruehrwein, who became a licensed agent in 2017 after working […]
