When assessing December’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) volume data for December 2023, Reverse Market Insight (RMI) used a choice word as the title for its commentary: “thud.” Amid an already challenging operating environment observed throughout 2023, both HECM endorsement volume and HECM-backed Securities (HMBS) issuance closed out the year on a low note, with […]
Title insurance giant First American Financial reported progress on restoring its systems from a pre-Christmas cybersecurity incident. First American has fallen victim to data theft after a perpetrator exfiltrated data and encrypted data on certain non-production systems in late December. “First American’s network, including our employee email system, has been restored. This development allows us […]
Detroit-based Rocket Companies, parent of Rocket Mortgage, has named Jonathan Mildenhall to its newly created chief marketing officer position, responsible for the marketing and communications teams for all the company’s brands. Mildenhall will create and unify a “compelling voice for all businesses under the Rocket Companies umbrella,” the company said in a statement. He will start on […]
Older Americans are forced to navigate a series of serious financial challenges compounded by their needs for both housing and later life care. While home equity can certainly be a beneficial tool for some seniors to deploy, it will not always be a definitive answer for every senior’s needs. This is according to Jennifer Molinsky, […]
In the first week of 2024, mortgage rates continued to stick around the mid 6% mark. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.62% as of Jan. 4, a slight increase from the 6.61% rate recorded on Dec. 28, according to Freddie Mac‘s Primary Mortgage Market Survey released on Thursday. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.89% this […]
Lawmakers in Florida are getting creative when it comes to trying to solve their state’s homeowner’s insurance challenges. Due to the recent uptick in the number and severity of hurricanes facing the Sunshine State, many insurers and reinsurers have made the decision to leave the state. According to the Insurance Information Institute, this exodus has […]
Los Angeles-based rental management software provider RentSpree successfully passed an audit regarding its data protection strategy, obtaining the System and Organization Controls (SOC) 2 Type II compliance. SOC 2 is regarded as the premier data security standard for Software as a Service (SaaS) providers. Developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the SOC […]
William Erbey, the controversial founder of Ocwen Financial Corp., is back as chairman at Altisource Asset Management Corp. (AAMC). The company appointed Erbey to the role of CEO in late December and the board of directors also appointed him as its Chairman, a position he held from March 2012 to January 2015. This comes on […]
Nonbank mortgage lender and servicer Pennymac Financial Services issued pink slips to more than 80 employees in November as it faced tough headwinds in 2023. A total of 84 staff were affected at five offices in Pasadena, Roseville, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Moorpark, California, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications (WARN) alert […]
A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program designed to allow for the construction of rental housing units is getting a new participant: the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokee Nation announced it will participate in HUD’s Section 184 Skilled Workers Demonstration Program, which will allow for the construction of multiple rental dwelling units in […]
As the U.S. population grows older with each passing year, looking for new and novel ways to fund long-term care for the aging population could include home equity. A reverse mortgage can certainly play into this, but another growing dynamic is the divide between higher- and lower-income homeowners. This is according to “Housing America’s Older […]
