Housing Wire

JANUARY 16, 2025

The 10-year yield and mortgage rates have been on a wild ride lately, even testing my top-end forecast at 7.25%, but today, the 10-year yield fell after remarks by Fed President Chris Waller about whether the Fed would do even more rate cuts than the market was anticipating. However, we know that this is unlikely to happen.

Mortgages 511

Mortgages Residential Construction Marketing 511

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 15, 2024

An often misguided premise I see on social media is that lower mortgage rates are doing nothing for housing demand. Purchase application data First, purchase apps is the fastest way to look for positive or negative data at higher or lower mortgage rates. That’s ok — very few people are looking at the data without an agenda.

Mortgages 521

Mortgages Sales As-is Marketing 521

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 19, 2024

Its late December so all the 2025 mortgage rate forecasts have been published. Most housing market analysts expect mortgage rates to spend the year with a 6 handle. The most optimistic predictions assume 2025 will see mostly low 6s for the 30-year fixed rate mortgage. Unfortunately, all of them are already wrong.

Mortgages 488

Mortgages Fixed-rate mortgage As-is Marketing 488

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 1, 2024

The best part about 2024 has been that higher mortgage rates have created an inventory buffer, so if the economy gets softer and rates fall, we have many more homes to work with than we had in 2020-2023. However, as mortgage rates have fallen recently , I haven’t been able to hit my targets, which isn’t a surprise.

Mortgages 538

Mortgages Banks As-is Sales 538

Housing Wire

JANUARY 8, 2025

Heading into the 2025 housing market, we havent had this many homeowners with mortgage rates over 6% since 2016. of outstanding mortgages, around 8.7 million borrowers, carry a mortgage with an interest rate over 6%. had these cheap mortgages. People with expensive mortgages are more likely to sell their house.

Mortgages 488

Mortgages Finance Equity Loans 488

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 28, 2024

Housing demand is very seasonal, so the fact that our pending contract data is firming up lately just shows that lower mortgage rates have stabilized and firmed up demand recently. It will likely take mortgage rates to go under 6% and stay there for an extended period to get real sustained demand growth from record-low sales levels.

Mortgages 525

Mortgages As-is Marketing Sales 525

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 5, 2024

18 and mortgage rates and bond yields headed higher. But, we have to remember that mortgage rates had already made an almost 2% move lower since the highs of 2023 without rate cuts, as the bond market always gets ahead of the Fed. This explains the rise in mortgage rates since the Fed cut rates.

Mortgages 511

Mortgages As-is Sales Marketing 511

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 30, 2024

Despite initial concerns that tariffs would push mortgage rates up to 8% and reduce housing demand, this week has brought some encouraging news. The 10-year yield has remained stable at a crucial technical level and even reversed direction, resulting in improved mortgage rates. This is what happened in the last two years.

Mortgages 518

Mortgages As-is Sales Marketing 518

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 18, 2024

The market reacted badly to the FOMC statement and remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Powell during the Q&A presser, sending the 10-year yield and mortgage rates higher. What he got is higher mortgage rates again. I’ve been cautious about getting to sub-6% mortgage rates until the labor breaks. So what gives?

Mortgages 448

Mortgages Marketing As-is 448

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 21, 2024

The difference is mortgage rates: even with inventory growing at a healthy clip this year, mortgage rates just heading down toward 6% for a brief period of time resulted in higher prices in a seasonally soft period. However, that didn’t happen. from September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.96 million in October.

Mortgages 492

Mortgages Finance Sales As-is 492

Housing Wire

JANUARY 8, 2025

Higher-for-longer mortgage rates have claimed their first victim of 2025. Ally Financial announced Wednesday that it would exit the mortgage origination business as part of a broader strategy to pursue higher returns on investments. Bloomberg was the first to report the developments.

Closing 418

Closing Mortgages Loan Officer Development 418

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 31, 2024

By at least one measurement, affordability is improving for prospective homebuyers, even as home prices continue to rise and mortgage credit availability remains relatively low. According to data released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the median payment for purchase loan applicants declined by 0.8%

FHA loan 446

FHA loan Mortgages Loans As-is 446

Housing Wire

JANUARY 2, 2025

Rising mortgage rates suppressed applications in the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) final mortgage applications survey index of 2024, released on Thursday. Mortgage demand declined 21.9% Mortgage demand had been on the upswing for much of November and December. from two weeks earlier during the week ending Dec.

FHA loan 468

FHA loan Mortgages VA loan Loans 468

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 22, 2024

Have we seen the bottom in mortgage rates for 2024 after a crazy roller coaster ride so far this year? My 2024 forecast had a mortgage rate range of 7.25%-5.75%. To get to the lower end of this range, we needed to see two things: the labor market getting softer and the mortgage spreads improving. Yes, here’s how and why.

Mortgages 525

Mortgages Sales As-is Marketing 525

Housing Wire

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

The Federal Reserve cut rates on Wednesday and mortgage rates went up! The 10-year yield and 30-year mortgage rates have been in a slow dance since 1971 and trended together. The growth of housing permits is a good sign for economic expansion, and falling mortgage rates since June have helped push this data line. What happened?

Mortgages 531

Mortgages Marketing As-is Industrial 531

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 11, 2024

Zillow is moving full speed ahead with an ambitious expansion of its mortgage business, leveraging its housing tech innovations to potentially reshape how modern homebuyers finance homes. billion in purchase mortgage business, not far off a top 50 spot on the mortgage leaderboard. That’s an annualized $3.2

Mortgages 459

Mortgages Loan Officer Loans Agents 459

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 28, 2024

Mortgage tech firm Ocrolus has introduced Inspect, a new solution within its artificial intelligence -driven mortgage document automation technology, which the company said will improve efficiency and scalability in loan origination. Currently, Ocrolus supports more than 95% of mortgage document types.

Inspection 448

Inspection Mortgages Technology Lending 448

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 1, 2025

Higher mortgage rates are forcing many first-time homebuyers to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach to the market. Agents reported that 27% of first-timer buyers requested mortgage rate buydowns from sellers. ” Despite forecasts that predict mortgage rates above 6% in 2025, agents hope for a shift in the market.

Purchase and sale agreement 481

Purchase and sale agreement Mortgages Agents Brokerage 481

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 30, 2024

Lower mortgage rates in September had a measurable impact on home sales. Pending home sales data is the latest sign that falling mortgage rates in August and September boosted home sales. According to data released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), pending home sales in September jumped 7.4% year over year.

Sales 476

Sales Mortgages As-is Finance 476

Housing Wire

JANUARY 2, 2025

Today, the jobless claims data again showed why mortgage rates continue to be elevated, confirming that the labor market isnt breaking. Mortgage rates have remained mostly in a range over the past two years, fluctuating between 6% and 8%. My forecast for 2025 includes these projected ranges for mortgage rates and the 10-year yield.

Mortgages 505

Mortgages Construction Residential Sales 505

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 30, 2024

A 60 basis point increase in mortgage rates in October has strangled mortgage demand, particularly for refinancings , according to the latest survey data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage applications overall decreased 0.1% The refinance share of mortgage activity decreased to 43.1% the previous week.

Mortgages 468

Mortgages Loans Sales Marketing 468

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 22, 2024

Mortgage rates continue to rise, serving as a bucket of cold water for lenders and consumers that were warming to lower borrowing costs just a few months ago. According to HousingWire ‘s Mortgage Rates Center , the average 30-year conforming rate was 6.61% on Tuesday. With mortgage rates back above 6.5%

Mortgages 468

Mortgages Marketing Construction Sales 468

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 3, 2025

There is constant movement in the mortgage industry with the desire for growth and expansion. Thus, it has never been more important to focus on due diligence in analyzing a mortgage industry acquisition target. Regulatory compliance The mortgage industry is heavily regulated and subject to scrutiny by both State and Federal agencies.

Due diligence 417

Due diligence Purchase and sale agreement Industrial Mortgages 417

Housing Wire

FEBRUARY 7, 2025

The labor market is showing signs of softness but is not breaking down yet, which has kept mortgage rates higher for longer. Since 2022, my guiding principle has been that the labor market is more important than inflation in determining mortgage rates. This is the reason mortgage rates are around 7% and not around 6% today.

Mortgages 441

Mortgages Marketing Residential Construction 441

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 31, 2024

In the halls of the Colorado Convention Center on Monday, it was hard not to overhear mortgage bankers gnashing their teeth over the rumored price hikes for Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) scores. per score to all mortgage lenders, independent of their volume. “It’s an abuse of power, a complete monopoly.” What will it cost?

Industrial 468

Industrial Mortgages Closing costs Lending 468

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 18, 2024

One Florida mortgage broker said the Provident exit gave him “a feeling that we will see other major lenders exiting the condominium market in Florida. Some owners of older condo units have had to list at prices far below what they bought the units for because special assessments are so high (and are difficult to finance).

Mortgages 524

Mortgages Marketing Lending Finance 524

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 11, 2024

in the past year, driven by more cases of identity and transaction fraud New data shows that cases of fraud among mortgage applicants is on the rise — an eye-raising trend as demand from borrowers remains relatively quiet. The CoreLogic Mortgage Application Fraud Risk Index jumped by 8.3% CoreLogic’s risk index rose 8.3%

Mortgages 516

Mortgages Sales Loans Lending 516

Housing Wire

JANUARY 24, 2025

There were a total of 298 consumer complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in 2024 that were related to the reverse mortgage industry, according to a database maintained by the bureau. Among the nation’s top 10 reverse mortgage lenders, Onity Group Inc. the parent company of PHH Mortgage Corp.

Mortgages 416

Mortgages Bankruptcy Short sale Loans 416

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 31, 2024

Reverse mortgage industry leader Finance of America (FOA) announced updates on Thursday to the interest rate for HomeSafe Second, its proprietary second-lien reverse mortgage product. It will also be available in four new states, bringing the total to 10 with more planned for 2025. The new states are Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Utah.

Mortgages 433

Mortgages Equity Loan Officer Loans 433

Housing Wire

JANUARY 8, 2025

As mortgage rates continue to climb past the 7% mark, applications continued to take a step back following the New Year’s Day holiday. from the week prior, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported in its weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending Jan. Demand decreased by 3.7% the previous week.

Mortgages 447

Mortgages Fixed-rate mortgage Loans Sales 447

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 20, 2024

House of Representatives proposes to relieve Federal Housing Administration (FHA) borrowers of mortgage insurance premiums (MIPs) once they reach a certain level of home equity , aligning FHA policies with those of conventional loans. Mortgage insurance exists as protection from foreclosure on low equity loans. Introduced by Reps.

FHA loan 418

FHA loan Mortgages Equity Loans 418

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 31, 2024

Jonathon Haddad, chairman and CEO of the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts (AIME), is one of the owners of Next Door. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), NerdWallet said the deal allows the company to “provide mortgage shoppers with more hands-on guidance.

Lending 490

Lending Mortgages Loan Officer Principal 490

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 29, 2024

Economists pointed to lower mortgage rates as the reason for slower growth. Despite the Federal Reserve’s half-point interest rate cut in September, rates for 30-year conforming loans have climbed back up to 6.7%, according to HousingWire ’s Mortgage Rates Center. gain year over year, less than the 4.8% gain from July.

Mortgages 486

Mortgages MLS Equity Loans 486

Housing Wire

OCTOBER 17, 2024

economy appears to be on firmer footing than previously thought, mortgage rates are forecast to end 2024 at 6% and home-price growth is also on the move. “This represents upside risk to the ESR Group’s latest mortgage rate forecast, which now sees the 30-year mortgage rate ending the year at 6.0%, down from last month’s 6.2%

Mortgages 511

Mortgages Sales As-is Marketing 511

Housing Wire

DECEMBER 14, 2024

The holiday season is here, and despite higher mortgage rates last week, housing demand is displaying some festive resilience. Mortgage rates picked up last week, though that hasnt significantly impacted our pending contract data, which is showing some positive year-over-year growth when we compare it to 2022 and 2023.

Mortgages 448

Mortgages Sales As-is Residential 448

Housing Wire

JANUARY 3, 2025

Reverse mortgage professionals made more inroads into the forward mortgage industry in 2024. This happened through dedicated conversations, partnerships between reverse and forward mortgage companies, and expanded activities in reverse that stemmed from acquisitions and expansions of existing divisions.

Mortgages 418

Mortgages Lending Loan Officer Loans 418

Housing Wire

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

You would think this would cause the 10-year yield and mortgage rates to go lower. I hope that clears up some of the confusion on why bond yields and mortgage rates aren’t going lower today. Today’s jobs report showed the lowest job-growth data for the year at 12,000.

Mortgages 508

Mortgages Residential Construction Marketing 508