When you google “appraisal gap” — and I just did — a long list of search results appear. To my surprise, the top results did not link to economists expounding on the intricacies of home price fluctuations, the leading theories on avoiding overvaluation or pictures of stunt riders jumping over
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released on Thursday its Fourth Quarter 2022 Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report, stating that government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 52,469 foreclosure prevention actions in Q4 2022. That figure increases the total number of GSE-assisted homeowners to 6,712,833 since the start
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2022 was a roller coaster year, continuing the strong pandemic and post-pandemic fueled housing market through the first half of the year. Then, in the third quarter, we saw an abrupt stop to the record-breaking housing market. Despite market headwinds, the top brokerages continued to show growth in the 2023
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, comprising the districts of Connecticut, New York and Vermont, decided on Thursday that the funding provisions for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) are constitutional. A case between the CFPB and the Law Offices of Crystal Moroney — a law
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With current market conditions having a negative impact on traditional agency loans, expanding into non-QM products can allow brokers to grow their business and reach a wider borrower pool. But what’s the best way for brokers to market themselves to reach that wider, non-QM audience? According to Hitz Mistry, chief
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If there’s one sector of the economy that benefits from the very low levels of total housing inventory, it’s the homebuilders, but for a reason you might not think. If national housing inventory were back to normal, we would have 2 to 2.5 million active listings, and these active listings
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The ongoing tumult in the banking industry brought to light by the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — the second and third largest bank failures in U.S. history, respectively — also threatens liquidity channels for the independent mortgage banks (IMBs). Two banks that rank among the nation’s top warehouse lenders
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The collapses of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the rescue of First Republic Bank and the acquisition of Credit Suisse by UBS, brought turbulence to the financial markets that led to a decline in mortgage rates – despite the Federal Reserve hiking federal funds rate by 25
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The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced proposed implementation timelines for the use of the FICO 10T and the VantageScore 4.0 credit score models by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In concert, the government sponsored enterprises also plans to transition to two, rather than three, credit reports from the national
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Thursday, March 23 marks the one-year anniversary since the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE) released its action plan to curb instances of bias in the housing appraisal process. Led by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge and White House Domestic
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New home sales continued to rise in February, jumping 1.1% from January to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 640,000 homes, according to data published on Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). On a year-over-year basis, however, new home sales are still down 19.0%. “New home sales increased
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Buyers continue to feel the pinch from high mortgage rates and still-elevated home prices. But those committed to buying a new home are really committed, LOs said. The national median payment applied for purchase applicants rose 4.9% to $2,061 in February from $1,964 in the previous month, according to the
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