With mortgage rates still in the mid 6% range, borrowers who received mortgages in April 2023 paid an average of $2,343 a month, up 28% from a year prior. That’s according to the latest origination data from mortgage tech firm Candor Technology. Per data from Candor’s underwriting engine, the average
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I was tired of fighting with mortgage lenders about self-employment income, high-interest rates, and dealing with scarce inventory that fit our family’s needs. We decided to rent a bigger home. I was beyond done. It wasn’t meant to be. The awards for entrepreneurship did not extend to quickly buying a
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The rapid housing market cool down and the rapid pace at which the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates took their toll on the title insurance industry in 2022. Last year, the industry generated $21 billion in title insurance premiums, down 16% from 2020, according to the American Land Title Association’s
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Fintech software and hardware company Mortgage Automation Technologies, Inc. announced on Monday that it has integrated its next-generation point of sale system, The BIG Point of Sale, on the latest API Platform available through ICE Mortgage Technology, a division of Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. The goal was to create a configurable
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For those in the mortgage space, there are a myriad of technology solutions claiming to help streamline lending operations and improve efficiency. These workflows help title and settlement companies track how data and decisions flow from initiation to outcome. Yet, somewhere along the steady stream of tasks, we’ve lost the
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A key source of affordable housing inventory was cut in half over the last three years, resulting from well-intended but heavy-handed efforts to keep delinquent borrowers in homes. That key source of affordable housing inventory: distressed properties sold to third-party buyers or repossessed by lenders at foreclosure auction. Once the
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Mortgage lender and servicer NewRez on Monday launched a special purpose credit program through Freddie Mac that will provide $3,000 or more in closing cost assistance to qualifying first-time homebuyers. Freddie Mac’s BorrowSmart Access program will be available to NewRez borrowers through Caliber Home Loans‘ national network of branches. The
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Just when I thought it was safe to say we were getting more traditional spring housing inventory , we hit a snag last week, as active inventory and new listings declined. Hopefully, this is just a blip, which can occur from time to time with weekly data. We had a
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In January, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) made a series of significant changes to loan level pricing adjustment (LLPA) fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on conventional/conforming mortgages. Although they went largely under the radar at the time, they ultimately caused an uproar among consumers, the mortgage
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Is the labor market finally normalizing? Jobs Friday data came in as a beat of estimates, but the labor market is clearly starting to come back to earth, killing the fear of 1970s wage spiral inflation. We’ve had a good week’s worth of data to show that the Federal Reserve
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Senators Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) introduced this week new legislation that aims to address a shortage of affordable housing in rural communities. The lawmakers say the bill would represent “the most significant Rural Housing Service reforms [in] years.” If passed, the bill, known as Rural Housing Service
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Optimal Blue, a division of Black Knight, Inc., announced on Thursday that the Optimal Blue product, pricing and eligibility engine (PPE) has added investor content from 54 state-based housing finance agencies (HFAs). HFAs provide affordable homeownership options to low- and moderate-income borrowers through down payment and closing cost assistance, as
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