Fannie Mae to accept lender-funded down payment assistance

Fannie Mae will now buy mortgage loans with lender-funded grants, including down payment assistance, closing costs or financial reserves. The change could give nonbank lenders a way to guard against redlining accusations. The government-sponsored enterprise will start accepting such loans immediately. According to Fannie Mae’s guidance, “The lender must have

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Ocwen earnings down amid higher rates, spreads

Florida-based mortgage servicing company Ocwen Financial — the parent company of entities including PHH Mortgage Corp. and Liberty Reverse Mortgage — recorded a pre-tax loss of $26 million in Q2 2022 compared to income of $6 million one year prior. The company attributes those losses to higher mortgage interest rates

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Veros acquires appraisal management company Valligent

The parent company of appraisal software firm Veros Real Estate Solutions has acquired California-based appraisal management company Valligent Technologies. Valligent, founded in 2003 and led by Jeremy McCarty and Jeff Wickham, provides traditional, desktop and hybrid appraisal services to lenders, credit unions and others. Its bend toward digital valuation services

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Freedom Mortgage agrees to sell RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing 

Two years after acquiring RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing, Freedom Mortgage Corp. has inked a deal to sell the nonbank mortgage servicer to Matrix Financial Services Corp., another leading mortgage servicer and a wholly owned subsidiary of real estate investment trust Two Harbors Investment Corp. The acquisition is an all-stock deal, with Matrix agreeing to pay a

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Cheer up, at least purchase mortgage rates are now below 5%

Purchase mortgage rates dropped for the third consecutive week and are now below the 5% level, reflecting a Federal Reserve monetary policy that has led to a “technical recession” in the U.S. economy. According to the latest purchase mortgage survey from Freddie Mac, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage declined this week to average 4.99%,

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Real estate brokerage Radius unveils mortgage-lending arm

Tech-focused real estate brokerage Radius, flush with $14 million in venture capital raised this past April, has launched a mortgage lending arm in California that it plans to roll out to additional markets sometime next year. The new venture, a mortgage brokerage operation, is focused on the California market to start,

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New American Funding eliminates hundreds of jobs

New American Funding has laid off hundreds of employees across multiple rounds of workforce reductions this year, multiple former employees told HousingWire. The most recent layoff came on Tuesday when the California-based lender eliminated several hundred positions, including loan officers, mortgage underwriters, processors and training specialists, multiple former employees said.

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Expect a foreclosure spike in the coming months

Distressed mortgages dating back to the height of the pandemic are expected to fuel a jump in foreclosure activity over the next 12 months, although the foreclosure rate is still expected to remain below the pre-pandemic historical average, a new report from Auction.com contends. The prediction by one of the nation’s leading

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Class Valuation acquires AMC AppraisalTek

National appraisal management company Class Valuation is extending its reach, with the acquisition of yet another appraisal management company. The AMC today announced the acquisition of AppraisalTek, a Chandler, Arizona-based AMC, for an undisclosed sum. Class Valuation said it would bring on AppraisalTek’s 75 full-time employees. AppraisalTek was founded in

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Opinion: The elasticity in mortgage employment

Is there a new way to address the truth about staffing in the mortgage industry? When will we learn to be more transparent to our employees — people with families and bills — and stop the endless flow of layoffs? While taking with Clayton Collins, CEO of HWMedia, he used

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