Real Estate Broker/Agency News

Mortgage applications decrease 4%

After two straight weeks of increases, mortgage applications dropped 4.2% for the week ending May 21, 2021, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association‘s weekly mortgage applications survey. “Demand is robust throughout the country, but homebuyers continue to be held back by the lack of homes for sale and rapidly increasing

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New home sales trigger concern over lumber prices

Today the Census Bureau reported 863,000 new home sales in April 2021. This was a miss from estimates and revisions for the previous months were all negative. From Census: “Sales of new single‐family houses in April 2021 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 863,000, according to estimates released

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FHFA’s RFI on appraisals is a critical inflection point

The FHFA’s engagement of industry stakeholders signifies a critical inflection point for appraisal transformation. Modernization will either take root and flourish throughout every branch of the mortgage industry, or our industry could miss a critical window to introduce meaningful reforms. While the fintech revolution has transformed the mortgage industry over

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Stewart Title acquires digital mortgage tech firm Cloudvirga

Title-services giant Stewart Title announced today the acquisition of Cloudvirga, a leading fintech company that powers digital mortgages through its retail and wholesale point-of-sale systems. The addition of Cloudvirga, founded in 2016 and used by 10 of the country’s top 40 mortgage lenders, strengthens Stewart’s positioning in the mortgage finance

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VA-like housing bill proposed for first responders, teachers

New legislation would extend a benefit similar to Veterans Affairs loans to first responders and teachers who buy homes. U.S. Representatives John Rutherford (R-Fla.), Al Lawson (D-Fla.), John Katko (R-N.Y.), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) introduced the bill, dubbed the Homes for Every Local Protector Educator and Responder Act, on

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Pandemic helped first-time homebuyers in some ways

Despite all the headlines about how millennial first-time homebuyers are at a severe disadvantage in the current housing market, the pandemic has boosted the fortunes of some. A recent Redfin study on the housing market found that 31% of millennial first-time homebuyers looking to buy a home in the next

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Home prices haven’t risen this fast since 2005

Home prices accelerated yet again in March, for the 10th straight time. In fact, they rose 13.2% from March 2020, according to the most recent S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index report. The March gain is also the largest since December 2005 and is one of the largest in the

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Loan quality lessons learned from 2020

HousingWire recently spoke with Trevor Gauthier, CEO of ACES Quality Management, about the effects of 2020 on loan quality and what lenders should expect regarding loan quality and risk management this year. HousingWire: What did the mortgage industry learn from the past year from an operational perspective? Trevor Gauthier: 2020

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Real estate agents hold breath on commission disclosure

The semi-annual “Realtors Legislative Meeting” of the powerful National Association of Realtors wrapped up earlier this month with the election of new leadership, and the NAR telling regional Multiple Listings Services what to do on listing addresses (post them all!). But the session did not reach a looming inflection point

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