The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Friday issued a report indicating that it is taking a closer look at the impact of “discount points” on mortgage transactions, noting that use of the practice has picked up over the past two years with undetermined value for mortgage borrowers.“The

Fast-growing, publicly traded The Real Brokerage announced Monday that it had reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs in the Umpa commission lawsuit. The Umpa suit is the only commission lawsuit in which Real has been named as a defendant. The brokerage will pay $9.25 million into a quali

Analysts at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods believe that the Department of Justice will intervene in Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit after receiving the green light to reopen its investigation into the National Association of Realtors.In a note published on Sunday, the analysts wrote that

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) unveiled a new partnership with  SoFi on Monday. As part of the agreement, NAR members and their clients will be eligible to receive exclusive rates and discounts on mortgages, student loan refinancing, and personal loans, among other perks.“This partnershi

United Wholesale Mortgage’s (UWM) revenue margins “don’t stand out like” one would expect if the company was overcharging borrowers, analysts at BTIG said on Monday. The comments follow a Hunterbrook Media report from last week stating that UWM pressures brokers to send loans its way, resulting in h

The lack of affordable housing in the United States is well-documented in the nation’s urban markets, where it is contributing to the swelling ranks of the homeless. That same dire need for affordable housing for the least prosperous among us, however, also is a serious problem in rural America — ho

Weekly housing inventory data — both active inventory and new listings  — are prone to one-week moves that deviate from a trend, especially if people are going Easter egg hunting. So, the fact that active inventory and new listings data fell last week isn’t a big deal. Although I expect some of the

The number of first-time homebuyers made up 32% of all buyers in 2023, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors. Millennials comprised 75% of this demographic, with older millennials and Generation X (ages 44 to 58) accounting for 44% and 24% of first-time buyers. Again

Ginnie Mae this week issued a public notice to its issuer partners warning of an observation of higher prepayments in some of its mortgage-backed securities (MBS) programs, reminding issuers that a violation of its requirements could result in punitive action.In a prior All Participants Memorandum (

Today’s jobs report beat estimates, but the internals show the labor market is softening, as the Federal Reserve wants. The data shows that wage growth is cooling down and the job opening quits rate is below pre-COVID-19 levels. This bodes well for those hoping to see a soft landing, and for those h

Reverse mortgage professionals in Massachusetts will be reliant on their borrowers’ ability to complete their required counseling sessions under the state’s face-to-face mandate following the expiration of a provision temporarily relaxing the standard that expired on April 1.This is according to pri

The National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) announced this week that Peter Sciandra, EVP of reverse lending and secondary marketing at Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation, has joined its board of directors for the remainder of the 2023-2024 term.Reverse mortgage division leaders a

In a filing earlier this week, HomeServices of America asked Judge Stephen Bough, who is overseeing the Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit, to deny the plaintiffs motion for entry of judgement.In their mid-March filing, the Sitzer/Burnett plaintiffs asked the court to order HomeServices of America, t

Since the spring of last year, a typical family with a median income has not been able to afford a median-priced home, according to the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) Housing Affordability Index.Half of U.S. homeowners and renters (49.9%) sometimes, regularly or greatly struggle to afford t

Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.) has introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives that would codify the “tri-merge” credit model into law, a rebuke to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA)’s recent efforts to transition to a “bi-merge” model that would require only two credit reports to

As of March 29, the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metropolitan area was the fourth-hottest housing market in the country. The Bay Area metro had a 90-day average Market Action Index score of 61.19, according to data from Altos Research. In comparison, Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, the top-ranked metro ar

A three-judge panel for the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in D.C., has ruled that the Department of Justice can reopen its investigation into the National Association of Realtors. In an opinion filed on Friday, Circuit Court judges Florence Pan and Karen Henderson ruled that the settlement agreement

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on Thursday announced a new series of affordable housing grants totaling $13.5 million, which will go to support the creation of homes for low-income, first-time homebuyers as part of HUD’s Self-Help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP).

The federal judge overseeing a case brought by Texas Capital Bank (TCB) against Ginnie Mae has dismissed a portion of the bank’s complaint against the government-owned company but will allow the majority of the case to progress, according to court filings reviewed by RMD.Presiding Judge Matthew Kacs