News

As the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) mulls over a proposed increase in guarantee fees, a new report from the Urban Institute (UI) suggests the agency faces a more difficult task than one might assume. In a commentary released Thursday, UI authors Laurie Goodman, Ellie Seidman, Jim Parrott, and Jun Zhu say that, based on their modeling, g-fee determination "is an art, not a science—and more like a Jackson Pollock than a da Vinci."

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) estimates purchase applications for new homes nudged up 2 percent compared to June. The increase does not account for any typical seasonal patterns. Factoring in seasonal adjustments, MBA says July single-family new home sales ran at an annual rate of 433,000 homes, up from 386,000 in June, representing a 12.2 percent rise.

Informative Research, a mortgage information services provider, has appointed Jane House as director of portfolio solutions, the company announced.

The average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) dropped to a year-low 4.12 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending August 14, according to Freddie Mac, down from 4.14 percent from the week ending August 7 and from 4.40 percent from the same week in 2013.

Houston-based real estate services firm Stewart announced it has completed its acquisition of DataQuick Lending Solution's valuation services line, marking the company's first step into the collateral valuations business.

Home sales transacted in cash slipped again in May, falling to a four-year low but remaining elevated compared to the long-run average. According to sales data put together by CoreLogic, cash sales made up 34.4 percent of total home sales in May, down from 37.4 percent a year prior. It was the lowest share since May 2010, when all-cash sales started ramping up to an eventual peak of 46.2 percent in January 2011.

According to the latest Residential Price Index report from FNC, home prices are still on the way up, just not at the pace they used to be. FNC found that despite continued signs of leveling off in home price appreciation, U.S. home prices were up another 0.8 percent from May to June and 2.3 percent throughout the second quarter. Meanwhile, year-over-year growth is decelerating as expected.

Caliber Home Loans, Inc., introduced a new leader in its National Builder Division, naming Michael Brown as SVP.

In a follow-up piece on the company's inaugural Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey, Li-Ning Huang, senior manager of Economic and Strategic Research at Fannie Mae, found that most of the lenders surveyed don't plan to change their current strategy in response to January's regulatory changes, with 46 percent saying they plan to "wait and see" what happens in the market before acting.

The Structured Finance Industry Group (SFIG) has released the first of a series of papers aimed at restoring investor confidence in the private-label residential mortgage-backed securities market. Overall, the group's effort looks to clarify differences in alternative standards in order to improve transparency across RMBS deals.