News

According to the Federal Housing Administration on Thursday, interest rates on conventional purchase-money mortgages decreased nationally from February to March. As interest rates dropped, prices have been on the rise, as shown in the FHFA’s last House Price Index for February, which released on Tuesday. House prices rose an average of 6.4 percent that month year-over -year, and up 0.6 percent month-over-month.

After the Financial Services Committee's hearing on the Financial CHOICE Act, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin expressed his approval of the act. The act was introduced during a hearing of the Committee by Commitee Chairman Jeb Hensarling on Wednesday as an alternative to the Dodd-Frank act. Financial CHOICE aims to end taxpayer-funded bailouts of big banks, impose tougher penalties for financial fraud and insider trading, and demand greater accountability from regulators.

Tight inventory and stiff competition for homes proved disruptive to pending sales in March, according to a new report by the National Association of Realtors. Pending sales activity dropped by nearly a percent since February. But overall activity is still soaring, and in most markets is up from where it was a year ago. Which might or might not be a good thing.

Luxury home prices are up more than 4 percent over the year, with Washington, D.C., seeing the biggest spike in price. According to one economist, potential tax cuts for the wealthy may be the cause. Other cities to see high year-over-year luxury home price growth were St. Petersburg, Florida; Portland, Oregon; Paradise, Nevada; West Palm Beach, Florida; and San Francisco.

Home seller ROI has hit an all-time high as of Q1 2017. The average seller now makes a 24 percent return on their original purchase investment, amounting to about $44,000 per sale. This is the highest point for seller ROI since 2007.

On May 11, the second annual Five Star Diversity Symposium will be held in Dallas, Texas. The Diversity Symposium is a day-long event focused on advancing the conversation on diversity within the mortgage industry, and will feature keynote addresses from diversity leaders as well as roundtable discussions and panels.

Through its supervisory activities, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has determined that some mortgage servicers are failing to provide adequate legal protection to struggling borrowers and have therefore violated the law. According to the Bureau’s Supervisory Highlights report released on Wednesday, CFPB examiners also found that some servicers mishandled escrow accounts, kept borrowers in the dark about their potential foreclosure prevention options, prematurely entered the foreclosure process, and sent incomplete bills and statements.

Flagstar Bank is seeing growth across its mortgage service lines, according to the Q1 2017 earnings report released by the bank on Wednesday. Flagstar’s commercial real estate loans jumped 11 percent from Q1 2016 and 58 from Q4 2016. The bank’s mortgage revenues are also up, rising 19 percent for the quarter.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin released the president's tax reform plan which could have a significant impact on the mortgage industry and the financial industry as a whole. Calling the tax cuts in President Trump’s reform “The biggest tax cut and largest tax reform in history of this country,” the reform would reduce corporate taxes down to 15 percent, cut the top tax bracket down to 35 percent, and double the standard deduction.

Ocwen has filed three motions against the CFPB in hopes of speeding up a Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the Bureau's constitutionality. The motions arrive on the back of a recent suit filed by the CFPB against Ocwen on April 21. The suit alleged Ocwen committed errors throughout the servicing process and improperly foreclosed on at least 1,000 homeowners.