There’s a lot going on, and not only jawboning about a potential Fed rate increase next week. We have the smoke drifting down from Canada and slowing or stopping flights in the Northeast. The Wall Street Journal reports that China and Cuba have signed an agreement for a Chinese eavesdropping station in Cuba. For rate watchers, Trepp has come out with a report showing interest rates sensitivity with commercial loans, cousin to our residential loans and their sensitivity to refinancing given interest rates. Yes, interest rates impact everything to do with borrowing and lending. New data revealed real estate investors purchased 48.6% fewer homes in Q1 of 2023 than they did a year earlier, according to the latest market report from Redfin. That’s the largest annual decline on record and outpaced the 41 percent drop in overall home purchases in the 40 major metros analyzed. Investor purchases fell 16 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis, comparable with the 15 percent quart
Did you know that cows snooze laying down for the four hours of sleep they need a day? Did you know that horses sleep standing up? These tidbits may come in handy for me this week as I head to Cody, Wyoming for the WMLA annual conference. Or they may not. Here’s a question not so trivial: what has 250,000 customers and a $37 billion unpaid principal balance? Answer: Rushmore Loan Management Services’ residential mortgage servicing platform, being sold to Mr. Cooper Group this year. Recall that Mr. Cooper agreed to acquire Roosevelt Management Company, LLC, Rushmore's parent company, to serve as the platform for its mortgage servicing rights fund asset management strategy. Lenders of all shapes and sizes have been selling their MSRs for various reasons, not the least of which is to raise cash in tough times, and it appears that “tough” times will be with our industry for a while. For many lenders, servicing is the only asset worth anything. Depository
FHA recently published Mortgagee Letter 2023-08 (ML), which establishes May 31, 2023, as the final date for borrowers to request a COVID-19 forbearance or a COVID-19 HECM extension.
Pursuant to the recently-issued Mortgagee Letter 2023-05 (the ML), with respect to most FHA Title II forward mortgage loans with case numbers endorsed on or after March 20, 2023.
On December 12, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a proposed rule that would require nonbank covered persons to report certain public agency enforcement actions and court.