Headlines

Meritage Homes has partnered with Operation Homefront to continue providing mortgage-free, energy-efficient homes to military families. The companies will work with the Homes on the Homefront program to provide a new home in Dallas, Texas. This is the fifth year the two companies will be working together, having helped 600 families since 2012.

Black Knight Financial Services launched its Municipal Lien Search solution Wednesday to help uncover property debts and reduce risk associated with liens not included on property reports or outside of the scope of title insurance coverage. County debts; code and force violations; waste, water, ...

Asurity Technologies, an enterprise formed to provide the financial services industry with RegTech solutions, announced its formation as an entity bringing together Treliant Solutions, LLC, Risk Management Solutions, Inc., and Mortgage Resources Group, LLC into an integrated compliance platform. According to Asurity, this platform will allow lenders to establish compliance, proactively manage a fair lending and redlining risk, and submit for both HDMA and CRA.

New data shows San Jose, California, homebuyers enjoy the fastest closing times in the nation, with an average of just 41 days to close. Six other cities came in at 50 days or less, including Dallas, San Francisco, and Denver. These markets are seeing multiple bidders, many of whom are pre-qualified and offer large down payments, on the first day of listing.

New data shows that real home prices have risen almost 12 percent over the year. Though wages have risen, increasing mortgage rates and tight supply continue to hurt overall affordability. Jacksonville, Florida, came in as the least affordable metro in the nation.

In July, liens and judgments data will no longer be included in traditional credit scores. In order to fill that gap, CBCInnovis will be offering the LexisNexis RiskView Liens and Judgments Report to lenders. Being that borrowers who have a judgment or tax lien are more likely to end up in pre-foreclosure or foreclosure, CBCInnovis hopes this information will be helpful to lenders.

Factual Data announced Thursday that they will be offering the LexisNexis RiskView Liens & Judgments Report to lenders. Due to liens and judgments data being discontinued in traditional credit scores, Factual Data intends to bridge the gap. Mortgage lenders, who have relied on this data for over two decades, now have an alternative plan after the July cutoff.

Despite talk of the rural-urban divide, new data shows that Americans seem to share the same sentiments about homeownership regardless of their location. In a recent survey, residents in rural, suburban, and urban areas all shared largely similar thoughts on homeownership and its role in the American Dream. The only place the three groups diverged was in the intended length of stay; only 35 percent of urban buyers plan to stay seven years or more.

According to a new report, the average FICO score of an American mortgage borrower has hit its lowest point since 2008. Currently, the average borrower has a FICO score of just 729. Broken down by lender type, borrowers of bank-originated loans have an average FICO score of 743, while borrowers of independent, non-bank loans have an average score of 719.

New analysis shows that buyers in Pittsburgh need just $31K to purchase a median-priced home in the area. Cleveland and Cincinnati also require low salaries, while San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles buyers need the highest salaries in the nation. San Fran buyers need salaries of $161K in order to buy.