Headlines

Amherst Capital Management LLC announced the addition of Damon Pitler to its private funds leadership team. Serving in the role of Managing Director of Private Funds, Pitler will manage single-family equity and commercial real estate lending portfolios at Amherst.

Quicken Loans announced Casey Hurbis is joining the company as Chief Marketing Officer. Hurbis, recognized for re-introducing the FIAT brand in the U.S. after more than 25 years of absence, will take responsibility for all Quicken marketing, both online and off, and will manage Quicken’s home lending brand.

On Tuesday at 9 a.m. EST, Freddie Mac will hold a conference call to discuss its Q1 2017 financial results. The call will be webcast on the Freddie Mac website as well, and will be replayable for approximately 30 days following the event. Freddie Mac’s previous results, for Q4 2016, showed a net interest income of 14.4 billion for the full year, down 4 percent year-over-year.

The average American renter can now purchase a home more expensive than the nation’s median home value, while keeping their monthly housing budget the same. This was true in 37 out of 50 markets analyzed. The current national median rent is $1,416 per month—just enough to handle the monthly costs of a property valued at $289,505, including property taxes, maintenance, and insurance payments.

The rate of defects and fraud in mortgage applications is up. The Defect Index on purchase applications rose 2.4 percent over the month, and for refinance applications, it jumped 3.3 percent. Defects were worse in the Southern part of the U.S.

Participants in the CFPB's Divesity and Inclusion Meeting meeting included representatives from the mortgage industry, including from larger and smaller banks, as well as some nonbank financial companies. In addition, staff from the OWMI of other federal agencies, including the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve, and Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) were included.

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.

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.

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.