News

In response to the positive Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) employment data released on Monday, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose above four percent this week for the first time since November 2014. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS), revealed that the average fixed mortgage rates averaged 4.02 percent for the week ending June 11, 2015.

For the 27th consecutive month, cash sales made have fallen to 34.6 percent of total home sales nationally in March 2015, down from 39 percent in March 2014, according to CoreLogic data released today.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services recently announced that former federal regulator Sandra Braunstein will provide compliance management and Community Reinvestment Act consulting services to the company’s U.S. banking clients.

A bipartisan group of Senate Banking Committee members wrote a letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) requesting that the agency expand and provide better transparency of the development of the credit risk transfer programs. These programs shift credit risk from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the private sector, according to a press release.

Despite the recent announcement from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to provide a grace period for servicers attempting to comply in good faith with the TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) requirements that are scheduled to go into effect August 1, lingering TRID concerns remain. The Association of Mortgage Professionals (NAMB) and other housing associations, requested today in a letter that the CFPB implement a hold-harmless period on TRID enforcement. Many housing industry groups are supporting legislation that would above this period, the press release says.

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC, a San Francisco real estate start-up recently conducted a survey of home sellers and discovered that since 2014, more than one in four sellers nationally sold their home in less than two weeks. Despite the multiple bids and offers a seller may receive, the survey also noted that they are more likely to choose an offer based on emotion rather than money, compared to pre-recession times.

Mortgage applications increased by 8.4 percent for the week ending June 5, 2015 from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. Last week’s data included an adjustment due to the Memorial Day holiday.

​The American Bankers Association’s (ABA’s) 22nd Annual Real Estate Lending Survey determined that 90 percent of the typical bank’s mortgage loans made last year were qualified mortgages (QMs). The survey also found that 78 percent of respondents expect the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB’s) mortgage lending rules will continue to limit credit availability, while 19 percent labeled the impact as severe.

A new survey of housing attitudes released by the MacArthur Foundation found that a majority of Americans believe the country is still not past the housing crisis that began seven years ago. The 2015 How Housing Matters Survey found that three in five Americans believe we are “still in the middle” of the housing crisis or “the worst part is yet to come” of the crisis.

Today, in joint release the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) agencies issued a final interagency policy statement establishing joint standards for assessing the diversity policies and practices of the entities they regulate.