The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a final rule Wednesday defining the role of a mortgage originator for the purposes of state compliance with federal licensing laws. A mortgage originator is someone who "acts as a residential mortgage loan originator with respect to financing that is provided in a commercial context and...
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Freddie Mac settled with bankrupt mortgage lender Taylor, Bean & Whitaker but will see only a fraction of what it sought, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week. TBW, once the 12th largest mortgage lender in the U.S., originated, serviced and sold pools of mortgages to Freddie Mac. It relied on...
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Mortgage rates remained mostly unchanged this past week, with the 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage remaining 4.5% for a second week. Even still, disappointing economic news kept rates well below 5% and significantly lower than the 6% mark that defined more stable economic times. The U.S. has not seen mortgage rates higher than 6% since late...
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The Mortgage Bankers Association sent a letter to the Federal Housing Administration this week requesting the use of electronic signatures for all mortgage origination forms. The letter was sent to Bob Ryan, the acting commissioner of the FHA. He was originally hired as the FHA's first chief risk officer in 2009 by David Stevens....
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Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau revealed two prototypes of mortgage disclosure forms Wednesday as part of the agency's effort to simplify documents for homebuyers shopping for mortgages. The two prototypes combine the federal Truth in Lending Act mortgage disclosure form with the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act to remove redundant information...
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Mortgage applications rose 4% this past week as home refinancing activity grew and interest rates dropped. For the week ending April 29, the MBA's market composite index – a measure of mortgage loan application volume – grew 4% on a seasonally adjusted basis, while the refinance index increased 6%. The four-week moving average for...
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The Federal Trade Commission mailed .5 million in refund checks to Hispanic borrowers who were allegedly charged more on their mortgage than whites. The refund stems from a lawsuit the FTC filed against California-based Golden Empire Mortgage and its CEO Howard Kootstra. The suit alleged the company charged Hispanic consumers higher prices for mortgages....
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American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp. filed for an initial public offering this week to raise up to 0 million in common stock. The Bethesda, Md.-based company plans to invest in and manage a leveraged portfolio of agency mortgage investment, nonagency mortgage investments and other mortgage-related investments, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing....
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Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said at a House subcommittee hearing Thursday that the mortgage interest tax deduction would be safe. Currently, interest on a mortgage taken out to buy or improve a home can be fully deducted if the amount of the loan is less than million for married couples and 0,000 for singles....
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Loan originators may be able to fund six to seven times as many loans with the same amount of available credit simply by adopting an eMortgage platform, according to a panel at the Mortgage Bankers Association's technology conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Tuesday. Stanley Street, founder and president Street Resource Group Inc. in Atlanta,...
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