News & Articles

A First-Time Homebuyer’s Guide to Financial Options

A First-Time Homebuyer’s Guide to Financial Options

Buying a home can be quite similar to getting married: you feel butterflies in your stomach and a mix of fear, excitement, and even a bit of anxiety. However, unlike your wedding day, you need to rein in those emotions and keep your eyes peeled to buy your dream...

Tips & Strategies for Navigating the Challenging Real Estate Market

Tips & Strategies for Navigating the Challenging Real Estate Market

Thermometers around the world aren’t the only ones hitting off-the-chart temperatures this summer; the U.S. housing market is boiling-hot. Stubborn, soaring home prices, and ratcheting-up mortgage rates have rocketed the real estate market. Although homebuyers saw a...

Rocket, UWM 1% down products – mortgage giants go head-to-head

Rocket, UWM 1% down products – mortgage giants go head-to-head

The inspiration to launch the program is to help consumers buy homes, he said, without mention of rival UWM: “I’m in the business of changing people’s lives,” Fawaz said. “This is a program that can change American lives. It hasn’t been a kind market for any of us,...

Mortgage application decline continues amid economic turmoil

Mortgage application decline continues amid economic turmoil

Application volume for mortgage loans declined for the third consecutive week against an increasingly cloudy economic backdrop, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today. MBA’s Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage applications, slumped 3.7% on a...

loanDepot names new chief marketing officer

loanDepot names new chief marketing officer

loanDepot has named company veteran Alec Hanson (pictured) as its new chief marketing officer, effective immediately. The lender promoted Hanson, previously senior vice president of production for the West division, to lead its marketing team and oversee the...

Ellington Financial to enter billion-dollar merger

Ellington Financial to enter billion-dollar merger

Penn added that this acquisition will result in greater operating efficiencies, a larger market capitalization, and attractive long-term unsecured debt and preferred equity capital. Read more: Ellington Residential Mortgage REIT publishes Q4 financial report “Upon...

House price downturn comes to an end

House price downturn comes to an end

The year-over-year house price index also rose modestly, up 0.7% in March. The acceleration was apparent in many Western states. “The CoreLogic S&P Case-Shiller Index squeezed a 0.7% year-over-year increase in March. But, monthly gains, up 1.3% from February, are...

Time is ripe for non-QM lenders to expand

Time is ripe for non-QM lenders to expand

Time is ripe for non-QM lenders to expand | Mortgage Professional TV [embedded content] LATEST NEWS Free e-newsletter Our daily newsletter is FREE and keeps you up to date with the world of mortgage. This page requires...

US housing crash – how likely is it?

US housing crash – how likely is it?

Apparently, there’s not even so much as a bubble in today’s market. Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac, recently explained to Forbes why the US housing market is not currently encased in such a bubble. “A bubble has three defining characteristics: price...

UBS Group to close US mortgage trading unit

UBS Group to close US mortgage trading unit

Read next: Not all bank failures are the same, broker says People familiar with the decision told Bloomberg the exact number of workers affected by the move is unclear, but the unit’s managing director, Michael Sudnow, is among those leaving the bank. “We are fully...

Broker knows what it is to lose it all

Broker knows what it is to lose it all

Back to square one It was time to rebuild. “I did a little sabbatical for about a year in New Mexico,” he said. “I had to live with my parents, and they helped me with my kids. I had four kids. They crashed with me. We all crashed together!” he said, now able to laugh...

United Wholesale Mortgage boosts jumbo loan product suite

United Wholesale Mortgage boosts jumbo loan product suite

The wholesale mortgage lender has also expanded its Conventional 1% Down product, allowing borrowers with less than 80% of the area median income (AMI) to qualify. Eligible borrowers will put down 1% of the loan towards their down payment, and UWM will then pay a 2%...