Category Archives: Mortgage Loan

Mortgage rates are still near record lows but they have been inching up slightly in recent weeks as the U.S. economy shows some signs of improving. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage—the most popular choice among home buyers—reached its highest level in more than six months last week, averaging 3.63 percent, according to Freddie Mac figures. Mortgage rates are projected to rise higher this year, which could make buying a home more expensive. But some housing analysts say that the higher rates could actually help aid the housing recovery. Home buyers who […]

Initial findings from a Woodstock Institute study of 257,000 purchase loans and refinancings originated in the Chicago area in 2010 indicate that gender bias may play a role in denials. Based on 2010 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, researchers found that purchase applications with a woman as the primary borrower and a man as the co-borrower were 24 percent less likely to be approved than if a man applied as the primary borrower. The figure rises to 39 percent for refinancing applications. Purchase and refinance applications with an African-American woman […]

Quicken Loans is growing its market share in the mortgage business, having just surpassing Bank of America as the third-largest mortgage lender in the U.S., according to rankings compiled over the last three months of 2012 from the Mortgage Daily. Quicken Loans had 5 percent of the market share in the fourth quarter, totaling $25.1 billion in originations. Bank of America is now the fourth-largest lender, with 4 percent of the market share and $22.5 billion in mortgage originations during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo continues to be the leader […]

A very tight mortgage lending environment “promises improvements this year as the drivers of tough credit standards reverse,” according to Moody’s Analytics ResiLandscape Report. Still, lending will remain tight by historical standards, the report notes. Tight underwriting conditions have been one of the main obstacles for the housing market recovery. But the credit agency says that those conditions began to ease somewhat this year and likely will continue to. “Rising house prices give lenders more breathing room to extend credit,” the analysts at Moody’s noted. Over the past year and […]

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced Monday that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will create a new joint company for securitizing home loans. The move is viewed as a step toward shrinking the government’s role in the mortgage market. The government-sponsored enterprises, which started receiving taxpayer bailout money in 2008, help finance about two-thirds of U.S. mortgages. Edward DeMarco, the acting director of FHFA, says he wants to shrink Fannie and Freddie’s footprint in order to reduce the risks to taxpayers. “The overarching goal is to create […]

The revival in the luxury real estate market is being fueled by growth in jumbo mortgages, Reuters reports. Jumbo loans typically are more than $417,000. “Jumbo loans are returning to the mortgage market after almost disappearing entirely in the wake of the credit crisis of 2008 and the real estate meltdown,” Reuters reports. “Most lenders stopped making new jumbo loans when the private secondary market dried up in the credit crunch.” But now jumbo loans are coming back. Lenders are reserving jumbo loan approvals to qualified borrowers, and some reportedly […]

Mortgage rates mostly remained unchanged this week, continuing a monthlong track of keeping at their historical lows, Freddie Mac reports in its weekly mortgage market survey. “Mortgage rates have been relatively stable, hovering near record lows, for the past four weeks, which is helping to spur new home construction,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. Here’s a closer look at national averages for mortgage rates for the week ending Feb. 21, according to Freddie Mac: 30-year fixed-rate mortgages: inched up to a 3.56 average this week, with an average […]

A look at stories across HousingWire’s weekend desk, with more coverage to come on bigger issues: Not only will FHA Mortgage Insurance Premiums be increasing 10 to 15 basis points, but they will also become permanent, creating room for alarm among lenders who fear lower-income homeowners will be squeezed out of the market. U.S. Federal Housing Commissioner Carol Galante announced the changes in late January. Many are arguing that, for a loan designed to help lower-income families and first time homebuyers, this increase in premiums is unjust, according to a […]

Mortgage interest rates have been on the rise for the past month off the all-time record lows set just a few weeks ago. “I do think that perhaps the all-time low is behind us,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. The record low for the 30-year fixed-rate averaged 3.31 percent in November, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage market survey. For the week ending Jan. 31, Freddie Mac reported a national average of 3.53 percent for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. Nothaft expects rates to gradually increase, possibly ending 2013 […]

Mortgage applications were on the rise last week even as interest rates continued to climb upward, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports in its weekly mortgage application survey. Loan requests for home purchases, viewed as a leading indicator of future home sales, climbed 2.2 percent in the week ending Feb. 1. Refinancing applications increased 3.5 percent. Overall, the MBA index, which includes both loans for purchase and refinancing, ticked up 3.4 percent during the week. Meanwhile, mortgage rates continued to fall slightly off all-time lows set in previous weeks. The 30-year […]