By ISAIAS PACHECO A Boys and Girls Club in New Hampshire has received $15,000 from BankProv to support their transportation services. The club in Manchester has transportation provided throughout the year for after-school pickup, educational field trips, and their newly remodeled summer camp located in Bedford, NH. Senior Vice President and Director of SME Lending John Phelan said in a statement that they are proud to support the club’s efforts to make a difference in the lives of so many children. Email story ideas to Editor Kimberley Haas:Â [email protected]…
By ISAIAS PACHECO The home purchase settlement index decreased by two points in July, according to Fannie Mae. This is the lowest level since 2011, and the HSPI has been declining steadily which is making consumers concerned. They are not buying or selling, experts say. Doug Duncan, Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, said in a statement that unfavorable rates have been increasingly cited by consumers as the top reason behind the growing perception that it is a bad time to buy and sell. It is expected that the market will cool and there will be moderate home sales over the coming year. Thousands of people in the industry may be let go as a result. Email story ideas to…
By TYRONE TOWNSEND In the upcoming months, mortgage lenders, refinancing businesses, and real estate agencies may fire thousands of people as the housing market cools. Many millennials had started looking for new houses because of low-interest rates, stimulus payments, and the ability to work from home during the coronavirus epidemic, which fueled a booming U.S. housing market. But now the pandemic is no longer driving workers out of metro markets. Peak prices hit in June and potential buyers are pulling out of the market. According to experts, mortgage origination is expected to fall 35 to 50 percent this year. The drop in refinancing is also playing a key role in changes to the mortgage industry. The Mortgage Bankers Association attributes…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are cracking down on a mortgage company that allegedly discriminated against minority families and a bank that is accused of pressuring employees into unlawfully accessing the credit reports of customers. With the aid of the U.S. Department of Justice, CFPB officials took action to end Trident Mortgage Company’s alleged discrimination against families in minority neighborhoods in the greater Philadelphia area. It is alleged that Trident violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Act. DOJ officials also claim Trident violated the Fair Housing Act. In Philadelphia neighborhoods that were more than 80% minority, more than half of the applications Trident generated were from white applicants, according to…
By SCOTT KIMBLER Times have changed when it comes to the home buying process. The age-old way of buying a first-time home, or even a larger home was to save to have 20% down and sign on to a 30-year-mortgage. Other parts of the equation included maintaining a high credit score and paying off debts so you could get a good rate. But now some people are finding they need to be re-educated about the process of home buying in their search for the best home and the best price. Elizabeth Rose is with Mortgage 300 in Dallas, TX and says even though interest rates have gone up and will continue to, home ownership is still something to strive…
By TYRONE TOWNSEND Renters continue to engage in bidding wars as Americans struggle to find affordable places to live. The demand for rental properties is growing due to rising mortgage rates, increasing inflationary concerns, and supply chain problems. Michael Scuito is a Savannah, Georgia, resident and an Army veteran who says he had to rearrange his budget to fit the current rental market. In 2020, he moved into a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment and was paying $1,575 a month. Later that year, the price was raised by over $200. “I live in one bed and one bath, paying $1650 a month. That’s not including utilities. I’ve constantly rearranged my budget to adjust to raising rent, food, and gas prices,” Scuito told…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS The Breakers mansion is a grand summer “cottage” that symbolizes the Vanderbilt family’s social and financial pre-eminence in the Gilded Age and you can tour this luxurious estate by the sea. Built between 1893 and 1895 at the cost of over $7 million, this National Historic Landmark located at 44 Ochre Point Avenue in Newport, RI, was the summer home of Cornelius Vanderbilt II. He became the president and chairman of New York Central Railroad in 1885. The Vanderbilt family was one of the wealthiest and most prominent families in America. According to The Preservation Society of Newport County, the Breakers was everything a millionaire of the Gilded Age could want in a summer getaway with its…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS Officials at the US Department of Justice say a Michigan real estate consultant and accountant will serve 18 months in prison after he filed false tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service. Steven Mills, of Harbor Springs and formerly of East Lansing, was retained by a corporation to supervise several real estate agents. Between 2012 and 2015, Mills demanded and received about $577,000 in kickbacks which he did not report on his tax returns, according to officials. Mills did not report all of the income he earned when he operated Mills Real Estate Consulting LLC. Officials say he did not report $100,000 he received from a real estate developer between 2013 and 2015. IRS-Criminal Investigation led the…
By CHUCK GREEN Home sweet… multifamily home construction? If, well, the spare bedroom fits. And that it seems to do in light of a new report from Construction Coverage showing a spike in construction of multifamily homes in the U.S. With a jump in multifamily housing projects, home building in the U.S. catapulted to a nine-month high last December, according to Reuters. There was a 2.4% hike to a rate of 737,000 units among multifamily homes under construction. “As long as supply chains remain stressed, builders will struggle to complete projects, slowing sales and likely limiting growth in the supply of new homes,” said Ben Ayers, Senior Economist at Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio. Earlier in the year, addressing the International Builders’ Show in…
By KIMBERLEY HAAS As 94% of surveyed lenders agree that appraisal modernization efforts are valuable, two leaders who have witnessed the industry changing say new technology is making things possible that could have only been imagined in the past. Dean Kelker, Senior Vice President and Chief Risk Officer at SingleSource Property Solutions, and Todd Rasmussen, President of Equity Valuation Partners, recently sat down for interviews with The Mortgage Note, and this is what they had to say. “The lending process itself has changed quite a bit. It is certainly much faster than it was years ago largely because of the technology that’s been driving it,” Kelker said. “Most recently, largely due to the low interest rates, we have had a…
