Morning Roundup (5/30/2024) — UWM Lawsuit

Good Morning! Today is Thursday, May 30. The U.S.-built pier in Gaza broke apart just a week after opening. Justice Samuel Alito will not recuse himself from Supreme Court cases related to Jan. 6 despite a flag of support flying above his home. ConocoPhillips is buying Marathon Oil, while Chevron is buying Hess.

The Mortgage Note Reports

UWM Lawsuit: A lawyer specializing in racketeering cases says brokers working with United Wholesale Mortgage may have misled clients but that doesn’t mean the company and its CEO Mat Ishbia violated the RICO Act.

Pending Home Sales: Pending home sales dropped to a four-year low in April, reversing an uptick in March.

Applications Fall: Industry veteran Tamara “Tammy” Richards joined California-based Kind Lending as its new Chief Operating Officer.

In other mortgage and housing news…

Mortgage Shopping: More than half of homeowners didn’t comparison shop for a mortgage, even though 45% of those who did received a better rate.

Zombie Foreclosures: A drop-off in zombie foreclosures has tracked a broad slowdown in lenders pursuing delinquent homeowners.

Two Main Factors: A 6% increase in nominal house prices and a 0.65 percentage point increase in the average mortgage rate drove a YOY decline in affordability…

Payments Up: …meanwhile, the national median monthly payment applied for by purchase applicants increased to $2,256 from $2,201 in March.

Buying Interest: Consumer homebuying interest increased by more than 31% during the past year, hitting the highest level recorded since December 2020.

Opinion: Denmark made homebuying easier. America should follow suit.