Morning Roundup (8/18/2023) — Breaking 7%

Good Morning! Today is Friday, August 18. Hurricane Hilary has been upgraded to a category four storm and could dump years’ worth of rain on California. Maui’s emergency management chief resigned after facing criticism over his wildfire response. Trump asked a judge to delay the start of his federal trial over the Jan. 6 attack until 2026.

The Mortgage Note Reports

Breaking 7%: Mortgage rates once again hit a more than two-decade high last week, breaking 7% on average and adding extra weight to Americans’ heavy housing burden.

RESPA Violation: The CFPB fined Freedom Mortgage $1.75M for providing illegal incentives to real estate brokers and agents for mortgage loan referrals.

In other mortgage and housing news…

Still Losing Out: IMBs reported a pre-tax net loss of $534 on each loan they originated in Q2, an improvement from Q1 but still far from the profits of the pandemic boom.

Fleeing Taxs: Americans are pouring out of cities with high property taxes and relocating to places like Tennessee to reduce their housing burden.

Further To Go: Goldman Sachs housing analysts no longer think home prices will fall this year, forecasting a slight increase instead.

Company News: Asurity’s Propel and NotaryCam are partnering to expand eClosing services; Motto Mortgage has a new office in Harrison City, Pennsylvania; Christy Soukhamneut joined UFCU as Chief Lending Officer.

“Creepy And Cool”: A mansion for sale in Bedford, PA, comes with its own jail.