Good morning! Today is Tuesday, July 14. Los Angeles and San Diego schools will remain online only in the fall. Harvard and MIT have a high-stakes court hearing today over whether the federal government can force overseas students to move to a school with in-person teaching, or leave the country. The NFL is testing mouth shields to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during games.
And in mortgage and housing news …
AIME FALLOUT: A day after news broke that Association of Independent Mortgage Experts Founder and CEO Anthony Casa sent degrading video messages about the wife of a Quicken Loans executive, member companies reacted in very different ways.
FORBEARANCES DROP: The share of mortgage loans in forbearance in the United States dropped for the fourth straight week, falling to 8.18 percent of all loans for the week ending July, according to a report released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
BIDDING WARS: A shortage of homes on the market and pent-up demand continue to drive bidding wars for homes across the country even in the face of a resurgent coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released by Redfin.
HOUSING DISCRIMINATION RULE: Lenders oppose a federal effort to weaken a housing-discrimination rule. The rule change would increase the burden of proof on bringing discrimination cases to court.
BLOCKCHAIN BOOST: Wilmington Trust has high hopes for blockchain technology’s providing a boost to the RMBS market.
QUARANTINE DESIGNS: The pandemic has shown what the future of architecture might look like.
REAL ESTATE TOOLS: From automated messaging to cloud-based CRM, a list of 10 tools that can help real estate entrepreneurs.
ASTONISHING REBOUND: Despite the crippling and ongoing coronavirus pandemic, millions out of work, a recession, a national reckoning over systemic racism, and a highly contentious presidential election just around the corner, the residential real estate market is staging an astonishing rebound.
REMOTE WORK: Tech companies are ending leases and consolidating offices as remote work is here to stay.
DATA BREACH: Out of the hundreds of names exposed in the Paycheck Protection Program data, 98 percent used Bank of America.