Mortgage Applications Down 2.4% Last Week

Despite no change in historically low mortgage rates, mortgage applications dropped 2.4% last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Application Survey. The MBA said the decline in its seasonally adjusted market composite index tracking mortgage applications was influenced by a 3.8% decline in applications to refinance existing loans. “There was little change in mortgage rates last week, with the 30-year fixed remaining at 3.03 percent. Despite low rates, refinance applications declined, with some borrowers still waiting for rates to drop even lower,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting.  “Recent uncertainty around the economy and pandemic have kept rates low over the past month, which is why the refinance index has oscillated…

Experts Question UWM’s Decision to Accept ‘Volatile’ Bitcoin for Mortgage Payments

United Wholesale Mortgage CEO Mat Ishbia made headlines with the announcement his company—one of the largest lenders in the U.S.—plans to start accepting Bitcoin as payment for mortgages later this year. “That’s something that we’ve been working on,” Ishbia said, “and we’re excited that hopefully, in Q3, we can actually execute on that before anyone in the country because we are a leader in technology and innovation.” Ishbia’s announcement puts his company on the front line of the debate over the potential dangers of novel techno-currencies like Bitcoin. Bitcoin is among the class of financial products known as “cryptocurrencies,” digital currency systems developed and traded using a variety of computational and security networks. The process of developing and obtaining cryptocurrencies can…

Neat Capital Offers Vax Bonus To Applicants

Boulder-based Neat Capital has announced they are offering a $500 discount on home financing to applicants who’ve received the COVID-19 vaccine. Borrowers can present any digital or electronic picture that shows a vaccination record, and applicants are eligible regardless of vaccine manufacturer or number of doses received. Neat Capital has offered to cover costs such as transportation and childcare for applicants who want to be vaccinated but have been unable to do so. Applicants who are unvaccinated because of health or religious reasons are also eligible. Companies like Budweiser and Krispy Kreme have been offering incentives to customers with proof of vaccination, but Neat Capital is the first financial services company to do so. As the pace of vaccinations has…

Could Homestead Exemption Move Needle For First-Time Buyers?

As first-time and lower-income buyers are being squeezed out of bidding wars against cash-rich investors, the homestead exemption could help combat take over by Wall Street, columnist and investment professional Conor Sen argued in Bloomberg. FHFA is attempting to address this issue by awarding a higher percentage of federal-backed mortgages to low-income households or for homes in minority communities. But Sen suggested that goal, while admirable, might not actually lead to major change and suggested that relying on the homestead exemption might prove more fruitful. The homestead exemption is a legal exemption that can shield owners from property taxes, but only for people actually living in the home. Sen argues that local governments can help homebuyers by increasing the amount…

Investigation Finds Freddie and Fannie Algorithm Negatively Impacts Borrowers of Color

An investigation by The Markup found that lenders in 2019 were more likely to reject loan requests from people of color than white people, even if their finances looked much the same. The Markup examined more than 2 million conventional mortgage applications using statistical analysis that held 17 factors steady to account for explanations traditionally used to explain racial disparities in lending: the borrower’s credit history, debt-to-income (DTI) ratio and loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. According to The Markup, the bias was evident in the credit scoring algorithm “Classic FICO,” which was developed in the 1990s. Fannie and Freddie require lenders to use Classic FICO to determine whether an applicant meets their minimum threshold. Classic FICO focuses on traditional credit but does…

Mortgage Applications Up 1.6% Last Week

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reports mortgage applications increased 1.6 percent during the week ending August 20, 2021. They also report the Refinance Index increased 1 percent from the previous week and was 3 percent higher than the same week one year ago. Refis accounted for 67.3 percent of total applications, no change from the week before, while adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 3.1 percent of total applications.   Lower rates led to an increase in refinance applications, with government loan applications jumping 10 percent to the highest level since May 2021,” said MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting Joel Kan. As for the housing market as a whole, Kan says there may be signs of cooling. “There was…

UWM’s Complicated System for Refunding Adverse Market Fees Raises Questions

Mat Ishbia appears to be the odd man out when it comes to handling fees from customers the feds are no longer collecting. On July 16, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced it was ending the adverse market refinancing fee for loan deliveries effective August 1, 2021. The fee, designed to address risk from anticipated losses due to COVID-19, was always unpopular. Proposed by the Trump administration last summer, it was repeatedly delayed before going into effect in December. It was welcome news to the entire industry — data show a surge in mortgage applications in the week after the 50 basis point fee was lifted — but it may have been exceptionally good news for United Wholesale Mortgage…

Mortgage Applications Up For Week

Mortgage applications increased 1.2 percent for the week, according to the latest report released Wednesday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The MBA reports that the Refinance Index increased 4 percent from the previous week and was 2 percent lower than the same week last year. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 4 percent compared with the previous week and was 2 percent higher than the same week one year ago.   The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 63.3 percent of total applications from 61.3 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity increased to 3.9 percent of total applications.   “There continues to be strong demand for buying a home, but persistent supply shortages are constraining purchase activity, and…

Mortgage Applications Down 9% For Month

The mortgage market was considerably stronger in April than last year at the height of the pandemic, according to the latest monthly report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Mortgage applications for new home purchases surged 30.8 percent in April from a year ago, while decreasing 9 percent from a month earlier. MBA estimates new single-family home sales were running at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 770,000 units in April 2021. The seasonally adjusted estimate for April is an increase of 7.8 percent from the March pace of 714,000 units. On an unadjusted basis, MBA estimates that there were 72,000 new home sales in April 2021, unchanged from March.  By product type, conventional loans composed 72.9 percent of loan applications, FHA…

Mortgage Applications Climb Amid Low Rates

Mortgage applications increased 2.1 percent for the week amid low rates and high demand for homes, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The Refinance Index increased 3 percent from the previous week and was 12 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The unadjusted Purchase Index increased 1 percent from the previous week and was 13 percent higher than the same week one year ago.   The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 61.3 percent of total applications from 61.0 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage share of activity decreased to 3.8 percent of total applications. “Mortgage rates fell last week to the lowest levels since February, tracking the dip…