Mortgages

The average for a 30-year home loan marked the fourth straight week of increases, according to Freddie Mac.

The verdict ends a decade-long lawsuit over the Federal Housing Finance Agency's amendment to a stock repurchase agreement in 2012.

UBS Group AG agreed to pay $1.44 billion to settle a case with the U.S. Department of Justice regarding how it handled residential mortgage-backed securities. 

Banking and housing experts say that if additional capital burdens spur large banks to pull back on mortgage origination, servicing and funding, the ripple effects could be felt more intensely in the housing market than on banks' bottom lines.

Incidents have increased by five times on a quarter-to-quarter basis, starting with the shift in deposit relationships after Silicon Valley Bank failed, CertifID said.

Profit in the first half of the year at the 11 Home Loan banks already exceeds 2022's total.

The company is rolling out a special-purpose credit program to help address what it describes as "the biggest barriers to achieving homeownership." Such programs are gaining popularity among banks.

But a Zillow economist argues that there's plenty of evidence suggesting strong GDP and job growth had more to do with the increase than what Fitch did.

Critics of the Federal Home Loan banks fundamentally misunderstand the purpose and necessity of the system.

Gateway First Bank, a former nonbank home lender, rode the pandemic era's mortgage wave to No. 1 on American Banker's latest list of top-performing banks based on full-year 2022 data. Now it has to cope with the housing market slowdown.

The top five community banks have more than $670 million in combined home equity loan portfolios as of March 31, 2023.

Consumer advocates are protesting specific risk-weighting changes affecting borrowers with lower down payments. Also, a broader increase in requirements may discourage depository holdings of servicing.

There's divergence of opinions between one more rate hike this cycle and no further actions.

The 30-year fixed, which was threatening going above 7% again according to Freddie Mac data, was 18 basis points lower this week.

The bank said it would continue to make multifamily loans to current customers that have depository or other bank relationships. The move comes amid rising concerns about the impact of high interest rates on the apartment sector.

A lack of affordable starter homes, increasing homelessness and stubbornly high prices for the homes that already exist have created a pickle that only careful planning and political buy-in can solve.

The Federal Reserve vice chair for supervision said regulators will adapt supervisory practices to account for advancements in machine learning.

But the volume of activity for distressed properties is still lower than the historic norms, Attom Data Solutions said.

Eligible customers would receive a credit of up to $5,000 that can be put toward expenses like closing costs, or used to secure a lower interest rate. It's the latest example of a bank launching a program aimed at extending credit to minority borrowers.

Limiting large-bank access to the system could have an unintended negative impact on smaller banks.