Mortgages

The hearing would have featured debate on a number of housing bills, along with a measure to block commercial firms from owning industrial banks and new limits on overdraft fees. House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters has tested positive twice since April.

A new study has found that Black and Hispanic borrowers are denied conventional mortgages at higher rates than white applicants and pay up to $2,000 more to refinance.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau want financial institutions to provide more outreach to non-English speakers, a move that could foreshadow multilingual disclosure mandates.

Data as of Mar. 31, 2022. Dollars in thousands.

Data as of Mar. 31, 2022. Dollars in thousands.

Risky loan applications had been on the rise for more than a year, according to the analytics firm CoreLogic. Now that activity is slowing down, lenders face a higher risk of fraud, and many could be ill-equipped to handle it.

Data as of Mar. 31, 2022. Dollars in thousands.

The system may be good for the banks that own it, but it is not meeting its public mission.

Executives at banks north of the border pointed this week to several potential U.S. economic snags, including inflation, the possibility of a housing market correction and soaring energy prices.

Former FHFA director Mark Calabria said the mortgage market was a “ticking time bomb” on track for a 2008-like crisis. Other experts foresee a tamer end to the bull housing market.