Tag: #homebuyerexperts

Black Knight says that the number of active forbearance plans continued to fall over the last week, but also noted an uptick in both new plans and reentries to the program, primarily among VA and FHA loans. The number of active forbearances dropped by 22,000 or 1.4 percent during the week ended September 14, leasing 1.596 million borrowers in active plans. This is 3.0 percent of all mortgaged homeowners. It marks the first time the total number has dipped below 1.6 million. The number of forborne loan in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) portfolios and those serviced for FHA and the VA each declined by 15,000, but that was partially offset by an increase of 8,000 in the numbers serviced for bank portfolios and private label securities (PLS).

The number of homes flipped by investors grew by 3.5 percent in the second quarter of the year. It was the first increase in more than a year. ATTOM says its second quarter U.S. Home Flipping Report shows that 79,733 single-family homes and condominiums in the United States were flipped during that period. Those transactions represented 4.9 percent of all home sales, or one in 20 transactions compared to one in every 29 sales in the first quarter. Flips were down 6.8 percent from one in 15 transactions in the second quarter of 2020. The recent number was lower than the flipping rate through most of the last decade.

Another powerful group of federal officials are in the hotseat after details of their personal finances were revealed. While there are no accusations of wrong-doing (unlike the case of several senators who faced ethics reviews in 2020), the financial disclosures of several Fed presidents have prompted a bank-wide smell test. As Thomas Franck reported for CNBC, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has directed the central bank’s staff to review its ethics rules after 2020 financial disclosures from some regional presidents revealed large investments and stock trades.

Refinancing and home purchases had a nearly even share of mortgage originations in July. ICE Mortgage Technology said that 50 percent of closed loans during the month were purchase mortgages while 49 percent were for refinancing. Refinancing, however, continued to dominate the conventional market at 54 percent of those loans. The share among FHA loans was 22 percent and refis accounted for 32 percent of VA loans. The time to close a loan improved slightly from June to July. It took an average of 48 days on average, one day less than in June. The time to close a refinance dipped from 48 to 47 days and purchase loans took 48 days compared to 51 the previous month.