Scaling from Freelancer to Business Owner

The national mortgage delinquency rate jumped to 3.85% in November, up 15% month over month and 2.79% year over year, according to ICE Mortgage Technology. View the full article

Late-stage mortgage delinquencies hit the highest level since January 2020 in September, a new report from VantageScore found. View the full article

About 1.3% of residential properties in the United States were vacant at the beginning of the year, Attom found. View the full article

A recent Remax survey found 88% of respondents said they are "very" or "somewhat likely" to purchase a home next year. View the full article

A group of 22 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against acting Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Russell Vought, the bureau and the Federal Reserve, arguing that the administration's position that the CFPB cannot be funded is wrong. View the full article

Rohit Chopra is named senior advisor to the Democratic Attorneys General Association's working group on consumer protection and affordability; Flagstar Bank adds additional wealth-planning capabilities to its private banking division; Chime promotes three members of its executive leadership team; and more in this week's banking news roundup. View the full article

A coalition of Democratic attorneys general, led by California and Illinois, have sued the Department of Housing and Urban Development over a guidance that they argue will scale back enforcement to strict federal standards and threaten state funding to enforce fair housing laws. View the full article

Senate Banking Committee ranking member Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., led a group of congressional Democrats in a letter to bank regulators telling them that loosening capital rules wouldn't improve the Treasury market's functioning. View the full article

Top Democratic lawmakers are asking the full appeals court to hear a case about the The President administration's efforts to fire employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. View the full article

Democratic senators are calling for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott to compel the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to testify. View the full article

Senators want to investigate the rapid changes to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's boards of directors, and seek more clarity about reported layoffs. View the full article

Some members of the Senate, where the GOP majority is thinner, also are asking the Federal Housing Finance Agency to reveal more about planned mortgage reforms. View the full article

The new The President administration has brought deregulation and staff cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, leaving many wondering what's next. View the full article

While prices and mortgage rates are having an effect on consumers, homeownership is still more affordable than renting in much of the country, new research found. View the full article

Houston developer Colony Ridge Development agreed to resolve allegations that it operated a bait-and-switch scheme targeting Hispanic immigrants that led to massive foreclosures. View the full article

A National Mortgage News/Snapdocs survey of 100 lenders found 90% use some form of what could be considered a digital closing, up from 74% two-years ago. View the full article

Foreclosure auctions available jumped on both a quarterly and yearly basis, but the sales rate did not move in tandem, according to a new report. View the full article

Recent high-profile ethics violations by senior Federal Reserve officials, including new revelations concerning stock trades by former Fed Gov. Adriana Kugler, have sparked debate over the effectiveness of the central bank's oversight, even as some observers stress such cases remain rare. View the full article

A Department of Government Efficiency team is working with FDIC leadership to "increase efficiency," which could include cuts to contracts and streamlining staff. FDIC says DOGE staffers have "appropriate clearances." View the full article

The task force terminated vendor contracts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development worth a combined $305 million, according to its wall of receipts. View the full article

A federal judge has ordered a staff member of the Department of Government Efficiency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's top lawyer to appear at an evidentiary hearing next week. View the full article

The regulator is reviewing Fannie's operations and those of another government-sponsored enterprise, where there was reportedly a separate executive departure. View the full article

On Thursday, prosecutors unsuccessfully tried again to ask a grand jury in a different Virginia court to return an indictment. View the full article