Scaling from Freelancer to Business Owner

The latest rise in property tax collections at the end of last year continued a nine-quarter streak of increases, according to the National Association of Home Builders. View the full article

Lowering minimum standards and using a 2018 proposal as a basis for change may be the quickest path, according to Donald Layton, Freddie Mac's CEO from 2012 to 2019. View the full article

The real estate investment trust declared an all-cash offer of $10.80 per share from CrossCountry superior to the fixed stock exchange ratio bid from UWM. View the full article

In three separate appearances Thursday, Fed Gov. Lisa Cook, Gov. Michael Barr and Vice Chair Philip Jefferson said they are worried that U.S. involvement in the war with Iran could drive up inflation, leading them to conclude that interest rates should remain steady in the near term. View the full article

Americans who qualify for a mortgage with Better will be able to use Bitcoin or USDC as collateral to fund their down payment through a private loan. View the full article

Full documentation was only applied to 2.6% of the underlying pool of mortgages. Debt-to-income, however, was 23.3% when it was applied. View the full article

Layoffs stretch across the organization, including members of Summit's c-suite and its general counsel, the company said in a notice to California officials. View the full article

New questions about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's guarantee by experts who saw conservatorship start points to tensions in a stalled secondary offering. View the full article

The 30-year fixed mortgage has increased by 40 basis points since February, while the 15-year is 14 basis points lower than a year ago, Freddie Mac reported. View the full article

Affordability improved in February as rates dipped below 6%, but March's climb to 6.43% signals tougher months ahead. Lenders should act now on pockets of opportunity before rising rates erode recent gains. View the full article

Pulte alleged that James appeared to misrepresent who would occupy property in separate homeowner insurance applications, saying the documents could indicate that James "may have defrauded" insurers in those states. View the full article

Artificial intelligence has opened the door for innovations ranging from virtual economists and compliance assistants to lender-profitability forecasting. View the full article

A recent executive order encouraging changes to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Ability-To-Repay and Qualified Mortgage rules are adding to a packed agenda at a time when the agency has lost a third of its staff. View the full article

Lenders and condo market stakeholders are raising concerns that new GSE rules ending limited reviews and tightening reserve requirements could raise costs and limit access. View the full article

The Federal Home Loan Bank system, a Depression-era program designed to shore up mortgage lending that has morphed into a go-to — and controversial — source of cheap financing for banks and other financial institutions. View the full article

Stakeholders rely on detailed, easy-to-read reports. From including cited data to using a structured format, learn how to simplify the lending reports process. View the full article

The national delinquency rate ticked up seven basis points to 3.72% last month, coupled with a 10-basis-point increase in prepayment speed, according to ICE. View the full article

The title policy and settlement statement datasets introduce digital standards that will allow the information on forms to move as data instead of documents. View the full article

The contract rate on a 30-year mortgage rose 13 basis points to 6.43% in the week ended March 20, according to Mortgage Bankers Association data released Wednesday. View the full article

What was once a bipartisan and broadly popular housing bill has been weighed down with a pair of provisions that banks can't support. Even with those headwinds, the bill is more likely than not to pass, but not without drawn-out negotiations between the House and Senate. View the full article

Federal Reserve Gov. Michael Barr said in a speech Tuesday afternoon that he wants to see a durable and reliable reduction in consumer price inflation before he considers cutting the central bank's interest rates. View the full article

The long-defunct Nationwide Biweekly Administration, accused in 2015 of deceptive marketing, has been ordered to pay a $7.93 million civil money penalty. View the full article

The Long Island-based lender is one of five nonbanks since January to have disclosed a prior hack, with the extent of those incidents remaining unknown. View the full article

Approximately 1.4 million taxpayers have received notices that their tax refunds are being delayed because the IRS wants direct deposit information. View the full article

More than 42,000, or 13.7%, of home-sale agreements in the United States fell through in February, according to a new Redfin report. View the full article