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Creepy Construction?
By Jeff Walton & Kelly Guest
Safety for me, but not for thee? HousingWire's Jonathan Delozier did a doozy of a story about a former HUD official who claims "that the federal government secretly spent $21T building a vast underground network of bunkers, city infrastructure, and transportation, allegedly designed to protect elites in the event of a catastrophic disaster." The story also ties in a University of Michigan study that found $21T in "unsupported financial adjustments" at HUD and the Department of Defense. DOD has never managed to pass an audit.
In other spy-like news, FHFA Director Bill Pulte told Bloomberg that he made criminal referrals to the Department of Justice for a handful of North Korean and Chinese who were working at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Gosh, what's next…a DOJ criminal probe into a state Attorney General for mortgage fraud? Wait…
CHATTER
Cash vs. Equity: Only 15% of remodelers using home equity according to Block Renovation’s 2025 Budget, Planning & Remodeling Survey.
Grants Get a Stay: A district judge ordered a 14-day stay on the imposition of the Trump agenda in response to a lawsuit filed by eight cities and counties. NMN's Andrew Martinez reports the suit concerns $280 million in HUD grants for its "Continuum of Care" (COC) program; HUD Secretary Scott Turner, said HUD's COC program was used by "the left to push a woke agenda."
Cinco de Manufacturing: USDA Rule for Financing Manufactured Homes Went Into Effect 5-5
The new rule allows financing of new and certain existing manufactured housing via the RHS Single Family Housing (SFH) Direct Loan Program and the SFH Guaranteed Loan Program.
Expensive Insurance: First American Analysis
Homeowners insurance premiums in the U.S. increased by 21% between 2021 and 2023, driven by severe weather-related events, rising construction costs, and higher claim payouts.
At the same time, the annualized costs of these billion-dollar disasters have ballooned from approximately $55B to $151B.
Goldilocks Complex? Young People Waiting for Things to be Just Right
BMO Real Financial Progress Index finds that Gen Z and Millennials will pursue homeownership when they find the right rate, the right size, the right time, and the right risk appetite. Some of their entitled attitudes include: 61% of Gen Z and 66% of Millennial renters agree that buying a starter home and upgrading to a bigger one a few years later "makes no sense anymore."
New NAR Policy: Delayed Marketing Exempt Listings
Another release of circular gobbledygook to try to thwart sue-happy gold diggers. The policy says that sellers can opt to withhold their home from public marketing for a set period of time IF the local MLS says it’s OK.
New/More Ammo:
If you're looking for depth and more perspective to the "homeownership is a great investment" pitch, Dave Hershman has a 3-part series underway for National Mortgage Professional.
NMN Reports NEXA is suing a former employee for poaching and stealing trade secrets.
MOVING & SHAKING
Keller Williams announced Tim Dieffenbacher as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Stacie Herron as Chief Operations Officer (COO), in addition to her Chief Legal Officer (CLO) role.
Mortgage Cadence appointed Lokesh Pathak as CIO.
Evergreen Home Loans named Andrew Leff as head of national business development.
HomeEQ, Arc Home's HELOC solution, added Lee Malone as Vice President of HELOC.
Vantage Risk named Paul Livingstone SVP for credit, mortgage, and structured re/insurance.
INGENIUS EARNINGS
UWM Posts Net loss of $247.0 million in Q125
23% Jump in Mortgage Revenue at NerdWallet for Q125
Angel Oak Showed 17.6% Increase in Net Income YoY in Q1
Originations Up, Guild Still Reports Loss in Q1
Finance of America Announced $561M in Funded Volume for Q125
loanDepot Lost Less: Revenue increased 23% to $274M and adjusted revenue increased 21% to $278M YoY in Q125.
Mortgage Revenue Increased 32% YoY in Q1 for Zillow
2 out of 3 for Rocket : The company lost money for the second time in three quarters in Q125.
Ellington FinancialGains & Loses: The company reported net income attributable to common stockholders of $31.6M for Q125. The Longbridge segment reported a net loss of $1M.
MARKET/INDUSTRY
Fresh from Mortgage Market Guide This Morning: Bill Bodnar’s latest Master the Markets segment covers last week’s activity, but Bill updated InGeniusly Speaking this morning, saying, “Bonds hate good news and they received a huge helping over the weekend. China, Russia/Ukraine meeting in Turkey, announcements on prescription drugs are coming any moment.”
Mortgage Rates Continue to Decline: Freddie 5-1-25
Mortgage rates again declined this week. In recent weeks, rates for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage have fallen even lower than the first quarter average of 6.83%.
FOMC Commentary from MBA Chief Econ Mike Fratantoni:
“MBA forecasts that the risks to growth and the job market will wind up being the bigger concern this year, which will lead the Fed to resume cutting short-term rates in the second half of the year. Until then, the hard data on inflation and unemployment will continue to drive interest rates, including mortgage rates, from one end of a trading range to the other, with only a slight downward trend in mortgage rates over the remainder of 2025.
“Purchase mortgage application volume continues to run ahead of last year’s pace, and MBA forecasts that will be true for the year as a whole, even with the rate volatility we have experienced.”
Mortgage applications increased 11% from one week earlier: MBA Weekly Survey for the week ending 5-2-25.
Record Highs: NAR Q1 Home Price Analysis:
Single-family existing-home sales prices climbed in 83% of measured metro areas – 189 of 228 – in the first quarter, down from 89% in the prior quarter. The national median single-family existing-home price rose 3.4% from a year ago to $402,300.
Twenty-six markets (11%) experienced double-digit annual price appreciation (down from 14% in the previous quarter).
The monthly mortgage payment on a typical, existing single-family home with a 20% down payment was $2,120 – up 4.1% from one year ago.
"Most metro markets continue to set new record highs for home prices. In the first quarter, the Northeast performed best in both sales and price gains by percentage. Despite the stronger job additions, the South lagged with declining sales and virtually no price appreciation." - NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun.
Up, But Down: Fannie Mae April Home Purchase Sentiment Index
The HPSI increased by 1.1 points to 69.2 in April, but selling sentiment dropped by 13 points MoM and 18 points YoY.
Meanwhile, buyer sentiment perked up by 4 points.
LendingTree's Take on Taxes
Property taxes increased in each of the 50 largest metros between 2021 and 2023 (the last year of available data).
Homeowners pay a median property tax of $2,969 annually, or about $247 month. Homeowners without a mortgage pay a median of $2,474 in property taxes, while those with a mortgage pay a higher median of $3,343 — $869 more.
Equity Rich Down a Titch: ATTOM Data Q125 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report
46.2% of mortgaged residential properties in the country were considered equity-rich in Q125.
The number of equity rich homes was down from 47.7% in the Q424 and has dropped each quarter since a peak of 49.2% in Q224.
Inaccurate Appraisals? Restb.ai White Paper Finds $27B Risk in Appraisals
1 in 3 appraisals contains a major risk tied to condition or quality adjustments that don’t match the actual property.
Nearly 3 out of 4 appraisals show warning signs of inconsistencies that could lead to inaccurate valuations.
Most homes were lumped into just two categories for condition (86%) and quality (97%), making it difficult to identify the real differences that could affect property value.
Adjustments were made even when properties had identical condition or quality scores – 11.8% for condition and 5.3% for quality – raising questions about consistency and transparency.