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Macho Mortgage
By Jeff Walton & Kelly Guest
December 16, 2024
Size matters: Should you brag about your pipeline in public? Just about a week after his company sued the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Rocket CFO Brian Brown spoke at Goldman Sachs U.S. Financial Services Conference last week and boasted, "“the largest pipeline ever” in its history of interested home buyers, according to National Mortgage Professional's Aaron Marsh.
Boasting bold intel: Brown didn't stop at pipeline prowess. In discussing his organization's tech and AI focus, he may have left the audience clutching their VPNs, saying, “If you’re applying for a mortgage, we probably know more about you than your doctor or psychologist or you name it. If you think about it, we know how many kids you have, we know how you work, we know how much you make, we know how much you have in savings, we know your Social Security Number, and the list goes on and on.” Goldman Sachs came in at #4 on NMN's rankings on banks by mortgage origination, so Brown was probably preaching to the choir. The top 3 were J.P. Morgan Chase, U.S. Bank, and Flagstar - in that order.
CHATTER
Deafening “Duh” Factor: CFPB Reports Apps & Originations Dropped Significantly in ‘23
Key findings in the release:
Loan applications and originations for both home purchase and refinancing activity dropped significantly in 2023.
Rising interest rates drove higher monthly mortgage payments.
More than half of all borrowers paid discount points.
Total loan costs increased, with faster increases for Hispanic and Black borrowers.
Non-depository institutions continued to increase their share of originations.
Get Ready For Regs: NMN interviews cybersecurity chief about state-level AI regulations on the horizon, who said, "I would expect in the mortgage space, a maybe 10% to 15% increase in their cyber spend year-over-year."
Knocked Out: HW reports Residential sale-leaseback platform EasyKnock abruptly shut down its operations after facing scrutiny from state regulators and being under fire from disgruntled consumers.
Last week, the MBA proposed the development of a new Ginnie Mae securitization designed to attract more private capital sources of liquidity to support Ginnie Mae issuers in the event of market stress or a severe economic downturn.
FHA Posts final rule on sales of delinquent SF FHA-insured loans.
HW Reports Planet Home Lending completed the issuance of $475 million in senior unsecured notes last week.
MOVING & SHAKING
MBA Opens Doors Foundation New BOD members
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s Opens Doors Foundation welcomed Owen Lee, 2025 MBA Vice Chair and CEO of Success Mortgage Partners (SMP), and philanthropist Mary Clarke Stevens to its Board of Directors. Opens Doors provides mortgage and rental assistance to families with critically ill or injured children, allowing parents and guardians to be by a child's side during treatment, without fear of jeopardizing their home.
Guaranteed Rate Affinity welcomes Scott Throneberry as New EVP, and Connie Lindsay as SVP of Mortgage Lending.
Sierra Pacific hired Suzy Lindblom to be COO.
The Loan Store appointed Flagstar alum Jason Lee as President.
First Home Mortgage announced Matt Nader is their new President.
Fathom Realty named Michael Shock VP of Operations.
MARKET/INDUSTRY
Mortgage Rates Continue To Drop: Freddie 12-12-24
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage decreased for the third consecutive week. The combination of mortgage rate declines, firm consumer income growth and a bullish stock market have increased homebuyer demand in recent weeks. While the outlook for the housing market is improving, the improvement is limited given that homebuyers continue to face stiff affordability headwinds.
Mortgage Applications Increased 5.4% From One Week Earlier: MBA Weekly Survey for the week ending 12-6-24.
Mortgage Credit Availability Decreased in November: The MCAI fell by 3.3 percent to 95.9 in November. A decline in the MCAI indicates that lending standards are tightening, while increases in the index are indicative of loosening credit. The index was benchmarked to 100 in March 2012.
Fed Foray: In his latest Master the Markets segment, Bill Bodnar notes that the buzz is around this week's Fed meeting; but watch for the Fed's upcoming summary of economic projections that gives their take on GDP, inflation, and more.
Comforted Consumers: Fannie Mae's November HPSI
The HPSI increased 0.4 points in November to 75.0, continuing its sharp upward trend over the past year as consumers appear to be acclimating to the higher mortgage rate and home price environment.
The number of consumers who expect mortgage rates to decline over the next 12 mos. hit a new record high; fewer respondents said they expect home prices to rise.
Positive & Negative Equity Increases: CoreLogic Q324 Home Equity Insights
U.S. homeowners with mortgages (roughly 62% of all properties*) have seen their equity increase by a total of $425 billion since the third quarter of 2023, a gain of 2.5% year over year,
Total net homeowner equity is over $17.5 trillion as of Q324
For the first time since Q222, the share of negative equity rose in the U.S. on a quarterly basis: The number of residential properties that fell into negative equity increased by 30,000 homes or 1.8% between Q2 and Q324.
YoY average equity gains were $5,700 between Q323 and Q324, following a huge jump in annual equity gains of $25,400 in Q224.
Hot Spots: NAR's Top 10 Markets for 2025 + Predictions
The South region leads with 4 of the 10 housing hot spots, followed by the Midwest with 3.
NAR predicts that mortgage rates will stabilize near 6% in 2025.
NAR projects 4.5 million existing home sales.
Here are the Top 10:
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Massachusetts-New Hampshire
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, North Carolina-South Carolina
Grand Rapids-Kentwood, Michigan
Greenville-Anderson, South Carolina
Hartford-East-Hartford-Middletown, Connecticut
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Indiana
Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas
Knoxville, Tennessee
Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Arizona
San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas