As we outlined earlier this week, the recent decline in listed inventory levels in San Francisco is being driven by a slowdown in new listing activity versus an increase in sales. And in fact, despite the fact that listed inventory levels in San Francisco have been up over 30 percent on a year-over-year basis over […more]
Tuesday’s report on new home sales came in as a miss of estimates and prior revisions were all negative. This data line confirms what we all know to be the case: The housing market, at least as it relates to construction, is in a recession. What I have always tried to do with my economic […more]
When it comes to continuing suspensions of policies that roiled the mortgage market in 2021, the ball is now in the U.S. Treasury‘s court. The Federal Housing Finance Agency and Treasury agreed in September 2021 to end limits imposed by the Trump administration on overall volume and the kind of mortgages lenders’ could sell to […more]
The digital revolution has changed the game in mortgage lending over the last few decades, resulting in a rise in digital operations such as online applications and eClosings. While digital strategies have focused primarily on origination, mortgage servicing can take a page or two from origination’s playbook to get off the sidelines and into the […more]
For those of us in the business of analyzing the housing market, the past two years have been quite a ride. The market’s insatiable demand for real estate, combined with low interest rates and even lower inventory, created a feeding frenzy that drove insane bidding wars, sent home prices skyrocketing, and frustrated many would-be home […more]
Home-price growth nationwide downshifted further in May, posting a 19.7% annual gain, compared with a 20.6% increase in March and a 20.4% jump in April, the latest S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices report shows. The report’s 10-City Composite Index recorded an annual increase of 19%, down from 19.6% the prior month. The 20-City Composite Index posted […more]
California-based wholesale/correspondent lender New Wave Lending Group filed a lawsuit against Sprout Mortgage, accusing the company of defaulting on a pool of $32 million in loans it agreed to purchase. Sprout has been sued by former employees, vendors and business partners since it shut down its operations in early July, laying off its entire staff […more]
Guild Mortgage rolled out a new program, aimed at first-time homebuyers, which will accept rental payment records and residual income history in place of credit scores. If the borrowers’ report from financial tech company FormFree, which provides the rental payment history and residual income analysis, shows consistent payment records, the borrowers may qualify to receive […more]
Having ticked up 2.2 percent in April, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index for single-family home values within the San Francisco Metropolitan Area – which includes the East Bay, North Bay and Peninsula – inched up 0.9 percent in May for a year-over-year gain of 20.9 percent, which was down from a year-over-year gain of 22.9 […more]
As you might guess, there’s room to play golf.