The president’s reported pick of Congressman Mel Watt, D-N.C., to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency is likely to be stalled by the simple fact that Watt is not qualified for the job based on a job description created by Republicans and Democrats back in 2008.
Yes, that’s right. Forget the confirmation hearing, he doesn’t even have the right...
They may be young, but millennials have witnessed their share of crisis. So far, millennials have lived through two wars, the financial crisis and terrorists attacks, with the most recent being the Boston Marathon—to name a few.
The millennials, also known as Generation Y, range mostly from age 18 to 34, and are 7% larger than the baby-boom generation.
Despite several hurdles like student debt, according to an...
There’s a reason the world hates lawyers, but in reality, the world should be more upset at politicians who generally confuse politically driven lawyers as task masters that are useful, but neither committed to the laws they write or willing to back them under divergent scenarios.
Take eminent domain for example. Even after San Bernardino County, Calif., gave up on the idea of allowing government officials to use eminent domain to disrupt investors' interest in mortgages for the...
Those of you who know me know I love every single day – each is its own special blessing. But I have to say the days of spring make me especially grateful. And this spring is proving particularly pleasant for Realtors because of a strong seller’s market and interest rates that are continuing to hover at historic lows for buyers.
These two factors alone can make your spring selling season bloom with business – if you’re ready. To get ready, you need to think about the tradition this...
One of the hottest debates coming out of Washington D.C. right now is immigration. But one thing that’s not debatable is the contribution of new immigrants to the housing recovery.
In fact, new legal status for current non-citizens could result in a potential $100 billion in new mortgage loans, the Financial Times reported in Wednesday’s paper.
As homeownership plummeted to a 17-year low...
We just completed day two of the Mortgage Servicing Conference hosted by SourceMedia here in Dallas.
Lending Reporter Brena Swanson and I have already published a few articles on key themes from the conference, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my thoughts on what a mortgage servicing conference would sound like if attendees took a hefty shot of truth serum before arriving.
Unfortunately, I have traveled to enough mortgage servicing conferences...
A sudden Consumer Financial Protection Bureau audit is the fear that keeps compliance departments and servicing executives up at night.
But preparing for a CFPB probe is generally straightforward as long as servicers and lenders are both “proactive” and able to apply a common-sense approach to the process, industry experts say.
"Being reactive in compliance is always much more expensive and painful than being proactive," said Michael...
It is now common knowledge that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is implementing new regulations on January 17, 2014, trickling down through the grapevine to yesterday’s news. However, the news ends on the issue that there are new regulations, few go into detail about what the new rules entail.
The CFPB amended and issued the final ruling on Regulation Z, the Truth in Lending Act, and Regulation X, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, on January 10, 2013...
Want to be a top mortgage servicer? It's possible with the implementation of key customer service guidelines, industry analysts claim.
The best way to improve the overall mortgage servicing experience is to streamline communications, ensuring borrowers know whenever a serviced loan is being transferred or changed in some way, said Craig Martin, director of consulting firm J.D. Power and Associates.
While speaking to a crowd at the SourceMedia...
It looks like supply and demand isn’t only pushing home prices up, indicating a strong and healthy housing recovery — it is also forcing rent to increase, widening the affordability gap.
In suburban Cook County in Illinois, the affordability gap skyrocketed 25% between 2007 and 2011. But in the midst of all of this, the amount of renters grew by 11% in the suburbs in the same time period, according to a ...
