Editor’s Note: The Mortgage Mix is RISMedia’s weekly highlight reel of need-to-know mortgage-industry happenings. Watch for it each Friday.
- As we’ve been reporting over the past few weeks, mortgage rates have reversed their steady climb. After hitting a 7% peak in the last week of October, rates began heading downward in November. This is believed to be attributable to reduced fears of inflation.
- Mortgage News Daily reports that 30-year fixed mortgage rates followed a mostly steady decline during the last week of November. After reaching 7.14% on November 9, rates declined to 6.29% by December 1. 15-year fixed rates also declined, from 6.4% on November 9 to 5.75% by December 1.
- Per the Wall Street Journal, the decline in mortgage rates over the last three weeks is the biggest drop since 2008.
- However, applications decreased as well. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Application Survey found a 0.8% drop in applications ending the week of November 25.
- Looking ahead to 2023, the FHFA has announced that the baseline conforming loan limit for a mortgage will be $726,200. In higher-cost areas, the limit will be $1,089,300. This is the first time ever that a maximum loan limit will exceed $1 million.
- The highest conforming limit will be applied to counties in southern New York, California, Utah, Wyoming and the Washington, D.C., metro area.
- Not all will be able to offer these million-dollar loans though. Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as reported by Yahoo News.
- Firms staying in business are cutting back as well. In fact, Wells Fargo recently laid off hundreds of mortgage sector employees due to a need to “adjust staffing levels to align with market conditions,” per Reuters.
- Still, it’s not all dire. Based on tracking of the bond market, Mortgage News Daily believes that the decline in mortgage rates could continue. If this bears out, that could increase both the demand and number of people applying for mortgages.
- A landmark analysis by AI-backed researchers found bias against Black and Native American mortgage applicants is not improving, despite some recent positive movement for women and Hispanic borrowers. The worst disparities remain in a handful of southern states—namely, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas.
- California-based Guild Mortgage Company announced that they are acquiring struggling Wisconsin-based Inlanta Mortgage, which recently announced layoffs affecting around 20% of its workforce. Guild described the move as part of a “strategic expansion into existing and new regions.”
