Editor’s Note: The Mortgage Mix is RISMedia’s weekly highlight reel of need-to-know mortgage-industry happenings. Watch for it each Friday.
–The collapse of two regional banks in California and New York may be good news in the short term for mortgage rates, which fell from 6.73% to 6.60% this week. All eyes are now on the Fed meeting next week, when the central bank could settle on a smaller than expected rate hike increase—or no increase at all.
-On the other hand, banks facing liquidity problems all over the country have now borrowed over $160 billion from the Federal Reserve, increasing fears that more could fail under the same stressors that sank Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
-In better news for the industry, foreclosures continue to track lower, according to the latest report from ATTOM Data Solutions. Still higher on a year-over-year basis, with just over 30,000 filings in January, those numbers are “leveling off,” ATTOM experts say.
–Applications for new mortgages rose for the second straight week, as home-hungry consumers appear ready to dive into the spring market. The 6.5% jump might be a blip on the radar, however, depending on how the Fed chooses to handle the ongoing banking crisis at its next meeting.
–New fees for Fannie and Freddie-backed mortgages with high debt-to-income ratios are being pushed back to Aug. 1, after the GSEs initially targeted a May 1 implementation date. According to National Mortgage News, the changes have sparked some concern and pushback within the industry.
-The Guild gains another member! California-based Guild Mortgage, which took in $1 billion in revenue last year, announced it was acquiring Cherry Creek Mortgage, based in Colorado. The addition of Cherry Creek adds “a strong retail presence” in the form of 68 branches in 45 states, according to a release from Guild.
-Not at all a shining example for other lenders, Michigan-based Sterling Bancorp plead guilty to securities fraud this week based on false statements and fake financial data it provided from 2017 through 2019. Agreeing to pay $27.2 million in restitution for the $69 billion fraud case, the Department of Justice, in a statement, said it would not seek any criminal fine, which could “threaten the continued viability of Sterling.”
