Holding company Better Home & Finance hired Chad Smith to be the president and chief operating officer of its mortgage business, it announced on Friday. Kevin Ryan, who previously held the position of president, will continue serving the company as chief financial officer.  Before joining Better, industry veteran Smith was the CEO of Mission Loans from December 2020 to May 2024. As of Friday, the online lender had 43 sponsored loan officers and eight active branches, per the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS). Meanwhile, Better had 227 sponsored LOs ..read more

New York-based assumable mortgage platform Roam rolled out a new partnership with national lender Spring EQ to provide second-lien loans to Roam customers, the company announced on Thursday. The new service, Roam Boost, will cater to people with credit scores of at least 640 and down payments of at least 15%.  Consider, for example, a home that costs $400,000, with an assumable mortgage amount of $280,000. A prospective buyer would still need to come up with $120,000 to close the gap. If the buyer has a 20% down payment, or $80,000, they would still need an additional $40,000 to seal ..read more

In March, we explored the difference between Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) “expected rates” and “note rates” and why most reverse mortgages depend on these two interest rates. In April, we specifically focused on expected rates. We showed that when expected rates increase and round up to the next 1/8% (0.125%), the principal available to a prospect is typically reduced by an average of 0.6% (of the home’s value). In the month since my last rate update was published, expected rates increased 39 basis points (0.39%), which rounds to 3/8%, or 3 principal limit cuts. Sadly, these higher e ..read more

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law this week that changes certain requirements for the state’s reverse mortgage borrowers, a move that the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA) says could save money on closing costs. The new law, House Bill (HB) 7073, changes the way the state’s “documentary stamp tax” can be applied to reverse mortgages, among other provisions related to taxation. The documentary stamp tax “is an excise tax imposed on certain documents executed, delivered, or recorded in Florida” according to the state’s Department of Revenue. Common examples ..read more

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Freedom Mortgage were handed minor setbacks by the presiding and magistrate judges, respectively, in a case that the regulator brought in widespread violations in its 2020 submission of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data. The development was first reported by National Mortgage News. The original case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, with the CFPB alleging that Freedom submitted its 2020 HMDA data to the bureau in early 2021 with “widespread and significant errors,” according to the CFPB statemen ..read more

Kiavi, one of the nation’s largest private lenders for residential real estate investors, closed a $300 million unrated securitization of residential transition loans (RTLs), the company announced on Friday.  The loans bundled in the securitization were mostly investment property loans used for fix-and-flip transactions. This securitization marked Kiavi’s 17th such transaction and elevated the company’s total issuance to more than $4.3 billion since it launched its securitization program in 2019.  The deal drew significant interest from institutional investors. Consistent with prior ..read more

Sam Valverde, formerly the principal executive vice president of government-owned corporation Ginnie Mae, was named as its acting president as of May 6, according to an announcement issued by the organization this week. Sam Valverde Valverde succeeds Alanna McCargo, who began serving as Ginnie Mae president in January 2022 until announcing her resignation in April. That resignation went into effect as of May 3, and McCargo has since been announced as the new CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLBank) of San Francisco. Valverde first joined Ginnie Mae in 2022, working in roles as an EVP and ch ..read more

Guild Holdings Company, parent company of Guild Mortgage, recorded a 6% increase in mortgage originations and much higher revenue levels in the first quarter of 2024 than in 2023. Net income saw substantial improvements as the company continues to pursue an active acquisition strategy, according to an earnings report for Q1 released on Thursday. “I am pleased to report that our first-quarter results demonstrate the continued success and disciplined execution of our strategy with growth in originations, market share gains, and the addition of more than 600 licensed loan originators,” said Terry ..read more

Despite a challenging operating environment and broader concerns among industry professionals about connecting with new borrowers, the reverse mortgage industry’s key performance indicators showed improvements last month. Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements increased by 2.3% to 2,105, while HECM case numbers also trended higher, continuing a streak of consecutive monthly increases. This is according to data compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI). Meanwhile, HECM-backed Securities (HMBS) issuance also rose in April by $56 million to $503 million total for the month, with 89 po ..read more

Social Security is often the centerpiece of seniors’ fixed income in later life, and while predictions remain limited for the life of the program’s trust fund, there was some good news recently from the Social Security Board of Trustees this week: the fund will last a year longer than predicted in 2023. “The combined asset reserves of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance (OASI and DI) Trust Funds are projected to have enough dedicated revenue to pay all scheduled benefits and associated administrative costs until 2035, one year later than projected last year, with 83 pe ..read more