CFPB: Interim Final Rule Issued To Help Mortgage Servicers Communicate With Certain Borrowers At Risk Of Foreclosure
Bureau Also Seeks Comment on Separate Proposed Rule Modifying Timing Requirements for Bankruptcy Periodic Statements The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued an interim final rule and a proposed rule to provide mortgage servicers more flexibility and certainty around requirements to communicate with certain borrowers under the Bureau’s 2016 mortgage servicing amendments. The interim…
Federal Reserve: FEDS Notes | Are Rising Home Values Restraining Homebuying For Lower-Income Families?
Neil Bhutta, Steven Laufer, and Daniel R. Ringo1 Since bottoming out in 2012, house prices in the U.S. have been recovering rapidly. According to Zillow, the median home value has been growing about 6 percent per year. While incomes have also been recovering, they have not quite kept pace with home prices. The median household…
CFPB: Things to Consider before Borrowing a Reverse Mortgage to Delay Collecting Social Security
For most people, the amount of money you bring in each month decreases after you retire. Yet your expenses, particularly for health care, may not follow suit. So the question on the minds of many approaching this life stage is: how do I replace or supplement my monthly income when I retire? The most obvious…
CFPB: Report Warns that Taking out a Reverse Mortgage Loan can be an Expensive Way to Maximize Social Security Benefits
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) today issued a report warning older consumers about taking out a reverse mortgage loan in order to bridge the gap in income while delaying Social Security benefits until a later age. The CFPB report found, in general, the costs and risks of taking out a reverse mortgage…
HUD and Census Bureau: New Residential Home Sales July 2017
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Census Bureau today jointly announced the following new residential sales statistics for July 2017: NEW HOME SALES Sales of new single-family houses in July 2017 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 571,000, according to estimates released jointly today by…
FHFA: U.S. House Prices Rise 1.6 Percent in Second Quarter 2017
Washington, D.C. – U.S. house prices rose 1.6 percent in the second quarter of 2017 according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) House Price Index (HPI). House prices rose 6.6 percent from the second quarter of 2016 to the second quarter of 2017. FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index for June was up 0.1 percent…
FHFA: Refinance Volume Continued to Slow in Second Quarter 2017
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today reported that more than 356,709 refinances were completed in the second quarter of 2017, compared with 510,074 in the first quarter. FHFA’s second quarter Refinance Report also shows that more than 9,700 loans were refinanced through the Home Affordable Refinance Program, bringing the total number of HARP refinances…
Federal Reserve: The Effect of Interest Rates on Home Buying
The Effect of Interest Rates on Home Buying: Evidence from a Discontinuity in Mortgage Insurance Premiums (PDF) Neil Bhutta and Daniel Ringo We study the effect of interest rates on the housing market by taking advantage of a sudden and unexpected price change in a large government mortgage program. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insures…
HUD: “Worst Case Housing Needs” Increased in 2015
8.3 million households paid more than half their income for rent or lived in substandard housing WASHINGTON – The number of very poor unsubsidized families struggling to pay their monthly rent and who may also be living in substandard housing increased between 2013 and 2015, according to a new report released today by the U.S….
HUD: $38 Million Available to Fight Housing Discrimination
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today it is making $38 million available to fight housing discrimination through the Department’s Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP). The grants offered through three FHIP funding notices will support a variety of critical fair housing activities, including fair housing testing in the rental and…