The Justice Department announced Friday a cross-government effort to investigate and prosecute redlining, the practice of banks discriminating against racial minorities or certain neighborhoods.
Congress approved $10 billion in federal assistance to help homeowners pay off debt, but the program is moving so slowly that protections are expiring before states have figured out how to distribute the money.
The White House replaced the regulator who oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after the Supreme Court ruled that the leadership structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency was unconstitutional.
The chief executives of the nation’s largest banks went in front of Congress for a second day Thursday, facing questions ranging from inflation to their efforts to keep Americans in their homes after pandemic aid expires this summer.
The moratorium on foreclosures of federally guaranteed mortgages had been set to expire on March 31. Census Bureau figures show that almost 12% of homeowners with mortgages were late on their payments.
Long-term bond yields, which can influence interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, are climbing this month amid expectations of higher U.S. government spending on pandemic relief and an economy recovery as more people get vaccinated for COVID-19.
The 30-year fixed-rate average, the most popular mortgage product, sank to 2.66% with an average 0.7 point, according to the latest data released Thursday by Freddie Mac.
The case could mean undoing an agreement between the mortgage giants and the government that has sent about $246 billion in their profits to the Treasury. That was compensation for the taxpayer bailout they received after the 2007 housing market crash.
Although redlining—discrimination in banking and lending based on someone’s race or where they live—has been illegal since the Fair Housing Act passed in 1968, analysts at Indiana University’s Public Policy Institute found that inequities in home-loan lending still exist.
The program, called the Hospitality Establishment Lifeline Program, will provide grants to Marion County bars, restaurants and live entertainment venues that pay food and beverage taxes.
Housing advocates are warning of a tidal wave of evictions in the state this summer unless an effort is coordinated to head it off.
Record unemployment caused by the coronavirus pandemic led to the largest one-month increase in mortgage delinquencies ever recorded.
A borrower who took out a 30-year, $200,000 mortgage in 2018 at an interest rate of 4.55% would have a monthly payment of $1,019. By refinancing into a 30-year mortgage with a 3.46% interest rate, the monthly payment would drop to $865.
The administration’s plan calls for returning Fannie and Freddie to private ownership and reducing risk to taxpayers, while still preserving homebuyers’ access to 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages, a pillar of housing finance.
The mortgage industry has added almost 5,000 employees since March. It’s a stark reversal from a year ago, when the Federal Reserve was hiking interest rates and banks were cutting thousands of jobs.
The Fed's updated forecast projects just two rate hikes next year, down from three that monetary policy body had predicted in September.
Vice President Mike Pence’s chief economist, Mark Calabria, is a leading candidate to replace Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt, a Barack Obama appointee who has led the regulator since President Donald Trump took office.
NattyMac, which was established in 2004, has a historical connection with Indianapolis and was sold to its current owner in 2017 for $211 million.
With the economy strong, wages rising and unemployment at a near-five-decade low, the Federal Reserve remains on track to keep raising interest rates — just not this week.
Wells Fargo is one of the last remaining big banks to settle charges related to its role in the subprime mortgage crisis.
