Mortgages

Compounding factors of low inventory and high costs also helped lead to another decline in Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index.

An uptick in pandemic-related payment suspensions reflecting new or restarted plan activity previously occurred as the omicron variant spread, but activity has since subsided.

The moves, which are part of a multiyear strategy, are meant to focus resources in areas where the Spanish banking giant can earn solid returns.

Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has cautioned banks, credit unions and fintechs about fair-lending violations that may stem from reliance on artificial intelligence. His comments threaten to discourage financial firms from using the technology to crunch nontraditional data about borrowers, experts say.

Three housing finance organizations asked for an interactive process similar to that used previously for originations and said they preferred less reliance on life-of-loan indemnification as a remedy.

And a recent slowdown in government-backed loan issuance is pushing average purchase amounts to another record high.

An increase in the number of completed homes over the last two months and prospects of higher interest rates this year as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy may have encouraged a pickup in contract signings.

A measure of home prices in 20 U.S. cities jumped 18.3%, down from 18.5% in October, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index showed Tuesday. It marked the fourth straight month that home-price appreciation has cooled off ever so slightly.

The debt facility from Barings is likely the largest to a Black-owned investor in the market.

The change aims to streamline the processing of certain pandemic-related loan options that accommodate lower monthly payment amounts for borrowers with long-term economic hardships.