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Housing Industry Experts Weigh in on Import Tariffs

Ginnie Mae MBS

On Thursday afternoon, President Trump instituted import tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum. Calling the tariffs a push back against foreign competitors’ “assault on our country,” President Trump signed off on a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 ...

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These Are the Most Dangerous U.S. Cities

NeighborhoodScout, a web-based analytics platform, recently released its 2018 list of the Top 100 Most Dangerous U.S. Cities. They compiled the list by examining violent crime reports of cities with a minimum population of 25,000. They then took the number of crimes reported ...

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Fed’s Beige Book Builds Case for Further Rate Hikes

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve released its latest edition of the Summary of Commentary on Current Economic Conditions, more commonly known as the Beige Book. The Book is published in advance of each meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, ...

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Could Housing Construction Momentum Take a Hit?

Each monthly LegalShield Law Index tracks factors such as housing starts, foreclosure starts, and consumer confidence, compiling indices based on LegalShield’s proprietary data culled from their client base. The Law Index is divided up into sub-indices that track different sectors ...

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Royal Bank of Scotland Settles for $500 Million

Franklin American

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman this week announced a $500 million settlement between the state and Royal Bank of Scotland. The settlement relates to claims that the bank misled investors over the quality of risky mortgage-backed securities leading ...

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Are Homes More Affordable Than We Thought?

The housing market is feeling the squeeze as high prices, low inventory, and high demand all butt up against each other, making it difficult for many potential homebuyers to find a house of their own (or at least one they ...

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Rental Vacancies Down, But Houston Rate Still Running High

According to Morningstar Credit Ratings, the average vacancy across single-borrower, single-family rental securitizations was down in January 2018, dropping to 5.0 percent from December 2017’s rate of 5.2 percent. Morningstar’s latest Single-Family Rental Research report says the drop is likely ...

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Mortgage Offer APRs Trending Higher

LendingTree has released its latest Mortgage Offers Report, breaking down the lending landscape for February 2018. The Mortgage Offers Report serves as a useful companion to other standard industry surveys on mortgage rates because, as LendingTree points out, “Most quoted ...

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Fannie: Consumer Housing Sentiment Weakens

The U.S. housing market may be starting to get volatile. Fannie Mae's latest Home Purchase Sentiment Index report found that consumer confidence in housing took a hit in February. The worry seems to be stemming from some general upheaval at ...

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House Passes Four Financial Services Bills

All eyes were on the Senate Tuesday afternoon as it took up discussion of the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would scale back and modify certain regulations put in place by the 2010 ...

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