News

First-time claims for unemployment insurance jumped 20,000 to 362,000 for the week ending February 16, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists expected 359,000 initial unemployment claims.

A new report from FBR Capital Markets asserts low rates and high demand will continue to boost profitability in the mortgage banking sector in 2013. In a research report released Wednesday, FBR notes that average rates on outstanding mortgages hover between 4.50 percent and 5.00 percent--well above today's historically low rates. According to the firm, this means there is a ""large portion of loans with an economic incentive to refinance.""

Housing starts declined 8.5 percent from December to January but remain 24 percent above last year's rates, according to recent data from the Census Bureau and HUD. Capital Economics points out that the recent decline is largely driven by the multifamily sector, while single-family starts actually rose 0.8 percent over the month. The general upward trend in housing starts is tied to recent declines in distressed inventory, according to Capital Economics. ""[H]omebuilders are starting to benefit from the dwindling supplies of deeply discounted distressed homes, which for a while were next to impossible for builders to compete with,"" the analytics firm stated.

The regulatory tidal wave has come upon the industry, declared David Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), in a written speech Wednesday. ""Over 3500 pages of regulations have been released in just the first few weeks of 2013 and many more will be released by mid-year,"" said Stevens in his remarks for the MBA's National Mortgage Servicing Conference & Expo. In light of the rules, Stevens advised ""listening to the CFPB staff explain the rules,"" while also ""letting them know, respectfully, what works, what doesn't and what we need to work on together.""

Consumer credit default rates improved at the start of 2013, with noteworthy progress for first mortgage defaults, according to the S&P/Experian Consumer Credit Default Indices. The default rate for first mortgages dropped to 1.58 percent, down from 1.68 percent in December 2012 and 2.08 percent in January 2012. The second mortgage default rate was unchanged from December at 0.69 percent, but down sharply from 1.30 percent in January 2012.

Renters across the country are less likely to default compared to a year ago, but the risk of not fulfilling lease obligations has increased on a quarterly basis, according to CoreLogic’s SafeRent Renter Applicant Risk (RAR) index report. With an index value above 100 indicating less risk, CoreLogic's national index stood at 103 in the Q4 2012, up from 101 in Q4 2011, but down from 106 in Q3 2012.

Housing starts plunged 8.5 percent in January--the steepest drop in two years--to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 890,000, the Census Bureau and HUD reported jointly Wednesday. Applications for residential permits rose 1.8 percent to a rate of 925,000, the highest level since June 2008. Economists had expected start activity to drop to 914,000 in January from the initial report for December of 954,000 starts. Permits, according to the consensus forecast, were expected to increase to 920,000 from the original report of 903,000 in December.

In a blog post, a Freddie Mac executive revealed more than one-third of U.S. households are renters, the largest share since 1997, yet adequate, affordable rental housing is still out of reach for many. According to David Brickman, SVP of multifamily at Freddie Mac, the nation has seen 5.4 million new renter households between 2004 and 2011, and growth is expected to continue. At the same time, Brickman noted more than half of all renters in the country exhaust more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

As of November 2012, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have refinanced more than 2 million loans through the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP), the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) reported Tuesday. According to FHFA, nearly 130,000 homeowners refinanced their mortgages through HARP in November alone, making it the second biggest month for HARP activity in 2012 (behind June's 137,000 HARP refinances). In addition, HARP volume represented 23 percent of total refinance volume in November.

Carrington Technology Solutions, LLC (Carrington) and Equator, a default servicing technology provider, teamed up to provide financial institutions, institutional investors, and large-scale property management companies with a single-family asset management suite created to maximize the performance of multiple-property portfolios.