Outside the Box Millennials drive the buyers’ market, while Gen Xers look to refinance Buying a home is quite different from refinancing one. Indeed, buying a home is a highly emotional and transformational experience. When you buy a home, you feel secure and confident about the future. Mortgage rates have fallen to record lows. As a result, this summer applications to purchase a home surged to the highest level since 2009. New house sales have also jumped to the highest level since 2007. Low...

Outside the Box Decline in mortgage forbearance applications is a positive sign As of mid-June, 5 million U.S. homeowners had requested mortgage forbearance. But over the past six weeks, the total number of mortgages in forbearance has declined to 7.74% of overall portfolio volume from 8.39%. This is a positive development, as fewer Americans are struggling to stay current on their mortgage payment schedules. Homeowners are seeking other ways of lowering their monthly payments. Some 2 million...

The spreading coronavirus pandemic is having a considerable impact on the U.S. housing market by shaping consumer sentiment and behavior. The public health crisis has made many consumers reassess their priorities regarding what they’re looking for when buying a home. Home buyers increasingly are looking to less densely populated areas like the suburbs, according to loan consultants at Caliber Home Loans, the mortgage-lending firm I lead. Here are three reasons why: 1. Health concerns: Home...

As the COVID-19 crisis has metastasized into an economic recession, millions of Americans are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. I fundamentally believe that losing one’s job shouldn’t mean also losing one’s home. This is a core lesson that I learned from the 2008 financial crisis, when I was the CEO of CitiMortgage. In response, lenders such as the company that I lead, Caliber Home Loans, are partnering with homeowners to develop forbearance plans to allow borrowers to stay...

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. Business leaders in all parts of the U.S. economy are taking bold steps to respond to the coronavirus crisis. Those of us in the mortgage industry are implementing reforms that will be long-lasting in terms of how lenders operate and how consumers obtain financing. Here are three ways in which the crisis may permanently affect the housing sector: 1. Increased digitization: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in mortgage lenders revisiting...