Allstate, State Farm home insurance exits in California worry lenders

Lenders aren't downplaying the significance of the exit of two leading homeowners insurers from the California market. State Farm and Allstate, the first and fourth-largest residential insurers in California, will stop issuing new home insurance policies, the firms recently announced. The industry giants, which will still back existing policies, cite increased construction costs alongside inflation, and exposure to catastrophes as reasons to taper off in the Golden State. The exits are major events, executives of California-based mortgage companies acknowledged. They also mirror departures by insurers from storm-stricken states Florida and Louisiana, although elevated home prices in those states don't approach the $737,900 average in California, according to Zillow data.

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LoanDepot sues Movement Mortgage for poaching loan officers

Movement Mortgage used all-expenses paid recruiting trips to entice employees to leave loanDepot and take the company's trade secrets with them, the latter lender claims in a new lawsuit. LoanDepot is suing Movement for violating the Defend Trade Secrets Act, along with six other counts, in a federal complaint filed last week. The industry giant claims its competitor poached over 25 employees in a three-month span in late 2021, around the time other rivals were allegedly raiding loanDepot's offices. The publicly traded firm in a statement Monday recited the opening of its lawsuit, which describes fair competition.?

Fannie Mae sees tightening ahead but leaves housing forecast unchanged

Mixed messages coming out of recent data is making the near-term outlook for the housing market and overall economy difficult to predict, but a recession is still in the cards, according to Fannie Mae. Elevated interest rates are also likely to remain in the picture for some time, researchers from the government-sponsored enterprise said. Still, despite little chance of mortgage-rate relief this year, Fannie Mae left its home sales forecast unchanged from what it predicted in May. While inflation slowed in May to 4% on an annual basis, contributing to a unanimous decision from Federal Reserve officials to pause central bank rate hikes, stronger-than-expected jobs numbers provided evidence of a still-robust economy.?

First American gaining share in shrinking title insurance market

First American Financial's primary underwriting unit gained market share in the first quarter, while the three units of Fidelity National Financial combined had a lower percentage of the business versus the prior year, the latest American Land Title Association data found. But the total dollar volume of premiums written fell about 44% from the prior year, to $3.37 billion from a revised $5.94 billion in the first quarter of 2022. That's also lower than the $4.4 billion generated in the fourth quarter last year. For the publicly traded companies, the reduced premium activity affected first quarter earnings. Given that title insurance activity is highly dependent on mortgage origination volume, that is not a surprise.?

Monthly home prices rise again in low-inventory market

An upward trend marks new home-price reports, as a shortage of listings drove up competition for a limited number of properties during spring buying season. Housing costs increased on a month-over-month basis in April, according to both the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index. The FHFA House Price Index reported a seasonally adjusted increase of 0.7% in April. Prices headed up for the fourth month in a row, but slowed from the 0.9% uptick a month earlier. Meanwhile, Case-Shiller's national index showed prices rising 0.5% nationwide on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared to 0.4% a month earlier.

FundingShield partners with Mastercard's open banking technology

FundingShield, a wire fraud prevention software provider, entered into an agreement with Mastercard to use the open banking technology provided by the latter's subsidiary Finicity, for data sharing. Business email compromise, a form of wire fraud in which the victim is tricked into sending money to the perpetrator using electronic funds transfer, set a record for dollar losses related specifically to real estate scams last year at $446.1 million, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That number is an understatement as many victims do not report this crime.

MBA's Broeksmit seeks warehouse line leeway as capital rules shift

The head of a housing finance trade group is calling for policymakers to protect funding that nondepository financial institutions rely on following a banking crisis that some have feared could lead to tighter credit. Responding to plans to rewrite capital rules for banks following the crisis, Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO Bob Broeksmit emphasized the need to avoid imposing unduly restrictive risk weighting on warehouse lending, which so far, has been bearing up following failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in March.

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