Lower acquires shuttered Premier Nationwide Lending's branches

Lower brought onboard Premier Nationwide Lending's branches in December, around the same time it announced the acquisition of Thrive Mortgage. Premier employees ranging from loan officers to branch managers made the transition to Lower that month and throughout January, per the National Mortgage Licensing System. The actual number of employees that went over to Lower hasn't been confirmed. As of October 2023, Premier had about 151 employees in total.? According to one former branch manager, the parent company of Premier, NTFN Inc., shuttered. Then the mortgage lender's branches were brought on board by Lower.?

READ MORE: Lower acquires shuttered Premier Nationwide Lending's branches

Seniors reluctant to tap home equity for additional income

Many senior homeowners polled for a Fannie Mae study said they will not tap their equity in order to support their retirement income, even though they want to remain in their property. Just 15% of respondents would consider using their home's equity for additional funds during retirement, while another 43% said maybe. But 41% declared they would absolutely not use their residence for income, Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan wrote in a post on the study published this month. Duncan previously hinted at the findings in a meeting with National Mortgage News in January, discussing a similar survey by Leaf Home and Morning Consult.?

U.S. Bank, Ohio appraiser sued for biased home appraisal

A mixed-race couple claims U.S. Bank and an Ohio appraiser violated fair housing laws after a "whitewashed" appraisal delivered a significantly higher home value than their earlier review. Carlos Turner, a Black man, and his wife, Diana Davoli-Turner, a Canadian permanent resident, say the whitewashed appraisal was 39% greater than the bank-appointed review. The couple's federal lawsuit, initially filed in December, echoes a complaint filed in 2022 against Loandepot and follows greater attention from feds on the issue of racial bias in the valuation process.

Virginia joins states opposing 'predatory' real estate pacts

Another state legislature has passed a law aimed at protecting consumers and the industry against non-title recorded agreements for personal services, in which homeowners agree to long-term restrictions on property sales. Virginia's is the most recent to pass NTRAPs legislation, joining 20 others that have passed laws, some of which await governors' signatures, according to the American Land Title Association. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to sign its legislation. The momentum in efforts to pass laws that discourage the agreements, in which a provider pays for an exclusive right to sell a property in the future, is significant to the industry in part because the pacts can impede or complicate mortgages.?

Home price inflation will remain as long as federal debt keeps growing, Whalen says

The growth of the federal budget deficit under President Joe Biden now threatens to "crowd out" the capital needs of the housing sector and many other private borrowers. Most Americans are surprised to learn that home prices in specific pockets around the world have been falling for more than a year. China's property market has lost more than a third of its value since COVID ended. Yet there remains a narrative about strong home price inflation for most nations. As the world tries to find the bottom of sagging home prices, valuations in much of the U.S. continue to rise. Yet despite several years of higher interest rates, care of the Federal Open Market Committee, strong home price inflation remains the rule in most of the U.S.?

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