Mortgage rates drop back closer to 7%

Mortgage rates fell to their lowest mark since August, hovering just above the 7% mark, according to the latest data from Freddie Mac. The 30-year fixed rate came in at an average of 7.03% for the period ending Dec. 7 per Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey, dropping another 19 basis points from 7.22% the prior week. Since hitting a 23-year high in late October, the 30-year average has dived over 75 basis points. The latest reading, though, is still 70 basis points above its level of 6.33% from a year ago, though. The 15-year rate took an even larger drop of 27 basis points to 6.29% from 6.56% in the prior PMMS. In the same week of 2022, the 15-year average came in at 5.67%.?

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Pennymac upsizes note offer, adds home equity loan for TPOs

Pennymac's financial services company on Wednesday priced an upsized $750 million offering of 7.875% unsecured senior notes due 2029 in a private placement in part to pay off shorter-term debt. The company had originally planned on a $650 million offering and the increase suggests demand for the longer notes was stronger than anticipated. Pennymac plans to use the new funding to reduce its outstanding secured term notes due 2025 and for general corporate purposes. The notes will pay out to investors semi-annually on June 15 and Dec. 15 and will be guaranteed by the company by existing and future U.S. subsidiaries with some exclusions. Potentially creating a new need for funding at Pennymac is an arbitrator's call for it to pay Black Knight more than $155 million to resolve a legal dispute over technology.?

Bank of America loan officers demand overtime pay in lawsuit

A group of former loan officers are suing Bank of America for alleged "failure to pay overtime and partial failure to pay minimum wage." Numerous companies in the financial services space have recently faced similar allegations including Rocket Mortgage, CrossCountry Mortgage and Freedom Mortgage. Bank of America's practices "systematically and willfully violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and the labor laws of dozens of states for at least seven years, likely much longer and through today," claims the class action suit lodged in a federal district court in North Carolina Nov. 30. Plaintiffs allege that it did so by misclassifying thousands of loan officers across the country as exempt employees under the FLSA and state labor laws.

U.S. household net worth falls on drop in value of stock holdings

U.S. household wealth declined in the third quarter by the most in a year on a drop in the value of stock holdings. Household net worth decreased $1.3 trillion, or 0.9%, in the period to almost $151 trillion, a Federal Reserve report showed Thursday. The value of equity holdings fell about $1.7 trillion in the third quarter, while the value of real estate held by households rose slightly to a record high. The S&P 500 retreated in the third quarter for the first time in a year on concerns about the economic outlook in the wake of the Fed's interest-rate hikes. Meanwhile, home prices remained elevated as higher borrowing costs led to constrained inventories.?

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