SoFi Technologies acquires Wyndham Capital Mortgage

The neobank purchased the Charlotte, North Carolina-based fintech mortgage lender in an all-cash transaction. Further specifics were not disclosed. The addition of Wyndham Capital will expand the neobank's suite of mortgage products and improve its business units' economies of scale, SoFi said in a press release. The fintech company will take Wyndham's origination platform and employees under its wing and integrate both into the company's lending business. This "full stack" approach will minimize SoFi's reliance on third-party partners and processes, the tech company said.

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NY ruling could help servicers, borrowers battle tax lien seizures

A recent ruling by New York's top court potentially opens the door to more relief for servicers and homeowners in cases where they lose ownership of properties due to tax-lien notification issues. The New York Court of Appeals opinion filed March 21 pertains to a default on a mortgaged property that servicer and lender James B. Nutter & Co. discovered when it attempted to foreclose on the home after the borrowers' passing, and found the county had already claimed ownership based on a tax lien and sold it. While such instances are rare, tax liens supersede all others and therefore are a big concern when it comes to the ownership of homes.

Homebridge to lay off 139 following CMG Mortgage deal

The Iselin, New Jersey-based lender will terminate 139 workers including at least nine loan officers by June 26, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification submitted in its home state. The filing, dated March 24, cites an additional layoff date of Aug. 31, but it's unclear if any personnel beyond those initially described will be impacted. "As a result of a sale of a portion of its business Homebridge Financial will terminate all of its retail operations," wrote Phil Schild, general counsel for Homebridge. CMG Mortgage in early March purchased Homebridge's retail origination business for an undisclosed price, in one of the larger independent mortgage banking transactions of the past 12 months. 

Home prices rise for first time in seven months: Black Knight

On an annual basis, however, home price growth was under 2% for the first time since 2012. "The purchase market increased when rates declined in the early part of the month and borrowers were quick to take advantage of limited inventory," said Andy Walden, vice president of enterprise research at Black Knight, in a press release. "In many areas of the country, that dynamic — low inventory and a modest rise in demand — led to an uptick in home prices." In a turnaround, 39 of the country's 50 largest metro areas reported prices increased during February. That is compared with a decline in 48 markets just three months earlier.

Consumer home buying interest highest since May

While more consumers are making moves toward purchasing a home, with one measure of that at the highest level since last May, the number is still well below one year ago, Redfin said. Its Homebuyer Demand Index, a seasonally adjusted measurement of requests to tour homes, make an offer and/or talk to a Redfin agent about a home search, was at 130.0 for the week of March 26, up by 6% from the prior seven day period. However on a year-over-year basis, this was off 24%. One Redfin agent is seeing interest primarily coming from two groups: entry-level owner-occupants and investors.

Could the Fed have stopped Silicon Valley Bank from selling hedges?

In one year, Silicon Valley Bank went from having more than $15 billion of interest rate hedges on its balance sheet to less than $600 million. In the wake of the Santa Clara, California, bank's failure — which was driven, in part, by its unhedged interest rate risk — some are asking whether regulators should have allowed Silicon Valley to offload those assets at a time when interest rates were on the rise. "Imagine if, in March 2023, Silicon Valley Bank had $15 billion of its [available-for-sale] portfolio hedged," said Dennis Kelleher, head of the consumer advocacy group Better Markets. "It likely wouldn't fail, there would have been no loss, there would be no crash."

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