TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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TH E M R EP O RT | 9 MONTH IN REVIEW 1 The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it will award $2 billion to support thou- sands of local housing and service programs across the U.S. last month. This year's installment of the annual HUD Continuum of Care grants will assist more than 7,300 local pro- grams working to house and serve individuals and families experiencing homelessness in their communities. 2 CitiMortgage has announced it has entered into dual agree- ments to integrate its full suite of U.S. mortgage products into a single digital platform for its clients. According to a press statement, a new front-end digital experience, LoanFx, from Digital Risk LLC, will be complemented by a new loan origination system, LoanSphere Empower, from Black Knight. 3 U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly refused last month to block President Trump's appointment of White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to head the CFPB on an interim basis. That request had been made by Leandra English, who was appointed acting head of the Bureau by former CFPB Director Richard Cordray after he announced his retire- ment in November 2017. 4 The Data & Analytics division of Black Knight, Inc. released its latest Mortgage Monitor Report. According to the data, as of the end of Q3 2017, 42 million homeowners with a mortgage now have an ag- gregate of nearly $5.4 trillion in equity available to borrow against. 5 Freddie Mac officially entered the single-family rental space last month as Berkadia announced the closing of the first affordable single-family rental financing through Freddie Mac Multifamily for TrueLane Homes, a leading owner of single- family rental homes. 6 The third quarter of 2017 saw many of the larger bank servicers scaling back their portfo- lios of residential mortgage-backed securities, while smaller regional banks and non-bank servicers moved to seize the opportunity, as reported by Fitch Ratings' latest RMBS servicer handbook. 7 The credit score for all borrow- ers dipped to 722 in November 2017 from 728 in November 2016, according to a report released by Ellie Mae, a cloud-based platform provider for the mortgage finance industry, in January. 8 Fannie Mae offered $10 million for solutions to the country's af- fordable housing issues as part of its Sustainable Communities Innovation Challenge. The GSE is requesting proposals from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors for "promising ideas that will help it address the na- tion's affordable housing issues," the GSE reported. 9 The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco created the Quality Jobs Fund, an initiative aimed at improving the wealth-building potential of working families and help generate future homebuyers. The first investment of $5 million was granted to the Central Valley Fund. 10 $5 million is the new $1 mil- lion when it comes to buying a luxury home according to data released by Trulia last month. The re- port, which examined trends in luxury living found that in terms of all home values across 100 largest metros in the U.S., 4.3 percent homes are cur- rently valued at $1 million or more. Breaking in 2018 With more than a month of the new year under our belts, the industry is seeing a greater commitment to serving the underserved and tracking the latest data. Also in the mix are some exciting announcements from industry power players who are rolling out new programs and products in 2018.