Power House

This week, HousingWire's Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler interviews MBS Highway Founder and CEO Barry Habib. In this episode, the pair launch season 5 of the Housing News Podcast by discussing MBS Highways’ 2021 forecast.

During the interview, Habib also discusses mortgage rates, what a new administration means for housing, and how the industry can build an empire in 2021.

The Housing News podcast explores the most important topics happening in mortgage, real estate, and fintech. Each week a new mortgage or real estate executive joins the show to add perspective to the top stories crossing HousingWire’s news desk. Hosted by Sarah Wheeler and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.

This week, HW Media founder and CEO Clayton Collins interviews Steve Murray, the co-founder, and president of REAL Trends. In this episode, the pair close out season four of the Housing News Podcast by discussing HW Media’s strategic acquisition of REAL Trends, the residential real estate industry’s leading report that ranks the performance of the top U.S. brokerage firms.

During the interview, Murray also discusses his projections for this year’s purchase market and explains how real estate brokerages, loan originators, and title reps can all best work together for a more productive 2021.

Today, the Housing News Podcast features a bonus crossover episode from HousingWire’s Daily Download. In this episode, HousingWire Digital Producer Victoria Wickham interviews NotaryCam’s CEO Rick Triola

During the interview, Triola explains why more title industry professionals have adopted remote online notarization in 2020 and shares why he believes RON is here to stay in 2021.

This week, the Housing News Podcast features a bonus crossover episode from HousingWire’s Daily Download. In this episode, HousingWire Digital Producer Alcynna Lloyd interviews John Pataky, TIAA Bank’s executive vice president,

During the interview, Pataky discusses the nation’s lack of housing inventory and how it’s impacting homebuyer demand and home prices.

This week, Ben Cohen, managing director and senior vice president of mortgage lending at Guaranteed Rate, joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss how he became the company’s second loan officer to fund $1 billion in loan volume in 2020. During the interview, Cohen also discusses how his team has adjusted to support origination volume, as well as what Guaranteed Rate does to prepare its loan officers for success.

This week, Simone Beaty, the director of single-family affordable lending initiatives  Freddie Mac, joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss the GSE’s affordable housing initiatives, as well as what it is doing to prepare consumers for next year’s home buying market.

During the interview, Beaty also discusses how Freddie Mac is supporting shared equity programs as many Americans continue to face financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here is a small preview of the interview with Simone Beaty. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

HW: What are some of the very unique challenges in making sure affordable housing is available for low- to moderate-income borrowers who have been affected by the COVID crisis?

Simone Beaty: What we always bump into is that demand for units has outpaced supply. So, we're always trying to figure out how we can best deal with the supply issue and access to credit. We try to tackle both and sometimes solutions can be merged, where we are looking at flexible qualifying requirements that take into account things like nontraditional credit. We also make sure people who are not mortgage ready understand what steps they need to take to be prepared, so they are not blindly applying for a loan. Additionally, Freddie Mac offers some flexibilities for borrowers that may not meet the traditional credit profile, so if they're not necessarily the cookie-cutter kind of creditworthy borrower, there is enough room in the qualifying requirements that give lenders the ability to make sure they can fit within the conventional lending realm.

The Housing News podcast explores the most important topics happening in mortgage, real estate and fintech. Each week a new mortgage or real estate executive joins the show to add perspective to the top stories crossing HousingWire’s news desk. Hosted by Sarah Wheeler and produced by Alcynna Lloyd.

This week, Frank Nothaft, the chief economist at CoreLogic, joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss how the housing market has fared in 2020.

During the interview, Nothaft discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the housing market’s vitality as well as the economy. Notably, Nothaft also offers his market predictions for 2021.

Here is a small preview of the interview with Frank Nothaft. The transcript below has been lightly edited for length and clarity:

HW: Let’s talk about CoreLogic’s Forecast. What are you expecting for the first quarter and first half of 2021?

Frank Nothaft: We’re expecting mortgage rates to remain at record low levels, possibly well below 3%. I think that's going to be the case, not only at the start of the year but for most or all of 2021. That's going to be very important in stimulating home sales, and also refinance volume. However, I'm not expecting refinance volume in 2021 to hit the same numbers that we saw in 2020, but I think it's still going to be pretty strong. In fact, I actually expect refinance volume in 2021 to be more than it was in 2019. On the home sales market, we're actually expecting home sales to be up in 2021 compared to 2020. It will be because of new single-family construction and increases in existing home sales. Notably, over the last several months, we've had an acute shortage of existing homes for sale in the United States. Part of that acute shortage of inventory for sale is directly related to the pandemic.

The HousingWire Daily examines the most compelling articles reported from the HousingWire newsroom. Each afternoon, we provide our listeners with a deeper look into the stories coming across our newsroom that are helping Move Markets Forward. Hosted by the HW team and produced by Alcynna Lloyd and Victoria Wickham.

This week, Robert Broeksmit, the president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss the association's regulatory priorities for 2021 and what goals it hopes to achieve under a Biden administration.

During the interview, Broeksmit also discusses what could happen if the Biden administration replaces Kathy Kraninger, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

According to Broeksmit, if a new director is appointed, outside of mortgage regulation, they’re likely to focus on policies related to fair lending and affordable housing.

“I'd first like to say the MBA is very grateful for the tenure of Director Kraninger,” Broeksmit said. “We've worked very closely with her and think she's done a really good job at the bureau.”

“If she is replaced, we think there are a lot of areas outside of mortgage lending that the CFPB will focus on because it has a very wide scope, it's not just mortgages,” Broeksmit said. “There were things the current administration decided not to focus on that I think a Biden appointee would have more interest in pursuing like student loan servicing, regulating debt collectors and payday lending regulations.”

Broeksmit also addresses the Biden administration’s housing agenda and what it means for affordable housing.

“President Biden wants to introduce a $15,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit, but unless lightning strikes twice in Georgia and Republicans lose both runoffs, I think we'll have a divided government where a proposal like that won't get much traction,” Broeksmit said. “While the MBA is generally supportive of something like that, we don't think the chances are very high.”

The Housing News Podcast is a weekly wrap of the top news stories by HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler. Each week, HousingWire interviews financial services experts who can help make sense of the latest headlines, sponsored by our partners at Freddie Mac.

This week, Cindy Waldron, the vice president of research and analytics at Freddie Mac, joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss affordability and the trends Freddie sees in different areas of the country.

In this episode, Waldron explains how the nation’s lack of housing inventory is affecting low to moderate-income borrowers, as well as how COVID-19 will impact the homeownership dreams of Americans who may be struggling finically due to the pandemic. 

During the interview, Waldron also addresses the unique affordability challenges facing American renters, who have disproportionally been impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.  

According to her, while many renters are struggling, the pandemic has also stimulated homeownership desires for Millennials, many of who have indicated plans to become first-time homebuyers. 

“We are seeing [the pandemic] hit a lot of renters, but we are actually also seeing it stimulate some of these Millennials,” Waldron said. “A lot of [Millennials] were staying in place as interest rates remained low, but during COVID-19 we began to see them move to the next house as they wanted additional space.”

Waldron says while the desire for homeownership persists amongst renters and Millennials, factors like dwindling housing inventory and home price increases are impacting their likeliness for affordability. 

“Our chief economist at Freddie Mac has predicted the 30-year fixed mortgage will be around 3% in 2021, so that's good news for affordability as these low rates will keep monthly payments down,” Waldron said. “However, house price growth, which was around 5% to 6% in 2020, has been more challenging as COVID-19 has led a lot of people to want more space, which is adding to demand. So, this is also adding pressure towards affordability and even the housing stock.”

“In 2021, we expect the rate per house price growth to be 2.6%, so that should help a little bit, but it's not growing as fast as the 5% to 6% [In 2020],” Waldron said. “That said, again, the housing shortage is going to be very challenging, and building new housing during COVID-19 is going to be hard.”

This week, Thomvest Ventures’ Nima Wedlake joins the Housing News Podcast to discuss the housing market’s real estate ecosystem as well as Opendoor’s S-4 filing, which now values the company at $4.8B.

During the interview, Wedlake touches on his recent blog that examines Opendoor’s business practices, its progress to date, and its future prospects. He also discusses why so many companies in the housing space are now choosing to go public.

For some background on Banosian, here’s a summary of HousingWire’s  article on the S-4 filing:

The Housing News Podcast is a weekly wrap of the top news stories by HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler. Each week, HousingWire interviews financial services experts who can help make sense of the latest headlines, sponsored by our partners at Freddie Mac.

HousingWire articles covered in this episode: