Mortgages

A Billings, Montana-based First Interstate Bank agreed to a five-figure penalty to resolve charges it engaged in National Flood Insurance Act violations.

But the purchase business that brings in three times the fee size as refinancings will be the driver of the improvement for the publicly traded title underwriters.

The revisions also revise how the surplus is calculated to evaluate risk of the bonds used as part of the available asset portion of the capital requirements.

Risks include pushing debt-to-income ratios too high for qualifying and rising costs leading to defaults, all of which affect the secondary markets.

One California insurer received an approved rate change for 56.4%, an increase affecting over 17,000 borrowers.

Borrowers are reacting to more media coverage of wider windstorm activity and events like a Tri-State earthquake, experts said.

New insurance written in the second quarter was only 2% lower year-over-year, the smallest drop in nearly three years.

The Congressional Budget Office acknowledged limitations in its research of expected flood damage data.

The total insured wind and storm surge losses in Texas will be between $700 million and $1.5 billion, Corelogic estimates.

In the three years since the Surfside condo collapse, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have made policy changes intended to address safety concerns.

Lenders need to look at both data and algorithms to avoid inadvertent redlining complaints, not just in decision making but customer contact too.

There's temporary leeway on formal compliance with replacement-cost value requirements in order to sort out insurer concerns with a recent re-emphasis on them.

At the same time, market share among a trio of the mortgage insurers shifted, data compiled by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods found.

The Biden Administration's title waiver pilot has started a broader discussion on whether the product is worth the money paid or even needed at all and can be replaced by an alternative.

"Lax regulation and monitoring of property insurers makes Florida mortgage markets far more exposed to climate risk than people might think," said Parinitha Sastry, an author of a working paper by researchers at Harvard University, Columbia University and the Federal Reserve.

Unintended consequences of shifting the burden for title insurance to the lender could end up harming consumers, several observers said.

Cost of property coverage rose more than 55% over the last five years and it'll likely keep rising through 2024, a report from Guaranteed Rate found.

The American Land Title Association, which represents the title insurance industry, argued that the program would not cut costs for those who really needed it.

The volume of active for-sale condo listings in the Sunshine State increased by 40% last month compared to a year earlier, Redfin said.

More borrowers are taking action but lack good information, Fannie Mae finds. Meanwhile, premiums are up yet insurers struggle to profit, a separate KBRA study shows.