The housing market wakes from the dead

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Welcome to the 211 new folks joining us since Friday. Let's dive in!

 1. Pending Home Sales Rise for First Time in Seven Months

“Hey Siri, what’s going on with pending home sales?"

Pending home sales increased 2.5% in December, marking the first rise in seven months and a hopeful sign for the battered housing market.

Despite a 20% decline in contract signings for 2022 due to aggressive interest rate hikes by the Fed, recent data suggests demand is stabilizing.

The rise in pending home sales was driven by a 6.4% increase in the West and a 6.1% pickup in the South.

Mortgage rates, which play a significant role in home sales, have been declining and are contributing to the stabilization of the market.

2. APM boosts production through acquisitions

**Alexa, add Lend Smart to my shopping cart

American Pacific Mortgage buys assets from Lend Smart, including 25 branches, referral partners, and branch leases.

Lend Smart will retain its name and brand and have access to APM's mortgage products. APM CEO Bill Lowman intends to retain Lend Smart's production and operational leadership.

APM's production volume declined to $12.13 billion in 2022 from $23.6 billion in 2021. APM plans to continue M&A and asset purchases in 2023.

3. Ginnie Mae shortens re-pooling times for RPLs

Ginnie Mae has announced that, starting from February 1, 2023, the re-pooling seasoning requirements for re-performing loans will be shortened from 6 months to 3 months.

The change allows issuers the option to pool re-performing loans into eligible Ginnie Mae II Multi-Issuer Pools. The new policy will apply to all pools submitted on or after February 1, 2023.

To be eligible;

1. Re-performing loans must have made timely payments for three months prior to the issuance of mortgage-backed securities.

2. The issuance date of the securities must be at least 120 days from the last date the loan was delinquent.

The announcement "demonstrates Ginnie Mae's continued commitment to providing programs and options to issuers that maintain the strength and liquidity of the government mortgage market," McCargo said in a press release.

4. More Nuggets

Zillow deploys AI to improve online home search experience (Press Release)

Judge Dismisses Parts Of Discrimination Lawsuit Vs. Wells Fargo (Bloomberg)

5. Meme of the day

🧠 Interesting: ChatGPT passes graduate business, law, and medical exams. Do you use the tool in any way? I'd love to know how; just reply to this email directly.

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