HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge steps down

👋 Good morning, readers! Today’s newsletter is 717 words, a 3.5-minute read.

1. HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge steps down

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge will step down from her role in the Biden administration this month, she announced Monday.

“Serving as HUD secretary was the ideal opportunity to culminate a career focused on doing the most good for the most people, including those who have often been left behind or left out,” Fudge wrote.

Fudge served as a Cabinet secretary for three years. Her resignation is effective March 22, 2024.

2. Keller Williams lays off 30 as president steps down

The president of Keller Williams Realty has resigned “to truly put God and family first and then focus on business,” announcing the move as the firm lays off 30 employees.

Marc King has stepped down from his role at the Austin-based brokerage, and CEO Mark Willis’ title has changed to CEO and president, according to a news release.

“The pandemic, social unrest, wars, fires, lawsuits, and market contraction required more time on business, and it’s time that I make up for that,” King said in an email to colleagues.

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3. Catch up quick

🚀 Maxwell launches Blueprint Builder, a first-of-its-kind feature that allows lenders to fully customize point-of-sale workflows, business rules, and user experiences. (Link)

🚨 Mortgage rates rise after inflation data, but it could have been worse. (MND)

👨‍⚖️ Banning Tiktok in the USA for real this time? The House votes today. (CBS News)

📵 A group of 23 players in the mortgage game, led by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) stand behind the trigger leads bill. (MBA)

4. UWM raises more than $1B by tweaking mortgage servicing

The nation’s largest mortgage lender, UWM, has bolstered its balance sheet by more than $1 billion this year by selling servicing rights and excess servicing cash flow.

UWM sold the servicing rights on $70 billion in mortgages backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae for $941.2 million, the company disclosed in a note appended to the end of its annual report to investors.

In addition to selling nearly one-fourth of its mortgage servicing rights (MSR) portfolio outright, UWM said it sold excess servicing cash flows on an additional $19.4 billion in loans for $150.9 million. The two servicing deals raised a total of $1.09 billion.

5. Stubborn inflation poses headache for Fed

Inflation was slightly stronger than expected last month but did little to change expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin cutting rates later this year.

Consumer prices rose 3.2% in February from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up slightly from economists’ expectations of 3.1%.

The second straight month of firmer-than-expected inflation is likely to reinforce the central bank’s wait-and-see posture toward rate reductions when officials meet next week.

6. Mortgage application volumes increase for second straight week

The MBA's Market Composite Index, a measure of application activity based on surveys of the trade group's members, rose a seasonally adjusted 7.1% for the seven days ending March 8. A week earlier, it jumped 9.7% after a month-long slide. On a year-over-year basis, though, current levels still ran 6.1% lower.

“Rates dipped after February's jobs data showed a less robust market in previous months than originally reported,” said Mike Fratatoni, MBA’s chief economist. “The downward trend boosted the Refinance Index 12.2%, with government-backed transactions leaping 23.6% week over week”.

p.s. I love toast.

You’re all caught up. See you on Wednesday!

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