NAF in talks to acquire Draper & Kramer Mortgage

Plus: LoanDepot says 16.6M customers had ‘sensitive personal’ information stolen in cyberattack

January 24, 2024

Hey there. Happy Wednesday. Today's newsletter is 685 words, a 2.5-minute read.

Disclaimer: Average mortgage rates as of Jan 23, 2024. © MND's Daily Rate Index.

1. NAF in talks to acquire Draper & Kramer Mortgage

Mortgage lender New American Funding is nearing the acquisition of Chicago-based brokerage Draper & Kramer Mortgage Corporation.

Negotiations are in the late stages, and if the deal goes through, NAF would acquire the residential mortgage arm of Draper & Kramer, Housing Wire reported.

Draper & Kramer, which operates in property management and commercial finance, among other sectors, is seeking to exit the residential mortgage business. The firm had furloughs and cutbacks in early 2023, an anonymous sales employee told the outlet.

“Sentiment was that the business model wasn’t working in these times. The board didn’t have an interest in keeping a residential mortgage division,” the employee said.

2. LoanDepot says 16.6M customers had ‘sensitive personal’ information stolen in cyberattack

About 16.6 million LoanDepot customers had their “sensitive personal” information” stolen in a cyberattack earlier this month, which the mortgage giant has described as a ransomware attack.

The company said in a filing with federal regulators on Monday that it would notify the affected customers of the data breach and offer credit monitoring and identity protection services at no cost to them.

LoanDepot did not say what kind of sensitive and personal customer data was stolen. When reached by email, LoanDepot spokesperson Jonathan Fine declined to disclose what specific types of customer data was taken.

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3. Catch up quick

🏢 46 NYC office buildings could convert to apartments under city's new plan. (Axios)

💔 The new battle in divorce: Who gets custody of the low mortgage rate? (Markets)

🏡 U.S. cities with the highest—and lowest—barriers to homeownership, according to a new report. (CNBC)

4. Mortgage forbearance rates continue to fall

According to the MBA’s latest survey, only 0.23% of servicers’ portfolio volumes were in forbearance as of Dec 31, down from 0.26% in the previous month.

  • This decline represents an estimated 115,000 homeowners currently in forbearance plans.

The share of Ginnie Mae loans in forbearance decreased from 0.47% to 0.39%, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans saw a marginal decrease, from 0.16% to 0.15%. Portfolio loans and private-label securities (PLS) also experienced a decline in forbearance share, from 0.30% to 0.27%.

"Forbearance as a loss mitigation option is diminishing,” MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis Marina Walsh said. “While forbearance is a powerful tool for delinquency surges resulting from natural disasters or major disruptions such as a pandemic, today’s borrowers are not experiencing widespread financial distress."

5. Redfin: Home prices rose 0.4% in December—the smallest increase in six months

U.S. home prices climbed 0.4% month over month in December, the smallest increase since June. December represented the third straight month of slowing price growth. On a year-over-year basis, prices rose 6.6%.

"Many home purchases that closed in December were negotiated in November when mortgage rates were near the highest level in over two decades. That likely depressed home price growth because buyers were grappling with limited purchasing power," Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari said.

It's also likely that home price growth slowed in December because the housing shortage eased slightly, giving buyers more options to choose from; with new listings rising by 0.1% to the highest seasonally adjusted level since September 2022.

Still, housing supply remained far below pre-pandemic levels, preventing home prices from dropping as buyers compete for a limited pool of homes. LINK

You're all caught up. See you on Friday!

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