Gen Z borrowers accounted for 13.2% of all mortgage originations in third quarter of 2023, up from 9.6% in the same period the year prior, according to the Transunion’s Credit Industry Insights report released on Thursday. While millennials remain the largest cohort obtaining mortgages, Gen Zers are aging into traditional homebuying ages. All the generations except for Gen Zers saw their share of the market decline in the quarterly report.

Overall originations, however, continued a decline from the heady days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Transunion reports that only 1.2 million mortgages, both purchases and refinances, were originated in Q3 2023. That’s a 22% decline from the 1.5 million mortgages originated in the same quarter 2022.

“Persistently high mortgage rates remain a significant headwind in the mortgage market, particularly affecting demand for refinance,” said Satyan Merchant, a Transunion senior vice president, in a press release. “Purchase originations will continue to drive the mortgage market over the next several quarters, as demand for refinance will depend on mortgage rates falling significantly below current high levels.”

The good news is Q3 2023 saw the smallest year-over-year decline in the past seven quarters, indicating the mortgage origination market may be near its bottom. And Q3 2023 numbers nearly mirrored the second quarter of 2023 numbers, both just about 1.2 million originations.

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The credit will be extended to families who qualify for the company’s Home Possible and HFA Advantage products. The program is scheduled to begin March 1.

“This new effort continues the progress we made in 2023 and is particularly important in today’s housing market, where elevated rates and low supply have created affordability challenges for many families,” said Sonu Mittal, head of Freddie Mac’s single-family acquisitions division, in a statement. “We look forward to announcing additional ways to support low-income borrowers in the months ahead.”

Fannie Mae announced last month a similar $2,500 loan-level price adjustment for very low-income borrowers who are purchasing a home. Fannie’s credit can also be used for downpayment and closing costs.

Freddie Mac financed about 800,000 home purchases last year. First-time homebuyers represented approximately 51% of those purchases, the highest number since the company started tracking that statistic three decades ago.

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“Projects in need of critical repairs or that have significant deferred maintenance can result in unsafe living conditions, evacuations and uninhabitable homes,” a Fannie Mae spokesperson writes in an email. “In addition, special assessments for these types of issues can result in a substantial financial hardship for homeowners — especially low-income or first-time homebuyers — which can put them at risk for loan default and foreclosure.”

One of the practical effects of these changes is that more condo loans are being rejected or delayed, says Dawn Bauman, chief strategy officer for the Community Associations Institute, which advocates for condo associations as well as the 74 million people living in these developments. Her organization sent a survey to members last year. Of the 541 respondents, about one-quarter said that loans in their condominium developments were denied due to the new requirements while more than one-third experienced significant delays.

Bauman says that she’s concerned that the new rules apply to all condo projects with five or more attached units. Bauman also says that her membership learned that Fannie Mae maintains a list of condo projects for which they won’t purchase loans.

“The ineligible blacklist came to the surface after all of this,” Bauman says. “It was like, ‘Wait a second. There’s a list, actually?’ While it existed before, it wasn’t as big of a deal before because there weren’t that many projects on that list. It then became just a bigger deal after the new requirements came out.”

The Boston Globe reported last year that the number of U.S. condo projects on this list had grown to more than 2,300. Data and technology company CondoTek told the newspaper that the list numbered fewer than 300 projects the year before.

Fannie Mae reports that only 1.2% of condo projects were labeled as “unavailable” as of this past June. The agency also says that condo loan acquisitions totaled 9% of its single-family conventional business in both 2021 and 2022, an increase from 8% in 2020.

“Most projects that are currently listed as unavailable have other eligibility issues, such as active or pending significant litigation, hotel- or resort-type characteristics with transient occupancy, too much commercial space, or inadequate insurance,” according to Fannie Mae.

The Community Associations Institute, the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) and the National Association of Realtors asked the GSEs and its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, for more transparency about the list of nonwarrantable projects. This past December, the GSEs annnounced plans to create an online tool for homeowners associations to identify whether they are on the list and what they need to do to be removed.

CHLA executive director Scott Olson applauds the move for increased transparency, saying that if the GSEs identify problems with a condo development, the association should be made aware so it can fix them. Olson says that his organization has been focused on prevention of overreactive policies. He hopes that the GSEs and other regulators scrutinize the underlying causes of the Champlain Towers South disaster. 

“You should worry about older buildings; you should worry about high rises,” Olson says. “You should worry about areas where there’s a lot of water. That was a big problem with Surfside — the water erosion. You shouldn’t just overreact and be really tough on everything.”

Bauman notes that condominiums tend to be an affordable option for first-time homebuyers, retirees and everyone in between. She remains concerned about what could cause the GSEs to reject loans from condo developments. Those could be everything from insurance requirements to special assessments. She notes that homeowners associations commonly levy assessments for such things as lobby construction or common-area improvements. What types of assessments could cause more delays or denials for condo loans?

“Transparency is awesome, of course,” Bauman says. “The next step will be to really evaluate whether these are reasonable requirements, or addressing liability concerns for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, while making sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing for the American people, which is putting liquidity into the marketplace.” ●

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One reason for this is the homeownership gap between Black and white families, with homes accounting for so much personal wealth. The homeownership rate for Black families is about 45% compared to nearly 75% for white families.

“If the cost of compliance is too high, we are going to see banks cutting growth again to stay below that threshold.”

The National Association of Real Estate Brokers (NAREB), a network of Black real estate professionals, recently released its 10th annual State of Housing in Black America (SHIBA) report. NAREB president Courtney Rose Johnson spoke to Scotsman Guide about the report and her group’s Building Black Wealth Tour, which includes events in 100 cities on April 13 to highlight Black homeownership potential.

The Black homeownership rate reached nearly 50% before the Great Recession. Will it surpass this mark in the near future?

It’s definitely possible, but some things would have to change. First, we have a tremendous housing inventory shortage. Our ability to be able to place a buyer in a home that’s affordable is a challenge.Second, there’s a lot more education and financial literacy that has to happen. The SHIBA report has shown continuously that there are over 2 million potential Black mortgage-ready homebuyers. Why haven’t they purchased? Is it the downpayment? Is it that they don’t know that they’re mortgage ready?

Federal policies helped to create this situation and you’re calling for federal policies to fix it. What are you hoping happens?

We all know a lot of discrimination was basically policy driven. So, we’re asking, for example, for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to look at their pricing grids and move toward more accurate, up-to-date credit-score models. Using just one type of credit-score model is not necessarily advantageous for Black and brown borrowers. If you look at the average African American, the VantageScore versus FICO is usually higher because of some of the things that VantageScore uses.

There’s a lot of things that the federal government could do to increase housing stock. How are cities using their Community Development Block Grants? Can some of the regulations, zoning and building requirements in certain cities be made more flexible? A lot of things that can happen from the government side would make homeownership more achievable for us.

Are you surprised that housing is not more of a conversation in an election year?

Housing affects everybody. As the pricing goes up around the country, the conversation about affordable housing isn’t just about low- to moderate-income families. I like to use the phrase “workforce housing,” meaning somebody that goes to work every day — teachers, firefighters, police officers, etc. — being able to buy housing in their price range. Housing production, interest rates, all these things are not just affecting Black and brown communities but affecting all of the communities out there.

Another worrisome issue is the number of homes purchased by Black borrowers that are vulnerable to climate change, right?

This is our second year in a row bringing this issue up. There’s a map in the report that shows the Black population in the country is in more highly populated areas in the South, Northeast, etc. Those same areas fall along the coastline, areas more susceptible to flooding and things of that nature. So, it’s something we are very conscious of as we push to increase homeownership. We’re also focused on home preservation, setting up Black homeowners in situations where they can sustain themselves as global warming and environmental challenges increase.

What are you hopeful for in the future?

We have launched the NAREB Building Black Wealth Tour as a response to the State of Housing in Black America. We’ve also launched the NAREB Black Developers Academy to help our members that are real estate developers scale and increase their production to be able to help with the housing shortage. We’re excited that Black consumers are coming out to get the information to figure out how they can become homeowners. ●

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Mario Kart and pickleball tournaments. Season tickets to the New York Islanders hockey team. Trips for top performers to tropical locales. Scotsman Guide released a call for mortgage lenders, brokerages and vendors to tell their stories about what sets their offices apart, the reasons that work becomes something more than work. Dozens of companies responded, opening the doors to give a glimpse behind their logos.

This month, the magazine is releasing its inaugural Top Workplaces feature. It’s a showcase for mortgage companies around the country to talk about what makes them unique, their perks and the ways they accomplish their mission while helping their employees advance in their careers. The mortgage companies featured on the following pages are both large and small. Some have thousands of employees. Some are just beginning to sprout with fewer than 50.

Importantly, this isn’t a ranking. Scotsman Guide editors identified and highlighted some of the more intriguing offices around the country. Most mortgage companies generally offer competitive salaries and benefits, but each company has its own flavor, and these unique elements — as you’ll see on the following pages — often attract attention.

It’s also important to acknowledge that this is a keyhole view into these offices. All businesses have bottlenecks and pain points. Many companies aim to create a family atmosphere but fall short for one reason or another.

At the same time, not all workplaces are the same. There are some companies where employees trudge to work, but there are many others where work takes on a higher calling and employees look forward to what they can accomplish.

In this exercise, time and again, mortgage companies pointed to the mission of serving clients and helping them become homeowners. After all, that’s the ultimate goal for all of these companies, whether they’re banks, brokerages or even vendors helping lenders do their jobs more efficiently.

The companies that submitted for Top Workplaces also pointed to ways that they help their employees advance in their careers. Some hire top mortgage originators for coaching and mentoring sessions. Others have cross-training sessions so that originators understand the pressures on underwriters and vice versa.

Many of the companies wrote about creating a transparent office environment for their employees. And still others talked about efforts to create a more diverse workforce so that the businesses reflect the communities they serve.

Mortgage companies also highlighted the many ways they give back. These include scholarship funds for Gold Star children as well as charitable events for the Ronald McDonald House and Susan G. Komen breast cancer organization.

Another theme that emerged was the pride that companies felt seeing employees praise their co-workers in meetings and on internal message boards. Birthdays, work anniversaries and extra effort are frequently called out. Many companies have luncheons or treats for these events, yet another fringe benefit that’s offered.

The perks, including happy hours and those food trucks and ice cream trucks parked on-site, ease the workday stress. But again, the greater calling remains the same: to help borrowers become homeowners and give them a better chance to build generational wealth.

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Scotsman Guide Residential Edition has proven to be an invaluable resource for the mortgage industry over the years, sharing thought leadership from some of the biggest names in the industry while supplying news and information to help mortgage professionals do their jobs. Most importantly, Scotsman Guide publications continue to help connect originators with lenders.

The company has weathered the same storms as the mortgage industry. The highest interest rate of the past 30 years (9.25% for a 30-year fixed) was recorded the same month as the launch. (The lowest 30-year fixed interest was 2.65% in 2021.) And the magazine, like the real estate finance industry as a whole, suffered through the housing crisis of the late 2000s. The same can be said of the current market slowdown.

Still, Scotsman Guide Residential Edition remains an essential tool that’s delivered monthly to thousands of the top mortgage brokers, bankers and other professionals across the nation. The magazine’s annual Top Originators rankings drew more than 4,000 entries last year and 10,000 in 2022. The timeline below highlights some of Scotsman Guide’s achievements over the years.

Timeline

1985 – Scotsman Publishing Inc., creator of the Western Washington Bulletin, a weekly publication of directory listings and mortgage rates, is acquired.

1994 – The Scotsman Brokered Loan Reference Guide is released, marking the first issue of what is now the Scotsman Guide Residential Edition.

2000 – The West Coast and East Coast editions of the Scotsman Guide magazine are consolidated into one national edition.

2001 – The Commercial Lender Magazine is purchased by Scotsman Guide. By the end of 2001, the residential and commercial editions were published as separate, standalone monthly magazines.

2006 – The first online Lender Search tool is unveiled. In the 18 years since its launch, Lender Search has made millions of connections between mortgage originators and lenders.

2008 – The great financial crisis and the housing market collapse force many of Scotsman Guide’s competitors to shut their doors. When the economy began to bounce back, Scotsman Guide was well positioned as the industry leader.

2009 – Top Originators, the first verified rankings of the nation’s top-producing mortgage brokers and bankers, is launched in Scotsman Guide Residential Edition.

2012 – The Top Mortgage Lenders rankings are launched in Scotsman Guide Residential Edition.

2019 – The Originator, a daily email newsletter, is launched to deliver market trends, data, news and lender connections to mortgage professionals. Additionally, ScotsmanGuide.com is redesigned and launched with a new Lender Search platform.

2022 – The first Mortgage Originator Sentiment Survey (MOSS) by Scotsman Guide is released. Through a survey of Top Originators, MOSS gauges business conditions for the coming six months.

2023 – LenderSearch.com is launched as a separate technology platform. Lender Search has helped to fund more than $5 billion in residential and commercial mortgages since 2022.

2024 – In the years ahead, Scotsman Guide will continue to evolve as it develops and launches new and improved media content, technology solutions, and proprietary market data to serve the residential and commercial mortgage industries.

The post Reaching a Milestone That’s Three Decades in the Making appeared first on Scotsman Guide.

“If the cost of compliance is too high, we are going to see banks cutting growth again to stay below that threshold.”

Regulators aim to help people, but rule setting could affect the behaviors of institutions and individuals, said Jacelly Cespedes, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Minnesota. She has studied previous revisions of the 1977 law.

“Any regulation is going to help some people, but the regulations are going to also distort the behavior of the banks,” Cespedes said. “I’m very interested in how those distortions, or those unintended consequences, hurt the communities that banks serve.”

Banks are still digesting the final rule, which runs nearly 1,500 pages. The effective date for the new rule is Jan. 1, 2026, but reporting requirements won’t begin until Jan. 1, 2027. Cespedes spoke to Scotsman Guide about what could happen with the revisions.

Is this solely for banks or will it affect nonbank lenders?

The CRA applies only for banks. Right now, more than 50% of mortgages are originated by nonbanks, so people (early in the process) were expecting that the new CRA was going to was going to address nonbanks. But nonbanks are exempt from the CRA. Intermediate banks are going to be subject to more comprehensive lending tasks. Those are banks with assets higher than $600 million. The second major thing is that now they are providing more metrics about what the CRA means and what sufficient lending to underserved neighborhoods means.

Intermediate banks are facing CRA scrutiny now?

Yes. There are three categories: small banks, which are banks with assets lower than $600 million; intermediate banks, which are banks with assets between $600 million and $2 billion; and large banks are the ones with assets higher than $2 billion. The main difference with the 2005 reform is that now intermediate banks are subject to a more comprehensive lending test.

Could community banks choose to stay small rather than grow and be governed by these regulations?

I have a paper looking at the 1995 reform in which a $250 million threshold was imposed. What we found is that some banks close to that threshold decided to stay small. They started cutting their assets. Those banks that tried to stay small to avoid a more strict evaluation had a smaller share of business. This had a negative effect on mortgages and also independent innovation. They will need to build the infrastructure to assess loans to comply with the CRA, so that is going to be a cost. Those banks close to $600 million in assets are going to weigh the benefits and the costs of being intermediate. If the cost of compliance is too high, we are going to see banks cutting growth again to stay below that threshold.

Are the revisions doing anything else?

They are changing how assessment areas are determined. It’s not only where banks have their branches but also where they are lending. This is just to address online lending and the increase in online banking.

How else could the Fed encourage more lending in low- and moderate-income communities without these changes?

I don’t have a clear answer for that because what we have seen is that, probably, without the CRA, some communities would be underserved. So, it’s not that the CRA is completely bad, it’s just that the rule, as with any regulation, can create distortions. ●

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The New England states of Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont lead the country in rising temperatures, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These states have seen an increase of 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit since the beginning of the 20th century.

The Gulf of Maine is warming at one of the fastest rates of any body of water in the world in the past five years. In the past few years, blue crabs have been seen with more regularity off the coast of the Pine Tree State.

Rising temperatures could take a toll on industries across the region, according to the Climate Reality Project. Fruit farms could be at risk if unseasonably warm spring weather causes trees to bud early, with crops later lost to frost. Ski resorts support about 44,500 jobs in the region and generate about $2.6 billion in annual revenue. Warmer temperatures could mean later openings and earlier closings for resorts, putting stress on the industry.

The New England fishing industry already sustained a 16% decrease in jobs from 1996 to 2017 due to warming waters affecting the supply of Atlantic cod, shrimp and lobster. Dwindling stocks have forced some boat captains to declare bankruptcy.

About 15 million people live in the New England region. Massachusetts ranks as its largest economy. The Bay State had a gross domestic product (GDP) of $691 billion in 2022, good for 12th among all states. Connecticut ranked No. 23 with $319 billion in GDP. Each of the other states in the region ranked in the bottom half of the nation for GDP size, with Vermont coming in at No. 50 with a GDP of $40.8 billion.

Nationwide, the cost of a home is six times higher now than it was in 1980. Led by the Boston metro area, Massachusetts has witnessed a much higher increase over that time, according to an investigation by The Boston Globe. Home prices in The Bay State are 11 times higher now than in 1980. ●

Home prices in the New England Region were showing signs of heating up last year. U.S. home prices rose by 3.7% in August, according to CoreLogic, but prices in New England posted far higher year-over-year gains.

New Hampshire had the biggest increase in the U.S. with a yearly jump of 9.4%, followed by Maine and Vermont at 8.9%. Rhode Island was fourth at 8.4% while Connecticut tied for fifth at 8.1%.

Massachusetts had four of the nation’s 100 most expensive communities ranked by ZIP code, according to RealtyHop report released this past November. A ZIP code in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston finished at No. 17 with a median list price of $3.7 million. Connecticut had three of the top 100 most expensive ZIP codes. The vast majority of these pricey locations were in California and New York.

What the Locals Say

I’m in the northeast corner of Connecticut in Windham County. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are 10 to 15 minutes away. What’s happened is people are coming from Rhode Island and Massachusetts because they’re finding that they’re going to have more of a chance to buy a home here, even though it’s still competitive.

There were 386 new listings in the county in October 2023 and 277 of them sold right out of the box within seven days. That’s how fast they were going. They call us the quiet corner, but it hasn’t been so quiet. In 20 years of doing this, it was a wild run and it’s still busy. Our numbers are not where they were last year, but they’re still really close. People have cash. I don’t know where it’s coming from. All appraisals are coming in solid. They’re not coming in under asking price. The comparables are still there.

People don’t care about the rate. If they’re older and smarter, they’ve already been through it. They say, ‘When I owned my first home, I paid 13%,’ so it doesn’t bother them.

It comes in spurts. One week, everything’s happening. The next week it slows down. In October, in this little area, we closed 20 loans. That’s pretty good in this market. Once we start seeing rates in the 5% or even low 6% range, people are going to go crazy and start refinancing.

3 Cities to Watch

Boston

The largest city in Massachusetts continues to struggle in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of spring 2023, foot traffic in the two ZIP codes that make up the city’s Financial District was down 48% from pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to University of Toronto researchers. And the regional office vacancy rate stood at 19.1% in January 2023, the highest in 20 years, according to The Boston Globe.

Manchester

This area was originally called Harrytown before being renamed as Manchester in 1810. Affordable housing is a top issue for New Hampshire, but the state is hampered in providing it. Much of the land that allows for single-family homes is already built upon. In Manchester, there are concerns that changes to density, such as allowing for accessory dwelling units, could encourage the creation of short-term rentals.

Stamford

The second-largest city in Connecticut has nearly 135,000 residents. Stamford was already home to three Fortune 500 companies: Charter Communications, credit card provider Synchrony and United Rentals, the world’s largest equipment-rental company. It recently gained a fourth with the arrival of tobacco giant Philip Morris, which relocated its headquarters and brought some 200 jobs from Manhattan.

Sources: Axios, Boston Planning & Development Agency, Choose Stamford, Climate Reality Project, CT Insider, Federal Reserve, HuffPost, Maine Public Radio, Manchester Journal, MassLive Media, New Hampshire Employment Security, Stamford Advocate, The Boston Globe, The Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, The Providence Journal

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“We’ve been in such a super low-rate environment and to get to this point this quickly is what’s so painful for the industry.”

What could ease this tension is a decline in interest rates, said Marty Green, principal with Polunsky Beitel Green LLP, a law firm that provides legal support to residential mortgage lenders. Once rates drop, the dam could finally break open.

“We’d see some sellers get back in the market and that might improve our inventory a lot, which would be a good thing for the market,” Green said.

Green, in his role representing mortgage lenders, is a close observer of the Federal Reserve. He spoke to Scotsman Guide about when he thinks interest rates could drop, whether there will be a recession and what could happen that would roil the financial picture.

Do you think interest rates will continue to rise?

They’re going to continue to bounce. That’s how I would describe it. The general trend line is going to be pretty flat. We’ll see a few times where they’ll bounce up very uncomfortably. We’ll see some opportunities where they’ll bounce downward until we finally get into a downward trend at a more steady pace, probably in mid-2024.

Why would it happen then?

One, inflation will be much more in the rearview mirror, which may give the Fed latitude to moderate their position with respect to rates and maybe even drop it a little bit. The other thing that will happen is that once everyone becomes much more comfortable that inflation is in the rearview mirror and we’re not going to see additional increases, the premium that we currently see between mortgage rates and Treasurys will melt away.

Is the angst in the mortgage industry and among potential homebuyers about elevated rates justified?

It is. It’s changed the behavior of buyers and sellers along the way. To some extent, the rate itself is not the problem. It’s where you’ve been. That’s the issue. We’ve been in such a super low-rate environment and to get to this point this quickly is what’s so painful for the industry. What it has done is sort of frozen a lot of homebuyers and home sellers.

What have the rate increases done to the housing and mortgage markets?

Sellers may be ready to downsize or ready to do something else, but when they look at the delta between what they are paying now and what they will pay on a new mortgage, it just creates a paralysis situation where the timing just doesn’t seem right. On the mortgage side, the higher rates have really stressed margins so that mortgage companies are not making much money at all.

Does it seem like the housing and mortgage industries are ‘taking it for the team’ for the benefit of the entire economy?

No question. We may have benefited unduly during the pandemic and the boom that we saw there in terms of the increase of activity. We’re certainly paying for it now.

Has the Fed’s attempt to rein in inflation been effective?

Largely it has. If you look at the inflation rate today versus what it was six months or a year ago, we’re in much better shape now than we were then. Is raising rates the perfect tool for (taming inflation)? Perhaps not, but it’s had the intended effect of slowing down the economy and bringing inflation down significantly.

Do you think there will be a recession or a soft landing?

It’s either going to be a very, very mild recession or a soft landing. Certainly, different industries have felt the brunt of it differently. Housing is one that has been in recession and probably will be for the next several months.

What can change this financial picture?

Some of the geopolitical things have helped moderate some of the increases, frankly, with the flight to safety. There are things that could happen outside of the Fed that could influence the mortgage market. What’s happening with Israel actually could help moderate rate increases, but there’s some speculation that if it causes an oil spike with unrest over there, as well as what’s going on in Russia, that could actually feed inflation, meaning interest rates stay higher for longer. ●

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But mortgage professionals answered various needs in their communities. Mortgage companies and their employees raised money for and devoted time to veteran nonprofits, pediatric care and refugee programs, among many other worthwhile causes. At least two mortgage companies founded charities in the name of executives who have died.

In this article, read about some of the charitable efforts taken up by the people in the mortgage industry. Scotsman Guide plans to publish this feature online each quarter. If you or your company are holding an event or fundraiser, share the details at articles@scotsmanguide.com.

The MBA Opens Doors Foundation received $2,684,526 in corporate and individual donations this past September during its Annual Appeal fundraising campaign to kick off fiscal year 2024. The proceeds will support the foundation’s mission of helping vulnerable families with critically ill or injured children stay in their homes while their child is in treatment. The foundation, through its Home Grant Program, provides relief to these families with housing assistance grants of up to $2,000 per month.

During the three-day campaign, the foundation received pledges from 41 companies and 52 individuals. Six companies pledged $100,000 or more in support, led by CMG Financial, which pledged $200,000, and Pingora Asset Management, which pledged $150,000.

Additional companies pledging $100,000 or more were Arch MI, Citizens Bank, Freedom Mortgage, Lennar Mortgage, Radian Group Inc. and Pennymac. Four companies pledged $75,000, including AmeriHome, Intercontinental Exchange, Pulte Financial Services and Taylor Morrison Home Funding, while 25 companies pledged $25,000 or more. Personal pledges totaled $577,526 and exceeded last year’s personal commitments.

Mortgage lender Pennymac sponsored the second annual Stanford L. Kurland Memorial Golf Classic in partnership with the Sheila and Stanford L. Kurland Family Foundation. The two-day event this past July raised more than $2 million for brain cancer research that is conducted by the UCLA Neuro-Oncology Program. Stanford L. Kurland founded Pennymac in 2008. Under his leadership, it has become one of the largest residential mortgage lenders and servicers in the nation.

Kurland was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor in 2020 and received exceptional treatment and care at UCLA’s neuro-oncology facilities. Sheila Kurland, co-founder of the foundation, said she took comfort in knowing her husband’s legacy will help save lives due to UCLA and its doctors.

The Guild Giving Foundation, a nonprofit organization created by Guild Mortgage, hosted its fourth annual charity golf tournament, auction and dinner social in October 2022, raising a total of $380,000 for local charities. The proceeds from the 2022 event were awarded to local charities serving the San Diego community, including MyPath2Own Dedicated to Lisa Klika, the Urban Corps of San Diego County and Home Start.

MyPath2Own is a new charitable program that Guild launched in 2023 in honor of Lisa Klika, the company’s late chief compliance officer. It is designed to help potential borrowers become mortgage ready through homebuyer education, concierge service and closing cost assistance grants. Klika was a strong supporter of homeownership for communities in need. The charity will receive an initial check for $180,000 from the proceeds of the 2022 golf tournament. Guild Mortgage is headquartered in San Diego.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation recognized national real estate title and escrow company Title Alliance this past summer with a Top Fundraising Award. The recognition stems from the Pennsylvania-based company’s monthlong “TA Gives Back” campaign from 2022, when its team members, partners and clients raised nearly $9,600 for the charity, which supports patients and families affected by pediatric cancer. Many of the offices across the 12-state Title Alliance footprint held “Yellow Days” and participated in a lemon challenge to raise funds. For the Title Alliance Gives Back Lemon Challenge, participants were challenged to suck on a lemon for 30 seconds and/or make a campaign donation. The fundraising award is given by Alex’s Lemonade Stand to celebrate contributions of $5,000 or more.

Sun West Mortgage Co. was nominated for an award at the 2022 National Philanthropy Day for its outstanding effort, commitment and support for The Autism Community in Action. Sun West was nominated for the Outstanding Large Corporation or Business Award, which recognizes a business that has created a culture of philanthropy within its organization and has actively demonstrated its commitment to improving the community. For the past 10 years, the family-owned business has been dedicated to providing free education, support and hope to families living with autism. Through this effort, Sun West has provided life-changing resources to more than 50,000 families.

Real estate company Morguard gave back to communities across the U.S. with its North Pole Express initiative during the 2022 holiday season. Residents at Morguard properties collected books, bears, pajamas, blankets and essential hygiene items that were donated to international nonprofit Comfort Cases, an organization whose mission is to aid youth in foster care. The Canadian-based Morguard owns residential, retail, office, industrial and hotel properties, and it manages real estate and financial assets for institutional investors.

Freedom Alliance, U.S. Bank and True Homes partnered this past August to honor U.S. Army Pvt. Roy Garcia and his family with the gift of a mortgage-free home in Monroe, North Carolina. The newly built house was donated by U.S. Bank through its Housing Opportunities after Military Engagement program, in conjunction with Freedom Alliance’s Heroes to Homeowners program. Since 2013, U.S. Bank has donated 22 homes valued at $4.8 million to deserving military families in thriving communities across the country. Garcia enlisted in 2008 and was deployed to Kunar Province in Afghanistan in 2010. He and his unit participated in a joint operation with the Army Rangers and Afghan troops against the Taliban. The fighting was immediate and intense. Garcia’s unit lost their medic, and within 24 hours their numbers were reduced from 22 platoon members to nine due to injuries that required medical evacuation. During his deployment, Garcia also helped build a school for Afghan children, provided security for election day voting and established relations with village elders. Upon his return, he met his future wife, Allison, and they married in 2012.

The MBA Opens Doors Foundation announced this past July that it raised $234,536 at its annual Charity Wine Auction held during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Chairman’s Conference in Manalapan, Florida. The funds raised will support the foundation’s mission of providing mortgage and rental-assistance grants to families with critically ill or injured children, allowing parents and guardians to be by a child’s side during treatment without fear of losing their home. The foundation has provided more than $22 million in mortgage and rental-payment assistance to nearly 15,000 families since its inception in 2011, making it a critical part of a family’s support structure while their child is ill. Grants of up to $2,000 are made monthly to families with a child in treatment at one of the foundation’s network of 13 children’s hospitals.

Freedom Mortgage and Radian Group Inc. extended their support this past August to the MBA Opens Doors Foundation, which has an alliance with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Freedom Mortgage has committed an additional $600,000 over six years, and Radian has committed an additional $500,000 over five years. The foundation partners with the hospital’s social workers to identify families with critically ill or injured children in need of mortgage or rental-payment assistance as potential grant recipients. The first set of housing grants were made to the hospital in March 2020 and nearly $1 million in housing assistance to 660 families has been provided since then.

After a two-year hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Carrington Charitable Foundation held its 10th annual golf classic on Oct. 10, 2022, at The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, California. The event raised more than $2 million for its initiatives that aid U.S. service members returning from post-9/11 battlefields. The foundation is the nonprofit arm of The Carrington Companies. More than 250 golfers participated, and the event culminated in a dinner and auction attended by more than 450 people. Since 2011, the charity golf tournament, together with its React 2020 and 2021 virtual events, has raised more $27 million for veterans and their families

Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit serving America’s military families, presented Cornerstone Awards in December 2022 to Ali Haralson, president of Auction.com, and Len McMorrow, senior vice president of default recovery and litigation at U.S. Bank. The awards are for individuals who have gone above and beyond to help Operation Homefront transform how it serves military families and delivers its mission. Haralson joined Auction.com in 2017, and her company has donated more than $850,000 in support of permanent and transitional housing programs. McMorrow has been with U.S. Bank for more than 10 years and has been a driving force in making a difference for military families. The nonprofit’s partnership with U.S. Bank began in 2019, and due to McMorrow’s leadership and vision, U.S. Bank has donated more than $1.3 million in cash and in-kind support to the nonprofit.

Lennar Mortgage raised more than $100,000 during its 10th Annual Derby, where company teams raised money in unique ways during the spring of 2023. The Miami-based mortgage company presented its gift to the MBA Opens Doors Foundation in May. Since 2019, the Lennar Mortgage Annual Derby has raised more than $300,000 for the foundation from 2,400 individual donations by Lennar Mortgage associates. Laura Escobar (president of Lennar Mortgage and the MBA’s 2023 vice chair) and her team bested their fundraising goals during the monthlong campaign, going from less than $12,000 in donations in 2019 to a whopping $100,000 this year.

Real estate executive and Legacy Partners chairman Preston Butcher, along with his wife Carolyn, donated $1.5 million in 2022 to the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Foundation to create the Homeless to Housed Initiative. As part of ULI’s Terwilliger Center for Housing, the initiative aims to identify and promote strategies that will enable communities to provide stable housing for those experiencing homelessness. The new program will build on the findings of ULI’s recent report on the issue, which Butcher co-authored and sponsored. Butcher intends for his gift to provide developers and policymakers with the tools they need to design and implement successful attainable housing programs — and ultimately reduce the number of people without shelter.

Scotsman Guide Inc. and its employees contributed several boxes of new toys to the Toys for Tots drive in December 2022. Toys for Tots is a program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. The mission of the program is to collect new, unwrapped toys and distribute them to less fortunate children at Christmas. In 1991, the Toys for Tots Foundation was created at the behest of the Marine Corps. Scotsman Guide plans to hold another toy drive this year.

Houston-based InterLinc Mortgage partnered in December 2022 with Feeding America for its first companywide fundraiser, with a goal of donating $15,000 to food banks across the country. The fundraiser encompassed online giving and local food bank volunteer opportunities, as well as a grant from the InterLinc Family Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on assisting other organizations that make spiritual and physical impacts in the community.

Through a network of 200 food banks and more than 60,000 food pantries and meal programs, Feeding America provides meals to 40 million people each year. In addition, the foundation also helped several other nonprofits last year, including a partnership with Theatre Under the Stars, which provides accessible and affordable arts education to individuals with disabilities. The InterLinc Family Foundation also gave a $10,000 check and 40 welcome kits to Houston Welcomes Refugees, a Houston-based organization focused on rehoming refugees to the U.S.

Excite Credit Union and Excite Foundation announced this past July that they’ve been selected by California’s ScholarShare Investment Board to launch education and awareness programs that promote multiple college and career savings strategies for low-income families in the San Jose area. Research shows that low-income children with as little as $500 in a savings account are three times more likely to enroll in college and four times more likely to graduate. The grants will fund programs to educate eligible low-income families about college savings programs.

Nonprofit Citadel Credit Union doubled its annual contribution last year to $300,000 for the Cancer Care Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Since 2019, the credit union has been the presenting sponsor of the Parkway Run & Walk fundraiser for the children’s hospital, raising a total of $750,000 to fund critical childhood cancer research and care. About $43,000 of Citadel’s contributions last year were raised by its Building Strength Together Team of 170 employees, which more than doubled what the team raised in 2021. The fundraiser was held Sept. 25, 2022, along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and it drew nearly 10,000 supporters, including more than 300 teams.

This past June, Silverton Mortgage celebrated the 10-year anniversary of its charitable organization, The Silverton Foundation, which supports families facing financial hardship due to medical crises. The foundation has provided a combined 150-plus years of mortgage and rental assistance to families with sick children who have been hospitalized, or who are receiving ongoing chronic or critical care treatments. Silverton Mortgage also announced in March 2023 its corporate sponsorship of the Kyle Pease Foundation, a nonprofit that provides opportunities for people with disabilities to participate in athletic events, enriching their lives and those who support them. The nonprofit provides scholarships, purchases medical or adaptive sports equipment, and participates in educational programs to create awareness of cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

Telephone Doctor and ServiceSkills gave an undisclosed donation to the Fisher House Foundation, which builds homes where military members, veterans and their families stay for free while loved ones are in the hospital. These homes are located at military and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers around the world. Since its inception more than 30 years ago, more than 455,000 families have been served. Telephone Doctor and ServiceSkills are customer service training series companies based in St. Louis that work with mortgage companies and other businesses. ●

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