Author name: Ricky Vasquez

General Views of Boston as U.S. Productivity Rebounds

Fed paper flags ‘underappreciated’ risks of private credit

Bloomberg News As banks provide the liquidity that fuels private credit lending — even without originating the loans themselves — researchers at the Federal Reserve say traditional lenders risk being dragged into a financial crisis if defaults among private credit borrowers spike. In a new paper, Boston Fed researchers José L. Fillat, Mattia Landoni, John […]

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Calls for VASP reintroduction come from housing advocates

A consortium of consumer advocacy groups and legislators called for the re-establishment of an expired Department of Veterans Affairs program that kept thousands of service members out of foreclosure.  The National Consumer Law Center criticized the VA for allowing the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase program to lapse without a sufficient replacement. The program, which previously

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New partnership helps banks flag fraud on Google

Google has launched a joint effort with the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or FS-ISAC, that will combine the search giant’s threat detection capabilities with FS-ISAC’s network and intelligence sharing to prevent fraud within the financial sector. The program, announced Wednesday, is dubbed the Financial Services branch of Google’s Priority Flagger Program, according

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Ex-housing official Alanna McCargo back at Urban Institute

Alanna McCargo announced Tuesday via LinkedIn that she has returned to the Urban Institute as a nonresident fellow. The former Ginnie Mae president wrote that she is rejoining the think tank at a time when there are “significant policy challenges ahead for affordability, community investment and inclusive finance.” This move follows an announcement earlier this

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Mortgage rates will go below 6% next year, Fannie says

Fannie Mae now forecasts mortgage rates to slip back under 6% by the second quarter of 2026 as it elevated its gross domestic product outlook and modified its home sales projections. The origination forecast, while increased over both its March and April projections, other than for rates, remains more conservative than the Mortgage Bankers Association’s

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Trump says tax bill ‘close’ as holdouts threaten to sink it

President Donald Trump said his massive tax package is close to being finalized, having notched a deal over the state and local tax deduction, but the White House has yet to win over a faction of conservatives who want more austere spending cuts. “We’re doing very well. It’s very close,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. House

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HUD Secretary Turner: End to fair housing rule a state win

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner told a group of state regulators this week that his efforts to rip away federal bureaucratic red tape and shift more decision-making power to the local level will have benefits for them. Turner informed attendees at a summit hosted by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors

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More Homes for Sale Isn’t a Warning Sign – It’s Your Buying Opportunity

Maybe you’ve heard the number of homes for sale has reached a recent high. And it might make you question if this is the start of another housing market crash. But the reality is, the data proves that’s just not the case. In most areas, more inventory isn’t bad news. It’s actually a sign of

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The driving forces behind mortgage lenders moving away from third-party processors

Mortgage lenders and services today face significant operational challenges, especially when relying on third-party processors for their outsourced services. While these middlemen operators can streamline certain tasks, the benefits are outweighed by their extreme high costs as well as the limitations over operational controls. Here we will focus on the complexities involved with outsourcing, and

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The Agency’s Rainy Hake Austin on leadership and AI integration

Rainy Hake Austin, president of The Agency, joined Tracey Velt on this week’s episode of the RealTrending podcast to discuss the evolving landscape of real estate leadership and operations. The Agency, which is ranked No. 13 by sales volume and is the fourth-largest largest privately held independent brokerage in the country, has expanded to nearly

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