Blogs

January 28, 2020

Earthquake: M7.7 Near Cuba

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake occurred on January 28 at 2:10 PM EST, situated about 75 miles northwest of Jamaica, approximately 80 miles southwest of Cuba’s Bayamo state. Strong ground motions have been reported in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The earthquake occurred along the northern margins of the Cari...

January 22, 2020

January Update: Paradise & Santa Rosa Recovery

After catastrophic wildfires swept across California in 2017 and 2018, state insurers were hit with record-breaking losses of over $25 billion.[1][2] With three million acres burned and over 30,000 structures destroyed, the two years were the deadliest and most destructive wildfire seasons t...

January 17, 2020

Mortgage Delinquency Rates for All Loan Types Have Fallen to Their ...

Loans originated in 2015 and 2016 have performed better than loans originated in 2017 and 2018 The CoreLogic Loan Performance Insights Report analyzes mortgage performance for all home loans. Based on this report, the serious delinquency rate for October 2019 was 1.3 percent, representi...

January 16, 2020

Private-Label RMBS Performance: Non-QM Focus

In early 2018, we reviewed how RMBS 2.0 issuance volumes in the Private-Label Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (PLRMBS) market had shifted towards the Non-Performing Loans (NPL) and Re-Performing Loans (RPL) along with emerging non-QM as early as 2015.  In less than two years since tha...

January 13, 2020

Expiration of the CFPB’s Qualified Mortgage (QM) GSE Patch – Part V

Further insights on balancing risks (loan delinquency) and benefits (mortgage credit access) in the QM Safe Harbor, following expiration of the GSE Patch In our previous blog, Part IV of our QM blog series, we examined the balance of risks (loan delinquency) and benefits (mortgage credit access) ...

January 10, 2020

Expiration of the CFPB’s Qualified Mortgage (QM) GSE Patch – Part IV

Insights on balancing risks (loan delinquency) and benefits (mortgage credit access) in the QM Safe Harbor, following expiration of the GSE Patch This blog is a continuation of Parts I-III of our blog series: Expiration of the CFPB’s Qualified Mortgage “GSE Patch.” As we introduced in P...

December 18, 2019

HECM Loans in 2018: Borrower Demographics and Ownership Tenure

A reverse mortgage, such as the FHA-insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM), offers older homeowners a way to tap into the housing wealth in their home to help increase monthly cash receipts. These owners often have quite modest income: the median income of borrowers who took out a HECM in...

December 16, 2019

2018 California Wildfires – An Actuarial Review

2018 was another catastrophic year for wildfires across the United States. Nearly 9 million acres burned, and many lives, homes and businesses were lost. California alone had over 1.8 million acres burned, and the Camp fire was the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history.&n...

November 13, 2019

Special Report: Amazon HQ2 and the Washington, DC Metro Housing Market

The Amazon HQ2 Announcement: Have Housing Prices Changed a Year Later? On November 13, 2018, Amazon stunned the news cycle by announcing that it was choosing not one, but two sites for the location of its second headquarters (HQ2): Arlington County, Virginia, at Crystal City, and Queens, New York...

November 4, 2019

Top 15 Metro Areas with Wildfire Risk

Over the past several years, the United States has experienced record-breaking wildfires. In 2018 alone, a total of 8,767,492 acres burned – an area roughly equivalent to 74 of the 75 largest cities in the United States combined. This is the sixth-highest total since modern historical records beg...

October 28, 2019

How Demand Surge After Natural Disasters Impacts the Cost and Timin...

Although advancements in weather forensics have made it possible to anticipate the region and severity of certain catastrophic events, it is harder to predict how demand surge may or may not affect recovery efforts following a natural disaster of any kind. Demand surge in rebuilding efforts refer...

October 22, 2019

Natural Hazards Have Unexpected Effects on the Housing Market

Dr. Frank Nothaft Shares Research on Natural Hazards at EPIQ 2019 We all know that natural disasters have become a growing concern, both in the United States and around the world. Whether flooding, storms, earthquakes or fires, the increasing frequency and severity of natural hazards has been fel...