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[ad_1] After hike in rates of petrol, diesel and LPG, the prices of CNG and cooking gas piped to household kitchens (PNG) in the national capital were hiked on Thursday by Re 1. CNG price in NCT of Delhi has been increased to Rs 59.01 per kg from Rs 58.01, according to the information posted on the website of Indraprastha Gas Ltd – the firm which retails CNG and piped cooking gas in the national capital. This is the third increase in CNG rates this month, which follows a spike in input (natural gas) prices across the globe. On the previous two occasions, rates had gone up by Rs 0.50 per kg.Following the firming up of international gas rates, IGL has been raising CNG rates periodically. Prices have gone up by about Rs 5.50 per kg this year alone. Also, the price of piped natural gas that households get for cooking purposes has also been increased by Re 1 to Rs 36.61 per standard cubic meter in Delhi. The increase follows Rs 1.60 per litre hike in petrol and diesel prices affected during the last two days and a Rs 50 per cylinder raise in the cooking gas LPG rates.After rising by 80 paise per litre on March 22 and 23, petrol and diesel prices remained unchanged on Thursday, possibly because of the heat the government faced on the issue in Parliament on the two previous days. In Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad, CNG will cost Rs 61.58 per kg and in Gurugram the price is at Rs 67.37 per kg. Similarly, PNG cost has increased to Rs 35.86 per SCM in Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad and to Rs 34.81 in Gurugram.Prices vary from city to city depending on the incidence of local taxes such as VAT. A record 137-day hiatus in petrol and diesel price revision ended on March 22, with an 80 paise per litre increase in rates and a similar proportion hike followed on Wednesday. On March 22, the price of a 14.2-kg LPG cylinder was increased to Rs 949.50 in the national capital. In some places, the LPG price has touched Rs 1,000.Prices had been on a freeze since November 4, ahead of the assembly elections in states like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab – a period during which the cost of raw material (crude oil) soared by USD 30 per barrel. The rate revision was expected soon after assembly elections ended on March 10, but it was put off.Oil companies are now recouping the losses.They “will need to raise diesel prices by Rs 13.1-24.9 per litre and Rs 10.6-22.3 a litre on gasoline (petrol) at an underlying crude price of USD 100-120 per barrel,” Kotak Institutional Equities said in a note. According to CRISIL Research, the price of crude oil (raw material for making petrol and diesel) has averaged USD 100 per barrel in the current quarter and a full pass-through would require a Rs 9-12 per litre increase in the retail prices. And if the average crude oil price rises to USD 110-120, the hike required would be Rs 15-20 per litre.India is 85 per cent dependent on imports for meeting its oil needs and so retail rates adjust accordingly to a global movement. The issue of price rise figured in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, with opposition protesting the additional burden on common man already reeling under the pressure of high inflation and commodity price rise. The opposition forced adjournments in Rajya Sabha while they walked out of Lok Sabha on the issue.With no increase in petrol and diesel prices on Thursday, both Houses of Parliament functioned normally. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Seeking business growth in the current rising rate environment, originators are contemplating the benefits of adding reverse mortgages to their product mix. HousingWire recently spoke with David Peskin, president of Reverse Mortgage Funding, who said entering the reverse mortgage business could allow originators to break into a growing market with significant demand that is largely untapped.  HousingWire: What are some potentially overlooked products that originators could add to their portfolios to grow their businesses in the rising rate environment? David Peskin: As we all know, the housing market is booming right now. With mortgage interest rates steadily on the rise and refinance volume dropping, originators should immediately consider tapping into products that are less interest rate sensitive. Additionally, originators should be reaching out for products tailored to a growing demographic with a tremendous amount of housing wealth: older Americans. Census records show older Americans, aged 65 plus, boast a homeownership rate of almost 80%. Recent double-digit increases in home appreciation have made reverse mortgages a strategic lifestyle product of choice for many older Americans. In fact, those in this age group are thinking less about mortgage interest rates and more about accessing the value in their homes in order to improve their retirement lifestyle. Each year, one million homeowners over the age of 60 report having a monthly mortgage payment, and this demographic only continues to grow substantially. However, a reverse mortgage can allow them to eliminate monthly mortgage payments, increasing cash flow in turn.  Originators seeking to grow their business in this rising rate environment could effectively benefit by adding reverse mortgages as part of their product mix. Entering the reverse mortgage origination business allows you to step outside the world of rising rates and enter a growing market that is largely untapped with significant demand. There are several types of reverse mortgages that originators should be aware of, starting with Reverse Mortgage Funding’s proprietary reverse mortgage product, Equity Elite.  Available to clients aged 55 and older (in select states), this product allows eligible homeowners to tap into more of their home equity sooner rather than later with lower upfront costs. The program is available to a wide range of homeowners, with lending limits as high as $4 million*.  Then there is the HECM, which offers the most flexible terms for borrowers. Cash can be taken in a lump sum line of credit or monthly payments. Both programs can also be used as a home financing solution that allows older clients to purchase a new home that will better fit their lifestyle. HW: What are some challenges lenders may face as they introduce reverse mortgage products? DP: While the upcoming generation of retirees are likely to enjoy a retirement period of close to 30 years, a reverse mortgage can be a strategic tool for funding the retirement lifestyle they’ve always dreamed of. As an originator, delivering highly flexible reverse mortgage options will help ensure that you can help better address their financial needs. Unfortunately, many clients aren’t always aware of all the benefits that a reverse mortgage has to offer. They may even have misconceptions about the product, so there’s an educational component involved in easing them into an informed introduction of the product. Overall, the industry has come a long way in terms of promoting the many benefits of reverse mortgages. Clients, lenders, and financial advisors are just scratching the surface about how to use them strategically with home equity serving as an increasingly critical retirement asset. As such, reverse mortgages will continue to be a growing option as a valuable and effective tool to help meet the challenges of retirement financing. For lenders unfamiliar with reverse mortgage products, RMF makes it easy to get into the business with its technology platform, training, marketing assistance and industry-leading support. We’ve helped many originators enter the business and turn reverses into a lucrative new line of business and we can help you, too. HW: Are there any common misconceptions that originators have regarding reverse mortgages?  DP: Oftentimes, it seems the most common misconception about reverse mortgage comes from originators and borrowers alike: that a reverse mortgage is a loan of last resort. The truth is that many savvy homeowners have used a reverse mortgage strategically, and many owners of high-value homes elect to use a reverse mortgage to fund their retirement. Since its inception in 2012, RMF has originated over 1,300 reverse mortgages for homes valued over $1 million, including some homes valued as high as $5 million. Savvy homeowners are using this product instead of conventional loans because of its greater flexibility. Whether it’s creating a safety net in case of emergencies, funding home improvements, covering healthcare costs, or simply freeing up cash in order to have financial peace of mind, a reverse mortgage delivers critical relief and greater financial flexibility for older homeowners and homebuyers. With retirees becoming a growing demographic that is living longer and more concerned about outliving their retirement savings than ever, reverse mortgages are viable options to help bridge this potential financial gap. As an originator, assisting these clients in accessing their home equity, and increasing their peace of mind, can be incredibly rewarding and a strategic way to grow your business. HW: How does Reverse Mortgage Funding aid its lenders as they look to expand their product offerings? DP: At RMF, our relationship with our partners is one of our top priorities. We have developed a targeted platform designed to make it seamless for forward mortgage originators to easily enter the reverse mortgage space in a confident and compliant manner. Under our robust system, each partner is provided with a dedicated internal support staff and an outside team that is here to assist our clients every step of the way. Our helpful team personally guides them through each phase of the process until they’re comfortable enough to do it on their own. Of course, education is of utmost importance when offering a new product. That is why we offer private and

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[ad_1] Chinese search for second black box from crashed jet [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Odisha urban local body elections 2022 live news: Elections are being held in 106 civic bodies and three municipal corporations in Odisha today amid tight security. Around 40.5 lakh voters will exercise their franchise to decide the fate of over 6,400 candidates in the fray. The voting, which began at 8 am, will conclude at 5 pm. The elections are being held after a gap of 10 years as they could not be conducted in 2018. A total of 205 platoons of police have been deployed for the polling which will be conducted through EVMs. Polling will be held in 3,068 booths of 1,731 wards in the 106 civic bodies. In the three municipal corporations — Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur — total 168 wards will go to the polls and 1,407 booths have been set up, officials said. [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s long-awaited action plan on appraisal bias outlines administrative actions the federal government will quickly take to address mis-valuations. But the report fails to offer a clear plan to release appraisal data from the government sponsored enterprises. Doing so would help to better diagnose and solve the problem, fair housing advocates, trade associations and researchers have long argued. The report was a collaboration between a bevy of federal agencies. That is one reason its explanation of the historical drivers of racial disparities in home valuations — including redlining institutionalized by the federal government — is so significant. But the report also outlines potential legislative changes, and actions task force agencies will take in the near-term to solve the dysfunctions of the appraisal industry’s regulatory framework. Observers said the fact that the report outlined commitments, rather than recommendations, demonstrates the seriousness of the task force’s effort. Perhaps the strongest critique to emerge in the report is of the appraisal industry’s regulatory governance, which was spotlighted in a recent report by the National Fair Housing Alliance. The task force report said that the appraisal industry “lacks clarity around its antidiscrimination obligations,” and so the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Justice, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and HUD will issue specific guidance on how fair housing law applies to the appraisal industry. One challenge in assessing the scope of appraisal bias is rooted in the informal process of challenging an appraised value. HUD will now use the VA’s reconsideration of value process as a model and track reconsideration of value processes for Federal Housing Administration lenders. On the heels of a Federal Housing Finance Agency blog post that found numerous mentions of protected classes in the free-form text entry portion of appraisal reports, the forms used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will get an overhaul to rely on more objective data points. FHFA will also direct the GSEs to make the nondiscrimination clause more prominent. The report also raised concerns of whether automated valuation models have the potential to bake-in and amplify racial bias, in part by relying on historical sales comparison values. An interagency proposed rule on AVMs, mandated by Dodd-Frank, will include a nondiscrimination standard, the report stated. Most, but not all, of the changes outlined in the report can be pursued through administrative action, rather than legislation. The report will consult with Congress to develop legislation to make significant changes to the regulatory framework of the appraisal industry. The report wrote that “the existing governance structure needs to be fundamentally reassessed to meaningfully advance equity in the industry.” CFPB Director Rohit Chopra, in a statement, said the watchdog agency will be taking an active leadership role in the Appraisal Subcommittee. “In particular, we will be closely scrutinizing the work of The Appraisal Foundation, which wields enormous power to set standards and levy fees on the professional appraiser community,” Chopra wrote. The task force report also underscored the importance of data in better understanding appraisal bias. It also acknowledged the lack of publicly available historical appraisal data. But the action plan did not present any new data analysis of appraisal bias. It instead surveyed research by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the FHFA and the Brookings Institution. The action plan did not include, even in aggregate, any analysis of historical appraisal data from Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or government agencies that have similar loan-level data, including the Federal Housing Administration. The task force said it would make some data available to federal agencies, by creating a database of a subset of historical appraisal data for government channel loans. The Department of Veterans Affairs, HUD and the United States Department of Agriculture will use the data to “track appraiser performance over time, hold appraisers accountable, and understand if issues of bias may be taking place across federal home loans.” The performance data will also be shared with appraisers, the report said. But there is no public plan to do the same with historical appraisal data from the government-sponsored enterprises, which provide financing for the bulk of the single-family mortgage market. Michael Neal, a fellow at the Urban Institute who has studied racial bias in automated valuation models, said he was pleased that the report emphasized how important data is to understanding how racial bias manifests. “I think it’s a step forward,” Neal said. “But there is more that we can continue to assess and explore. It’s key to acknowledge that data is not being shared across government agencies.” Janneke Ratcliffe, managing director of the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center, said that she hoped there would be further progress toward getting access to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s appraisal data. Researchers, academics, trade associations have argued for the data’s release. “We are eager to see progress on making the UAD type data publicly available,” Ratcliffe said. The report said that FHFA has already begun sharing data with other federal agencies to further research and enforcement, but it remains to be seen what actions will result. Meg Burns, executive vice president of the Housing Policy Council, which represents leading mortgage originators and servicers, explained that releasing the data is a complex process, because of the privacy concerns of disclosing loan-level data. She said HPC has repeatedly advocated that FHFA and the GSEs “formulate some strategy to begin to enable the release of their data,” which she said the task force action plan begins to do. But there are limits to what a report can do, and she was not surprised that it did not contain a plan for releasing the GSE data. “This document can’t just mandate some immediate change in the availability of that data,” Burns said. Burns said the report suggests it’s under consideration. Lisa Rice, CEO of the NFHA, said that having access to the GSE data is necessary to carry out effective monitoring, oversight, compliance, governance and enforcement — not just to make the case that appraisal

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[ad_1] South Korea central bank governor nominee Rhee says inflation, economic risks mounting [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] Broking firms are set to clock record revenues in the current financial year, driven by higher retail participation and favourable systematic liquidity. According to rating agency Icra, the industry is likely to clock a total revenue of Rs 27,000-28,000 crore in FY2022, registering a year-on-year (y-o-y) growth of 28-33%. However, the revenue growth rate is expected to moderate to 5-7% in FY2023 with an expected industry total turnover of Rs 28,500-29,000 crore.   The increase in the activity in equity markets since the beginning of the pandemic was driven by robust corporate earnings, favourable liquidity in both international and domestic markets, higher internet penetration, and retail participation, experts said. As of December 2021, the total number of demat accounts increased to 80 million from 55 million in March 2021. The net monthly accounts addition increased from 11.9 lakh in FY2021 to 28.33 lakh in the current financial year, while it was only 4.1 lakh per month during FY2020, said Icra in the note. Additionally, the average daily turnover also increased 126% to Rs 63.07 trillion during the nine months ended FY2022 against Rs. 27.92 trillion in FY2021.  According to an analysis of 18 sample brokerage firms done by Icra, companies have reported 38% year-on-year growth in revenues. Further, the cost structure and operational efficiency of brokerage firms have also improved over the last few years — with a major focus on customer acquisition through digital channels and improvement in economies of scale. Brokerage firm Motilal Oswal Financial Services reported YoY growth of 46% and 47%, respectively, in Q2FY22 and Q3FY22, whereas ICICI Securities saw its revenues scaling up 26% and 52% during Q2FY22 and Q3FY22, respectively.  However, going forward, in FY2023, the revenues of the overall industry are likely to see some moderation as the revenue growth rate is expected to taper to 5-7%, with an expected industry total turnover of Rs 28,500-29,000 crore. However, Icra expects growth to remain contingent on capital market performance and maintenance of similar yields as seen in recent years.  “We expect the markets to remain volatile, going forward, amid various domestic and international cues. While the transaction volumes have reported month-on-month growth, primarily led by the derivatives segment during the quarter, prolonged subdued capital markets could have a bearing on the cash segment turnover and other allied capital market businesses, which, in turn, could impact the industry’s earnings,” said Samriddhi Chowdhary, vice- president – financial sector ratings, Icra Ratings.  [ad_2] Source link

[ad_1] We finally got mortgage rates to rise, and for people like me who have been concerned about how unhealthy the housing market was last year — and it got a lot worse this year — it’s a blessing that was much needed. Recently, I downgraded the housing market from an unhealthy housing market to a savagely unhealthy housing market, something I discussed with HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler on our recent podcast. For 2020-2024, I set some critical parameters for sales and price growth, knowing that this marketplace will be different from the market we had from 2008 to 2019. This is why I always separate my work into those two periods. First, total home sales should be 6.2 million or higher during 2020-2024. This is new home sales and existing home sales combined. The demographic bump in 2020-2024 is giving us a push in demand. Second, because of the downtrend in inventory since 2014 and the demand pick-up we will see in the years 2020-2024, we had a risk of home prices accelerating too much. So, I set a five-year home-price cumulative growth level of 23%. If home prices grew between 0-23% in the five years of 2020-2024, we should be OK with where wage growth was going. The fact that the 23% home-price growth level has been smashed in just two years and inventory just collapsed to all-time lows has created the most unhealthy housing market post-2010. The only risk to that 6.2 million line in the sand has been this: Home prices grow above that 23% level: check Mortgage rates spike higher: check The two things I had as risk factors are now in play.  We have a risk to sales here, and the one area where we could be most in trouble is the new home sales sector. This sector on an apples-to-apples basis is more expensive than the existing home sales market. It’s also driven more by mortgage buyers who tend to be older and make more money than the new-home buyers. Compared to the existing home sales marketplace, it doesn’t have a high cash buyer or investor buyer profile. Today, new home sales came in as a miss of estimates at 772,000, but the revisions were all positive so there’s not too much going on here. The builders are struggling to finish their homes, and there is a risk to builders in a rising rate environment when you have people wait so long to build a house. Regarding the new home sales sector itself, it’s just an OK marketplace and has been for some time. From Census: Sales of new single‐family houses in February 2022 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 772,000, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 2.0 percent (±11.9 percent)* below the revised January rate of 788,000 and is 6.2 percent (±13.7 percent)* below the February 2021 estimate of 823,000. As you can see below, the new home sales market from 2018-2022 doesn’t look like the housing market we had from 2002-2005. Without exotic loan debt structures, credit always has limits, which is a good thing. Could you imagine this housing market if we eased lending standards? I would be protesting in front of Congress and speaking at congressional hearings if lending standards were reduced. From Census: The seasonally‐adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of February was 407,000. This represents a supply of 6.3 months at the current sales rate. My rule of thumb for anticipating builder behavior is based on the three-month average of supply: When supply is 4.3 months and below, this is an excellent market for the builders. When supply is 4.4 to 6.4 months, this is an OK market for the builders. They will build as long as new home sales are growing. When supply is 6.5 months and above, the builders will pull back on construction. Currently, the monthly supply headline is 6.3 months, and the three-month average is at 5.93 months. This is just an OK marketplace, so don’t look for the builders to be really pressing to build now, especially when rates have risen so much. They’re mindful of higher rates because in 2013, 2014 and 2015 they had to deal with a miss in sales expectations. Then in 2018, when mortgage rates got to 5%, we saw a supply spike in the monthly home sales data and their stocks were down over 30%.  As you can see below, the completion data looks terrible. It’s taking forever to build a home and that has created a huge number of homes under construction. The risk is that cancellations can rise by the time the home is ready for move in.  From Census: The median sales price of new houses sold in February 2022 was $400,600. The average sales price was $511,000.  As always, the years 2020-2024 were going to be different. The builders have pricing power that means they can push the price onto their consumers. Like home sellers, they try to make as much money as possible. The only thing we have that creates balance in this market is higher rates, hence why I am team higher rates. From the National Association of Home Builders, the builder’s confidence has faded recently, and you have to go with this data because it has been good historically with where housing starts and new home sales. Until you find a base on the data line, go with the trend. We no longer have the COVID-19 comps in play with the moderation in the data that needed to happen. Purchase application data Regarding the purchase application data that came out on Wednesday, some context needs to be discussed here. Purchase application data is down 2% week to week, 12% year over year. This data line has been negative year over year since June of 2021. A big theme of my work on HousingWire is to try to talk