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A moratorium on foreclosures will end on July 31, and mortgage forbearance programs will expire on September 30, but the economy has not yet fully recovered from last year’s coronavirus recession. With that in mind, President Joe Biden today announced a new round of relief for mortgage borrowers struggling to get back on track.

The program enables borrowers to negotiate cuts in their monthly payments of up to 25 percent. The newly featured mortgage modifications apply to loans supported by the Federal Housing Administration, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and the US Department of Agriculture. Borrowers with loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can already negotiate 20 percent cuts in their payments, Biden said.

“This brings the options for homeowners with mortgages backed by HUD, USDA and VA closer to the options for homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Biden said in a statement.

Almost 2 million Americans are still not paying their mortgages

As of July 20, 1.86 million borrowers remained in COVID-19 cease and desist plans, according to mortgage data company Black Knight. That number makes up 3.5 percent of all active mortgages and 6.2 percent of FHA and VA loans. Meanwhile, the official unemployment rate in June was 5.9 percent.

“Many homeowners will need deeper support due to pandemic-related income losses,” Biden said in a statement. “For example, due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, some homeowners are making less than they were before the pandemic.”

How COVID Mortgage Modifications Work

For homeowners struggling to pay the mortgage, rising home prices offer a way out: With the U.S. housing market facing an extreme shortage of homes for sale, you could sell your home and become a tenant. If this isn’t the ideal choice for you, the federal mortgage system offers lower interest rates and longer terms to cut payments and allow homeowners to keep their homes. The overview:

• FHA loans: The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will expand the ability of mortgage service providers to offer borrowers a 25 percent reduction in their principal and interest rates. For homeowners who cannot resume their mortgage payments before the pandemic, the COVID-19 Recovery Modification extends the mortgage term to 360 months at market rates.
• VA loan: VA’s new COVID-19 reimbursement modification aims to reduce monthly principal and interest payments by 20 percent. In some cases, even greater reductions are possible. VA service providers can now add up to 120 months to the original due date and extend the total repayment period up to 480 months or 40 years.
• Fannie and Freddie Loans: Forbearance lets borrowers miss out on mortgage payments for up to 18 months, forcing the amount into a non-interest-bearing balloon payment. The defaulted payments do not have to be paid back until the homeowner sells or refinances the property. Borrowers in need of more help can get a loan modification that aims to reduce their monthly payments by up to 20 percent. The Flex Modification extends the mortgage up to 40 years and partially lowers the interest rate.
• USDA loan: The USDA COVID-19 Special Relief Measure targets payment cuts of up to 20 percent and offers new options including lower interest rates and longer maturities.

The discounts apply to principal and interest only, not to other costs that may be combined with your mortgage payment, such as: B. Household insurance and property taxes.

Please visit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s mortgage assistance page for more information.

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• • Despite rebates and rebates of over $ 10 billion from auto insurance providers, consumers are still dissatisfied.
  • Consumers switch providers for the cheapest premium they can find.
  • However, cheap premiums do not guarantee adequate coverage or good claims service.
  • Check out insider tips for the best auto insurance.

The

Car insurance
The industry has offered over $ 10 billion in rebates and rebates due to the pandemic, but as the pandemic worsens, customer satisfaction has also deteriorated, according to a study by JD Power Insurance Intelligence. Most customers said they never received any information about the discounts or rebates related to COVID-19.

A recent study by JD Power shows that dissatisfaction has grown and customers are switching insurers. As a rule, the cheapest premium wins. However, customers forget the old adage “buyers watch out” because the cheapest price doesn’t mean you get good claims service or adequate coverage.

The big debate: price versus claims service

You get what you pay for. Usually, a higher price with an established auto insurance brand means better claims and customer service. Getting a great price can mean you forego customer service or, worse, coverage.

According to Tom Super, head of property and casualty insurance at JD Power, the average consumer wants it to be quick, cheap and convenient. Many consumers apply this to their insurance coverage. He found it was cheap

Car insurance
does not have a tangible effect on the consumer like a cheap car, which can be felt immediately. Super said that there is a possibility of being underinsured by choosing the cheapest insurance coverage.

Questions to ask yourself before getting auto insurance

As with home insurance, the cheapest car insurance is unlikely to provide the coverage you need, especially if you have a new or newer used vehicle. If you have an old club, the cheapest liability insurance might be enough.

Questions consumers need to ask include:

1. Can I afford to pay for the repair or replacement out of pocket if my insurance company doesn’t do it? If not, you need to make sure you are getting enough coverage, which probably isn’t cheap.
2. I don’t care if my wireless service provider reacts during the complaint process? Is fast customer service important? If so, then you need to focus on insurance companies with high claims and customer satisfaction rankings.

Motor insurance with high claims satisfaction

Claims satisfaction refers to how customers feel about insurance companies’ claims handling. Below are JD Power’s rankings based on a 1,000-point scale.

1. NJM Insurance (909)
2. Mutual Friend (907)
3. Car Owners (890) and USAA *
4. The Hartford (888)
5. MetLife (886)
6. State Farm (881)
7. Erie Insurance (880)
8. Allstate (876)
9. Nationwide (876)
10. Farmers (872)
11. Industry average (872)
12. Insurance (871)
13. GEICO (871)
14. Safeco (870)
15. Liberty Reciprocity (867)
16. Car Club Sun. California (866)
17. State finance (863)
18. American Family (862)
19. CSAA (862)
20. Travelers (861)
21. Car Club Group (858)
22. Progressive (856)
23. Mercury (849)
24. MAPFRE (844)
25. National General (815)

* As USAA is only available to military and veterans, it is not included in the official rank. If it had ranked, it would have gone straight to third place

Car insurance with high customer satisfaction

Unlike claims satisfaction, which focuses only on the claims process, customer satisfaction focuses on five factors: (1) billing process and policy information; (2) claims; (3) interaction; (4) policy offers; and (5) price.

According to the JD Power 2021 survey, these companies have high regional ratings in terms of customer satisfaction.

Find out about the different car insurance coverage options

There are four main types of car insurance: fully comprehensive, collision and liability insurance (which is required by law). Fully comprehensive insurance is a combination of the three different types of insurance.

Liability insurance is required by law and covers damage you cause to other vehicles and their occupants. The minimum requirements for liability insurance vary depending on the federal state.

Comprehensive insurance coverage will replace or repair your vehicle if it is stolen or damaged. Full coverage typically covers damage caused by fire, vandalism, and falling objects (such as a tree or hail).

Accident insurance covers your vehicle in the event of an accident or collision.

If you lease or finance your vehicle, your lender may require both fully comprehensive and fully comprehensive insurance, but fully comprehensive insurance is a better option as it gives you the most coverage across the board.

Average price for car insurance by state and type of insurance

Your insurance coverage is based on several factors: vehicle type, location (urban or rural), mileage, creditworthiness and driver’s license. Some states do not allow insurance companies to use your age, gender, or creditworthiness as factors in determining your insurance premium. Therefore, the cost will vary widely from state to state.

While online quote tools are helpful for getting multiple quotes, the best policy is the one that offers the most types and limits of coverage for your car.

The following table shows the cost by state for the average price paid for collision, liability, and comprehensive insurance. The “Average Cost” column is the annual insurance premium paid by the average person in that state.

Insurance information institute data (III)

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Increasingly destructive hurricane seasons have already worried insurers around the state’s coasts.

Surfside’s collapse has killed at least 97 people at the time of this writing and is now leading to greater concerns about the Florida homeowner insurance market.

The coastal community is already facing increasing pressure from climate change.

Economists now take another look at growing concerns in the Florida home insurance market. You are now looking for parts of the United States where it is too risky to get insurance at a price that homeowners can afford, or to cover at all.

This is not just speculation about where the industry is going. Just days after the building collapsed, insurance companies warned older buildings that their cover would be cut if the mandatory safety inspections were not passed.

This situation is not dissimilar to the situation that California landowners face in wildfire-prone areas. There and in similarly affected areas of the West, insurers have withdrawn from the market because the wildfires are making the properties too risky to secure.

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The changes in the availability of home insurance in Florida are not just affecting private insurers.

In April 2021, the federal government issued changes to the national flood insurance program. Eventually, these changes could cause some policyholders’ premiums to increase five times or more than the amount currently paid for coverage.

“Coastal areas along the Gulf and along the east coast could develop very similar dynamics,” said Carolyn Kousky, executive director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Risk Center, on the situation in Florida.

This trend started even before it could be determined whether climate change played a role in the collapse of the Surfside building. The collapse of the building wasn’t the reason the insurers moved, but it accelerated it. The Florida home insurance industry has already seen and is picking up the trends of increasing heat Humidity and other climate change-related factors that cause buildings to experience faster deterioration, says Jesse Keenan of Tulane University, a specialist on the effects of climate change on the human-built environment.

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It could have been around 2017 when insurers, officials, residents and regulators in wildfire-prone California felt a sense of urgency when fires destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 buildings in the state, a number higher than the past nine years combined.

In terms of property damage, 2017 was the most devastating wildfire season recorded in California at the time, with 9,133 fires burning more than 1.2 million acres, and after 2017 the word “mitigation” seemed to appear more frequently and prominently in public notices about forest fires – along with warnings of rising homeowner insurance rates, increasing non-renewals and of course climate change.

As California and the drought-stricken western US stare at another historically poor forest fire season, Roy Wright continues to preach the message of containment – an idea he believes is neither too late nor the insurance industry recently started to embrace.

Wright, president and CEO of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, who joined the group a few years ago from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been talking about damage control for years.

And he’s confident that 2017 and subsequent years of massive California wildfires hammered that message enough to make a difference this year.

“You have the climate change narrative, you have a drought reality, you have elevated temperatures, and you have, in the best sense of the word, a timeliness bias that says, ‘We saw the devastation,'” Wright said.

These realities have led discussions in recent years about preparing and taking measures to reduce fire hazards, such as: B. the creation of defensible spaces around houses at the interface between wilderness and city.

Wright and the IBHS, an industry-backed nonprofit scientific research and communications organization, have been increasingly responding to inquiries from citizens and public officials to help forestfire brewing season.

“People specifically want to know, ‘What can I do about it?” Wright said. “What they can do at the community level, what they can do on individual parcels or on a structural level. I hear from consumers, I hear from insurance companies, I hear from politicians in California. I hear from everyone. “

The questions and go beyond the questions of how best to improve fire safety regulations, secure buildings and houses, trim bushes and do light retrofitting.

“I think what I see from the insurance industry is really a demand signal that says, ‘We need community-level responses,'” Wright said.

The California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara called for incentives to weaken. In May, he urged property insurers in the state to do more to help residents and businesses fight forest fires. He said eight insurers and the California FAIR Plan are offering discounts to harden homes and take action to contain forest fires, which make up only 13% of the total state market.

“So there is a lot more room to grow,” Lara said at the time.

The American Property Casualty Insurers Association, the largest trading group representing property / casualty insurers, says the industry has long worked to encourage homeowners and businesses to take damage control more seriously, and that it only makes sense for the industry to do everything possible to counteract the massive insured damage that it has seen.

“Containment is a top priority,” said Karen Collins, vice president of APCIA.

Collins said record-breaking forest fire claims have been drawing industry attention for some time, and besides raising awareness of the dangers and tightening underwriting, insurers have pulled out of the riskier areas as well.

“The impact in California and other states has given insurers a break,” said Collins. “We have seen significant losses that have undermined profits for several years.”

Wright was asked what he thought of Lara’s call for insurers to offer discounts for damage control measures. He believes a broader solution is needed, which may include government grants, in other words, “a gathering of market forces”.

A recent Nature Conservancy report calling for a “paradigm shift” to increase forest fire resilience outlined policies to reduce the risk of catastrophic forest fires, including a $ 5 billion to $ 6 billion annual investment boost in the next 10 years for top priority work to reduce forest fires and provide resources for community infrastructure and adaptation.

John Putnam is a veteran of the insurance brokerage business and now owns an advisory service, Putnam Assurance & Risk Services LLC.

He believes the containment message is getting through to homeowners, but along with that message, insurance agents in places like California also need to bring bad news to their customers.

He was on the rescue team after the 2012 Colorado Waldo Canyon Fire, which destroyed nearly 350 homes and caused $ 493 million in damage in 2018. So he’s familiar with the massive devastation and grief that great forest fires can cause.

As someone on the side of both policy sales and forest fire recovery, he was anxiously watching the evolving drought and forest fire season in California and the west.

“I’m very worried,” said Putnam.

Damage control is an important tool that freight forwarders and insurance agents point out to homeowners in risk areas, but agents also need to explain to their customers why their tariffs are so high or why insurance may no longer be available in the regular market.

“They are the bearers of the bad news,” Putnam said. “If they go back with a price, that’s a conversation. If they go back with a cancellation, that’s another conversation. This is new territory for insurance agents. “

The western United States is still in a major drought. The latest US drought monitor map shows most of California under “extreme” or “exceptional” drought conditions, while the outlook for the large region is bleak.

Major forest fires are burning in several states. In Oregon, the bootleg fire, one of the largest in the state’s history, has already burned more than 476 square miles and was 25% contained.

California’s largest fire at the moment is the Dixie Fire in the northern part of the state in Butte County. The flame, which has been active for less than a week, has grown to 60,000 acres and is only 15% contained.

The National Interagency Fire Center reports that nearly 1.3 million acres were burned this year, with wildfires remaining active in 13 states.

“Seven fuel and fire behavior warnings have been issued for south / central Idaho, northern California, northern Rockies, and south / central Oregon,” states the latest NIFC fire report, which marks the latest level of forest fire preparation at 5, the highest level , classifies call for the greatest use of fire department resources. “Many of these notes describe exceptionally dry fuels, which lead to an increased fire potential and increased fire activity.”

Wright said the industry is watching all of this, but it’s not that insurers are just starting to take all of this seriously.

“For more than a decade the industry has invested in forest fire research through IBHS,” Wright said, noting that the members of the group – which comprises 76% of the country’s residential real estate insurers – each have a risk portfolio they are concerned about. “Without exception, companies for companies leaned on us and said: ‘Help us to lead the way with scientifically sound retrofit measures that we can trust.'”

IBHS published its Suburban Wildfire Adaptation Roadmaps last year, a report that identified “critical lanes” that may increase or decrease the likelihood of a home surviving a wildfire:

• Fuel management
• fences
• Decks
• Building shape
• walls
• roofs
• Roof fan
• Eaves overhangs

Aside from the encouraging containment of the California wildfires, the dire outlook for wildfires is making insurers spend a lot of money on modeling.

“There is a great call for pragmatic, science-based solutions that will allow us to retrofit homes that are at risk,” Wright said.

But he wants people to realize that this is not something they have just started doing.

“We have been doing this forest fire work for more than a decade,” he said.

Related:

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Disaster Natural disaster in California forest fire

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Insurance company Kin Insurance has announced that it will go public through a merger with Omnichannel Acquisition Group, a purpose-built acquisition company led by entrepreneur and recurring Shark Tank guest judge Matt Higgins. Upon completion of the transaction, the combined company will be called Kin Insurance and is expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “KI”.

Kin, currently operating in Florida, Louisiana and California, also announced that it has expanded its market opportunities with an agreement to acquire an inactive insurance carrier licensed in more than 40 states. The takeover of the inactive carrier and the merger with the Omnichannel Acquisition Group are expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. Kin also announced that NBA player Draymond Green has joined golf champion Rory McIlroy as an investor in the company.

The merger reflects an estimated pro forma implied company value of $ 1.03 billion at closing, provided that no redemptions are made by Omnichannel public shareholders. The transaction is expected to raise Kin $ 242 million in cash upon completion, which is in addition to the $ 80 million the company raised in its most recent Series C financing round. The funding will be used to support Kin’s growth in existing markets, expansion into new markets, as well as new marketing channels and product portfolio additions.

Kin is the only all-digital direct insurer focused on the $ 100 billion home insurance market. The company’s proprietary technology enables consumers to have their home insured online in minutes. Other insurance needs like making policy changes and filing claims will be similarly automated, Kin said.

Next read: Ryan Specialty Group goes public

“The home insurance industry has relied on outdated technology and an antiquated way of interacting with customers for years,” said Sean Harper, Kin co-founder and CEO. “It is more than ripe for an innovative alternative, and that is exactly why we created Kin – to offer customers a better range of home insurance, better prices and an overall better experience.”

Harper said Kin’s proprietary technology enables the company to make home insurance fairer for customers in areas affected by climate change and severe weather.

“Our customers get a simple, direct and extraordinary experience that will save them real money and make them excited and loyal to Kin,” he said. “As a result, we are growing quickly, generating an attractive unit economy and are well positioned to significantly expand our market share in the future.”

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Blend Labs“Life as a public company has started promisingly.

Late last week, Blend sold 20 million Class A shares at $ 18 each, raising $ 360 million. The shares closed trading at $ 20.90, bringing Blend to a valuation of approximately $ 4.6 billion. Blend’s CEO, Nima Ghamsari, will control 100% of the Class B shares, giving him complete control of the company.

The independent IPO follows a stellar year for the mortgage industry in which Blend lost $ 75 million on sales of $ 96 million. According to the S-1 filing, the company lost $ 81 million in 2019 on sales of $ 51 million.

The IPO gives the cloud-based software company the ammunition it needs to grow its market share, develop new products, and delve deeper into various sectors within fintech, including consumer banking and auto.

Blend’s investors seem to believe the company can radically transform lending by simplifying and digitizing regulated but cumbersome processes that are still fairly paper-heavy.

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“I think they are excited about our vision, very happy with our implementation and see a great opportunity for us to serve our customers and grow in the future,” said Blend President Tim Mayopoulos, a former CEO of Fannie Maesaid in an interview with HousingWire on Friday. “So the roadshow was very, very well received.”

Blend’s white label technology is to place mortgage applications on the websites of traditional banks such as Wells Fargo and US bank, as well as large credit unions and even technology companies. It checks income, verifies identities, and has become an indispensable consumer-centric processing tool for some of the largest mortgage lenders in the country.

Over the past two years, Blend has acquired its own mortgage insurance and title insurance company (the latter as part of a $ 422 million deal).

The startup, led by co-founder Ghamsari, helped 291 customers process around $ 1.4 trillion in loan applications last year and has vowed to make processing a mortgage – or other financial transaction – as easy as possible choosing a film curated for them Netflix.

“Consumers are now demanding to be able to interact with their financial institution, be it a bank, credit union or independent mortgage lender,” Mayopoulos said. “They want to be able to do it digitally, they want to do it on their cell phone. And I think lenders of all sizes are recognizing this and are looking to digital experiences. ”

He added, “I think every lender out there realizes that in order to be competitive and successful in the market, they must be able to deliver a seamless digital experience to consumers. This is what people are looking for in every aspect of their life, whether it be buying something on Amazon or ordering a movie on Netflix. People want to be able to interact with their bank or credit union or lender in exactly the same way. “

As of March 31, 2021, the number of participants in Blend’s “ecosystem” grew by more than 1,300% year-on-year, the company said in its prospectus. Blend investors are betting that the company can be much more than the technology that helps process mortgage applications.

Launched in 2012, Blend raised $ 300 million in January, not long after it rolled out a number of consumer banking tools.

The company’s executives and their investors don’t seem concerned about Blend’s lack of profitability. (It’s normal for investors to overlook the fact that a blue-chip tech company is in the red; not so much with lower-margin companies like mortgages.) Mayopoulos said the company was focused on adding long-term value over short-term profitability. He also said the money raised by the IPO will be used to invest in technology.

As for the challenges ahead, mortgage rates are expected to rise later this year, which would likely reduce demand for mortgages and result in lower transaction volumes on Blend’s platform. Blend also has a lot of competition to worry about. Black Knight and ICE mortgage technology (formerly known as Ellie Mae) have much larger market caps and a keen interest in every stage of the mortgage origination and servicing process.

But Blend has a great chance of building a fintech that competes with these giants, according to Julian Hebron of The base point. He wrote in a recent note that Ghamsari, CEO of Blend, is great at the product, it is easier for the company to attack other elements of consumer banking after it has mastered mortgages, and is well positioned to take advantage of ancillary income.

“Blend refers to marketplaces as secondary sales lines because their voice generally speaks to the consumer,” wrote Hebron. “So when you take out a mortgage, you need home insurance and legal expenses insurance. You can take out home insurance right in the Blend app your bank has made available to you, and you’ll see options for choosing insurance from well-known providers, including Blend’s own insurance company, which was founded in 2018. The same process now applies to property insurance. These options now include Blend’s title insurance company, which was acquired earlier this year. The next step is the integration of real estate agents. This refers to the product sensitivity in point 2 above, where you not only add functionality, but simplify the whole process.

“Everyone in the banking and credit industry knows how difficult it really is to deliver this unique experience to the home consumer. And Blend has found a way to do this where every improvement brings new revenue to consumers without risking core sales. “

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Whether you are new to housing or have already done it, you will find that it is a time consuming process. And in today’s housing market, it can be even more difficult than expected due to record-low inventory levels. But avoiding these missteps will make your search smoother, so avoid the following mistakes at all costs.

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1. Don’t set a budget first

There’s no point in spending time looking at houses that you can’t financially swing. However, if you don’t set a budget for buying a home, you might be wasting days or weeks looking for properties that you can’t afford. Instead of risking that, use a mortgage calculator to find a house price that you think is right for you. Remember, you shouldn’t be spending more than 30% of your net income on monthly housing costs. This includes your mortgage payment, property tax bill, and home insurance.

2. Only consider single-family homes

Perhaps you’ve put your heart on a detached house. But in today’s marketplace, inventory of starter homes is even more limited, so you may struggle to find a single family home that falls within your budget. On the flip side, when you’re ready to start looking at townhouses, you may find that you can buy an apartment without spending too much while still getting a decent amount of square feet. While townhouses have their downsides – they share at least one wall with another unit and have little to no outdoor space – they can be a great way to get your hands on a starter home. And remember, if the market opens up, you can still stock up in a couple of years.

3. Don’t work with a real estate agent

With almost everyone having internet access these days, nothing stands in the way of you surfing a real estate website and looking for homes near you. However, working with a real estate agent may help you conduct your search more efficiently. An agent may be able to schedule private screenings so that you are not limited to open houses when viewing apartments. And they could find out about homes before they officially go on sale, which gives you the opportunity to get a quote in front of the crowd. And remember, as a buyer, you don’t pay a commission to hire a real estate agent – you only pay if you are the seller.

4. Having too long a wish list

It goes without saying that your new home will tick all the correct boxes. But with inventory so limited today, it could mean that if you are picky you can’t buy any space at all. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make up a list of a few must-haves. But if your list has 17 different items that you won’t be moving about, you might end up spinning your wheels.

5. Limit yourself to a single neighborhood single

When looking for an apartment, you may have a specific neighborhood in mind – and there is nothing wrong with wanting to live in a specific area or aiming for a specific school district. But even here the inventory is very limited nowadays. So if you refuse to expand your search to within three miles, you may end up unsuccessful. Instead, take a look at nearby neighborhoods with comparable facilities and school districts – and at least see if that opens the door to more buying opportunities.

The last thing you want to do is get frustrated looking for a place to live and give up – or buy a home you can’t really afford if you can’t find one that suits you. Avoid these mistakes and you will save yourself a world of stress – and hopefully get closer to buying your own home.

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