Newrez surpasses 3,000 volunteer hours for their National Volunteer Challenge 2026. Date Published: June 29, 2026 In celebration of National Volunteer Week (April 19-25, 2026), Newrez hosted its third annual Volunteer Challenge, bringing employees together to give back to their communities. During the month of April, Newrezers outdid themselves and logged a combined 3,219 volunteer hours, close to 500 hours more than the previous year. As in years past, its five core offices participated in a friendly volunteer competition to see which site would make the greatest impact. After two consecutive wins by the Houston office, a new site took the top spot. Its Fort Washington office earned the title of Volunteer Site of the Year in 2026, logging an impressive 762 hours. Its individual competition also highlighted an outstanding contributor. This year's top volunteer, Emily Wascura, logged 256 hours in April. Most of her time was spent with the Foundation for Easton Schools, where she chaperoned nine high school students on an educational trip to France, helping them explore the country's language, culture, art, history and architecture. In addition to the competition, the Community Investment team organized a companywide initiative focused on food insecurity, partnering with six food banks across the country. Newrezers stepped up, with 108 employees volunteering 285 hours to assemble 4,224 bags and boxes that helped distribute 122,649 pounds of food to communities in need. Although the 2026 Volunteer Challenge is complete, Newrez offers benefits to help employees give back all year. Volunteer Time Off. In 2025, about 24% of Newrezers reported volunteer hours. Although not all employees used their paid Volunteer Time Off (VTO) to do so, Newrezers volunteered nearly 12,000 hours. Full-time employees receive 8 hours of paid VTO each year, while part-time employees receive 4 hours. In 2025, 20% of Newrez employees used the benefit, contributing more than 7,000 paid volunteer hours. This program helps employees stay engaged with the causes that matter most to them. Dollars for Doers. Through Dollars for Doers, employees can turn their volunteer time into additional charitable contributions. The program provides $10 for every volunteer hour logged, up to a $1,000 annual cap, which can be donated to eligible nonprofits through the Giving Portal. In 2025, 71% of Dollars for Doers rewards issued were redeemed, so that employees could continue to give back even more. Newrezers continue to demonstrate a strong commitment to supporting their communities, and Newrez look forward to seeing what employees do next. Newrez has assembled a treasure trove of jargon-free information to demystify home-financing and arm you with valuable insights and actionable options.

Newrez targets rising insurance costs with Matic partnership. May 29, 2026 Managing Editor Rising homeowners insurance costs are pushing lenders to expand affordability tools beyond the mortgage itself Newrez is expanding its partnership with digital insurance marketplace Matic, adding real-time homeowners insurance comparison capabilities to its HomeHub customer portal. The integration allows Newrez homeowners to compare personalized homeowners insurance coverage options and receive quotes 24/7 through the HomeHub platform. Customers can also review their current insurance risk assessment and policy protection score, providing additional insight into their coverage needs. The addition builds on Newrez's HomeHub platform, launched in the fourth quarter of 2025, which provides customers with access to loan information, refinance opportunities, home equity management tools, local home listings, and support services. "By fully integrating the Matic platform into the Newrez HomeHub experience, our homeowners will be able to explore real-time insurance savings, similar to how we proactively notify customers when they can save money on their mortgage," said Leslie Gillin, chief commercial officer at Newrez. "Insurance costs have trended up dramatically over the past five years, and we wanted to help proactively mitigate this real pain point our homeowners have been dealing with." The announcement comes amid rapidly rising homeowners' insurance costs. A recent Newrez report, previously covered by NMP, found average premiums increased 64% between 2021 and 2025, with more than one in five states posting increases of at least 75%. The typical annual premium reached $2,625 by the end of 2025, and homeowners in several states now pay close to or more than $4,000 per year. Get the NMP Daily Essential stories, every weekday. Homeowners insurance directly affects monthly housing payments and escrow costs, making premium increases another factor influencing overall borrower affordability. Newrez said homeowners who switched insurance carriers through Matic saved an average of $928 last year, suggesting that actively shopping for coverage may offer borrowers another avenue to reduce monthly housing costs. "We're pleased to expand our partnership with Newrez and bring Matic's network of over 70 carriers to Newrez's digital ecosystem," said Ben Madick, CEO and co-founder of Matic. "Over the past several years, Newrez and Matic have worked together to help homeowners navigate rising insurance costs across the country. This integration makes the process of comparing coverage options more efficient and accessible for Newrez homeowners." According to Newrez, the expanded integration is intended to make insurance comparison shopping a seamless part of the homeowner experience. "We're setting a new standard for homeownership platforms by embedding this new capability directly into HomeHub - meeting homeowners where they are and making it easier for them to save money and navigate their options with greater clarity," Gillin added. *This article was primarily written by a human author. AI tools were used in a limited capacity for research assistance or light editing.

FHFA orders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept crypto holdings as mortgage qualifying assets. May 22, 2026 By: Tothemoon team Key highlights. * FHFA Director William Pulte has ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to draft policies recognizing crypto held on U.S.-regulated exchanges as eligible reserves for single-family mortgage underwriting. * Borrowers will not need to convert digital assets to U.S. dollars to qualify, but holdings must be custodied on a centralized exchange subject to all applicable U.S. laws. * This marks the first formal step by a major U.S. housing regulator to integrate cryptocurrency into the mortgage underwriting framework that backs trillions of dollars in home loans. The Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to develop proposals for treating cryptocurrency held on U.S.-regulated exchanges as qualifying reserve assets in single-family mortgage risk assessments. The directive, issued by FHFA Director William Pulte, eliminates the existing requirement for borrowers to convert digital holdings into U.S. dollars before those assets can count toward mortgage qualification. Details of the order confirm it applies to assets custodied on centralized exchanges subject to all applicable federal and state laws. Under current rules, crypto assets that have not been converted to fiat cannot factor into a borrower's qualification for any mortgage backed by the two government-sponsored entities, which together underwrite the vast majority of U.S. residential mortgages. The FHFA directive changes that by explicitly instructing both GSEs to draft risk frameworks that treat verified cryptocurrency reserves as functionally equivalent to traditional financial reserves, with specific volatility mitigations and caps on the proportion of reserves that crypto can constitute. Legal analysts reviewing the directive note that the practical effect could be substantial. According to an analysis by Alston, borrowers with significant Bitcoin or other digital asset holdings but limited fiat liquidity have historically been unable to leverage those assets in homebuying. The new framework would directly address that gap, opening the mortgage market to a broader segment of crypto-native wealth. The move aligns with a broader shift in how U.S. regulators are treating digital assets as legitimate financial instruments. Mortgage lender Newrez had already announced a crypto-backed mortgage program at the end of 2025, signaling growing appetite from private lenders. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have not yet published finalized policies in response to the directive, though an FHFA spokesperson confirmed the rulemaking process is actively underway.