LoanSnap has raised $4.7 million investment led by Thomvest Ventures and existing investors, bringing the company's financing to $17 million. It offers conventional, Veteran Affairs and refinance mortgages as well as and home-equity lines of credit.

LoanSnap offers what it describes as “smart-loan” technology that deploys artificial intelligence to analyze a consumer's financial situation and determine the best options for them. The technology enables homebuyers to not only find the best home loan for their financial situation, but to understand and manage overall debt to build a more secure financial future.

Smart loan analyzes the complete financial situation of a customer in seconds and offers easy-to-understand options, such as pay off your credit-card debt and save $580 a month. Customers enter just a few pieces of information and LoanSnap sorts through thousands of loan options to identify the best choice for a loan to serve them now and in the future.

[caption id="attachment_9477" align="alignright" width="206"] Karl Jacob[/caption]

The company will use the investment capital to expand its offering and explore additional opportunities with Thomvest Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based financial technology organization.

Also, LoanSnap has in the past received funding from True Ventures, Baseline Ventures, Virgin Group, Core Innovation Partners, Joe Montana's Liquid 2 Ventures, OVO Fund, Transmedia Ventures and angel investors.

"Since our launch last year, we've received widespread positive feedback and we've helped our customers improve their financial situation," said Karl Jacob, CEO and co-founder of LoanSnap. "This financing is a recognition of our strong progress toward helping consumers improve their financial situation. We are excited to have Thomvest Ventures as our strategic partner as we work to make financial stability more accessible to all Americans."

The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index decreased in December, falling 2.7 points to 83.5, resuming its recent downward trend after November's slight uptick.

The decrease can be attributed primarily to a 12-percentage point decrease in the net share of Americans who said it is a good time to buy a home. The net share of Americans who said it is a good time to sell a home increased 1 percentage point.

Respondents reporting significantly higher income over the past 12 months fell 5 percentage points on net, erasing last month's gains, while the net share expressing greater job confidence increased 2 percentage points. Finally, the net share of respondents who expect home prices to go up fell 2 percentage points, and the net share who expect mortgage rates to go down remained unchanged.

"Consumer attitudes regarding whether it's a good time to buy a home worsened significantly in the last month, as well as from a year ago, to a survey low," said Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae. "Although home price growth slowed in 2018, the cumulative impact of sustained, robust increases in home prices outpacing income growth likely helped drive the share of consumers citing high home prices as a primary reason for a bad time to buy a home to a survey high.

HOME PURCHASE SENTIMENT INDEX COMPONENT HIGHLIGHTS

Fannie Mae's 2018 Home Purchase Sentiment Index decreased in December by 2.7 points to 83.5. The HPSI is down 2.3 points compared with the same time last year. Additional highlights from the survey are as follows:

• The net share of Americans who say it is a good time to buy a home fell 12 percentage points from last month to 11%. This component is down 13 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of those who say it is a good time to sell a home rose 1 percentage point to 36%. This component is up 2 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of those who say home prices will go up fell 2 percentage points to 31%, declining for the third consecutive month. This component is down 13 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of Americans who say mortgage rates will go down over the next 12 months remained unchanged at -56%. This component is down 4 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of Americans who say they are not concerned about losing their job increased 2 percentage points to 79%. This component is up 11 percentage points from the same time last year.
• The net share of those who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago fell 5 percentage points to 19%. This component is up 3 percentage points from the same time last year.

“Meanwhile, consumers' views on the direction of the economy, a key support for housing market sentiment of late, has softened somewhat from its October high,” said Duncan. “Looking ahead, consumers expect the pace of home price growth to slow over the course of 2019, which may temper growing concern over housing affordability." The Home Purchase Sentiment Index distills information about consumers' home purchase sentiment from Fannie's National Housing Survey into a single number.

New American Funding has acquired Marketplace Home Mortgage, a regional lender that does business in 15 states.

"Becoming part of New American Funding accelerates the growth plans we put into place several years ago," said Keith White, president of Marketplace Home Mortgage. "The current market is one that some lenders view as challenging, but we view it as a magnificent opportunity that is increased by the industry-best platform brought by New American Funding."

Marketplace realized significant growth over the last several years, according to the lender. It provides start-to-finish mortgage services to real estate professionals, builders and residential buyers. Marketplace Home Mortgage has offices in Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The Stratmor Group served as financial advisor to Marketplace for this transaction.

"We felt now was the right time to combine forces with a lender such as Marketplace Home Mortgage," said Rick Arvielo, CEO, New American Funding. "We've always grown organically and have been very selective about this type of move in the past. But due to the cultural and business alignment of both brands, coupled with the geographic advantage, we determined this was an excellent opportunity."

New American Funding is a family-owned mortgage lender with a servicing portfolio of over 108,000 loans, valued at $27 billion, over 185 branches, and 2,900 employees. The company offers niche products and has made Inc. 5000's list of Fastest-Growing Companies in America five times. It has a training facility and develops innovative technology, including GoGo LO and GoGo Partner.