Mortgage rates continued to climb this week and are now approaching 7% for locked loans across all borrower credit profiles. But home purchase and refinance demand hasn’t fallen steeply despite the increased affordability pressures. On Tuesday, HousingWire‘s Mortgage Rates Center showed that rates for 30-year conforming loans averaged 6.94%, up 9 basis points from one […]
Mortgage lender Equity Prime Mortgage (EPM) announced on Tuesday that it has appointed mortgage industry veteran David Abrahamson as its chief risk officer. Abrahamson previously worked at EPM from 2010 to 2020, a period during which the lender said it expanded from a “primarily retail, refinance-focused organization” into a broader mortgage company with a growing […]
Proprietary reverse mortgages continued to gain market share in 2025, fueled by rapid growth in originations and larger loan balances, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data. The analysis, released Monday as MBA’s Chart of the Week, comes as more older Americans are choosing to age in […]
The cost to service mortgages is rising for reasons that extend beyond a recent increase in borrower delinquencies. That’s according to Erik Eggers, chief revenue officer at Rocktop Technologies, who said that regulatory requirements and industry consolidation are fundamentally changing the economics of mortgage servicing. Speaking with HousingWire, Eggers said that servicing costs have traditionally […]
A federal judge has granted Fannie Mae’s motion to compel arbitration and dismiss a lawsuit brought by 44 former employees who allege they were fired in a discriminatory manner tied to the company’s charitable giving program. In a memorandum opinion issued Friday, Judge Randolph D. Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of […]
Consulting firm Milliman has acquired Blue Water mortgage servicing rights (MSR) valuation and hedging services from Apex Analytics Corp., adding another platform less than a year after buying MorVest Capital to expand its capabilities in the space. The transaction, announced Monday, folds Blue Water’s hedge analytics, trading platform and quantitative team into Milliman’s mortgage solutions […]
While the reverse mortgage industry has historically relied on specialized originators to drive volume, wholesale lender SmartFi Home Loans is looking elsewhere to expand the market. The company’s growth strategy hinges on “growing the pie” by equipping traditional, forward-centric loan officers with the tools and education needed to seamlessly offer reverse mortgages to their clients. “I hear […]
Homeownership really starts at closing, yet that’s often where the relationship between borrowers and lenders ends. As affordability pressures continue to reshape the housing market, borrower engagement needs to shift from periodic marketing to creating continuous value throughout the homeowner journey. To address this evolution, Made Card is taking a different approach. The fintech has […]
Recently, the foreclosure data showed a 21% year-over-year gain, and the floodgates of doom porn were flung wide open, with people marketing an impending home-price crash because they say so many Americans are struggling and it’s about to get worse. The hucksters of America are back at it again, and it went mainstream, too. Andrew […]
New mortgage default activity remained stable in June, with new defaults among Federal Housing Administration (FHA) borrowers falling 15% from a year earlier, marking the largest annual decline in more than four years. That’s according to Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) latest First Look Mortgage Performance report, which observed that overall mortgage performance remained strong during the […]
Account executives are in a unique position in the mortgage industry. On any given day, they’re helping originators navigate complex borrower scenarios, troubleshoot loan challenges, identify new opportunities and stay informed about product trends. Because they work with dozens of loan officers across different markets, they have a front-row seat to the strategies that are […]
Something significant is already reshaping mortgage lending and servicing, and the data is beginning to bring into focus what many lending professionals have been experiencing firsthand. A recent nationwide survey of lending professionals across banking, mortgage lending and fintech reveals an industry that overwhelmingly understands the need to modernize its mortgage origination, servicing and compliance […]
AARP is urging Congress to reject a proposal that would create a fast-track process for developing and considering legislation aimed at strengthening Social Security’s long-term finances. The Protecting Retirement Opportunities and Maintaining Income Security for Everyone — PROMISE — Act, introduced July 14 by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Bill Cassidy, R-La., and six other senators, […]
With CrossCountry Mortgage’s deal to acquire Two Harbors Investment Corp. one step closer to the finish line after securing shareholder approval, the focus is shifting to what may be the next major challenge: integrating the businesses. Industry experts pointed out the complex task of bringing a large servicing portfolio in-house, but analysts expressed confidence in […]
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Brian Johnson, faced sharp questioning from Democratic senators Thursday over the future of the agency and whether he would resist political pressure in enforcement decisions. Johnson, a former CFPB deputy director who now works for Capital One, appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking, […]
Industry professionals expect the reverse mortgage market to remain challenging throughout the second half of 2026 as elevated mortgage rates and affordability pressures continue to limit how much equity older homeowners can access. Shain Urwin, the national reverse mortgage director for C2 Financial and a board member of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association (NRMLA), […]
Artificial intelligence startup Flair Labs says a recent deployment with West Capital Lending demonstrates how AI voice agents can help mortgage lenders capitalize on leads that might otherwise go untouched. Flair, a two-year-old Y Combinator–backed company, builds digital voice assistants that work on behalf of lenders, servicers and brokers. The technology sits on top of […]
A ransomware group posts a lender’s name on a dark web leak site. Terabytes of loan files, Social Security numbers, bank account details, employee records. The clock the public sees starts there. The clock that matters started weeks or months earlier, the day the intrusion was detected. And in the gap between those two moments, […]
When rates surged and the mortgage market shifted almost overnight, lenders were forced into difficult decisions. Growth plans changed. Costs were reassessed. Teams had to adapt quickly to a different operating reality. At Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group, that moment reinforced a simple truth: While market conditions are outside your control, organizational alignment is not. In […]
National mortgage lender HighTechLending has rolled out major enhancements to its EquitySelect product line, expanding borrower eligibility, raising maximum loan-to-value ratios and widening access to low-payment qualification options for home equity loans. The changes, announced Wednesday, are effective immediately through HighTechLending’s wholesale channel. The move comes as homeowners hold near-record levels of tappable home equity […]
South Carolina- based Movement Mortgage has launched a national Diverse Lending Support Team and an in-house Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) mortgage product to serve more Spanish-speaking homebuyers. The Diverse Lending Support Team (DLST) is a dedicated bilingual group that supports loan officers working with Spanish-speaking borrowers, the company said in its announcement. “Language should […]
Mortgage applications increased 1.9% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending July 17, 2026. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 2% compared with last week’s data. The refinance index decreased 2% from the previous week and was 7% higher than […]
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is proposing a new structure, called Reinstatement Advance Payment (RAP), that would change how servicers document and service partial claims and payment supplements. Under the draft, attributed to Joseph M. Gormley, who is performing the delegable duties of the assistant secretary for housing–federal housing commissioner, the FHA would test a […]
Equifax will keep its $1 VantageScore 4.0 price in place through the end of 2027 as it pushes mortgage lenders to adopt the alternative credit score model, CEO Mark Begor told investors. The initiative was first launched in March, when the company also continued to offer free VantageScore 4.0 credit scores to mortgage, automotive, card and […]
HomeAdvantage has partnered with Valley First Credit Union to offer a real estate rewards program and cash-back incentives to the California credit union’s 80,000 members, the companies announced on Monday. Under the agreement, Valley First members will gain access to the HomeAdvantage Real Estate Rewards Program, which pairs homebuyers and sellers with a network of […]
As millions of homeowners remain locked into low mortgage rates, lenders are introducing new home equity products designed to help borrowers access accumulated equity without refinancing their first mortgages. This week, Gershman Mortgage and Truss Financial Group announced separate home equity offerings aimed at different borrower segments but built around the same premise: allowing homeowners […]
The pandemic wrought financial havoc across the economy, but its impact on the housing market was significantly reduced due to a whole-of-government response that enabled millions of families to stay in their homes. The rapid deployment of forbearance, the ability to pause mortgage payments and a slew of new options to modify distressed mortgages provided […]
Artificial intelligence has introduced hundreds of tools to the mortgage industry, but many lenders are still struggling with rising costs, fragmented workflows and inconsistent productivity. According to Siddhartha Agarwal, CEO of JazzX AI, the next phase of AI adoption isn’t about adding another application. It’s about creating an intelligence layer that works across existing mortgage […]
AD Mortgage has launched a public policy initiative aimed at increasing its engagement with federal and state policymakers on housing finance issues, beginning with recommendations to the Federal Housing Finance Agency regarding condominium financing. The initiative has already taken off running. In a July 1 policy letter addressed to Bill Pulte, director of the FHFA, […]
NEXA Lending CEO Mike Kortas said he has reached a global settlement with former business partner Mat Grella, ending a years-long legal battle over the ownership and control of the brokerage and several related entities. The agreement, reached in mediation and finalized on Monday, resolves “every single one” of the lawsuits between the two NEXA […]
Despite widespread confidence in employer-provided financial advisors and steady optimism about retiring on time, many Americans remain uncertain about whether they will be financially prepared for retirement. New surveys from NFP and Thrivent suggest rising living costs, economic uncertainty and concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) are making it harder for workers to turn retirement goals […]
Large banks posted double-digit mortgage volume growth in the second quarter of 2026 as a group, far outpacing industry forecasts and signaling that depositaries may be taking back some share from nonbank originators, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analysts. The banks in KBW’s sample — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Truist, PNC, Fifth Third, […]
Finance of America (FOA) continues to be one of the main faces of the reverse mortgage industry. Last year, FOA was No. 2 nationally for Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements, and the publicly traded company will look to build on a strong first quarter when it releases its second-quarter earnings report on Aug. 4. […]
J.P. Morgan Asset Management has released its 2026 Defined Contribution (DC) Plan Participant Survey, finding that retirement plan participants — particularly younger workers — increasingly expect employers to provide more guidance and support as they plan for retirement. The biennial survey examines how participants engage with workplace retirement plans across different life stages and explores […]
A New Jersey homeowner has filed a lawsuit against Newrez LLC, dba Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing, alleging the company engaged in years of unfair mortgage servicing practices that deprived her of a meaningful opportunity to avoid foreclosure. The complaint, filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division in Essex County, was brought by homeowner […]
Union Home Mortgage Corp. (UHM) has acquired AmeriTrust Mortgage Corp. in an asset deal that closed in 45 days, boosting UHM’s exposure to the nonqualified mortgage (non-QM) market. Financial terms were not disclosed. “There have been long-term relationships between some of the senior executives on both sides,” UHM CEO Bill Cosgrove told HousingWire. “We are acquiring […]
RiskSpan has launched a new credit risk model designed for the expanding nonqualified mortgage (non-QM) market, adding to its existing prepayment modeling tools as investors seek more specialized analytics for the asset class. The company announced Friday the general availability of Credit Model 7.1, a model built specifically for non-QM loans and delivered through the […]
I have been thinking a lot about advocacy lately. Not the loud kind. Not the performative kind. Not the kind that tries to take credit for work that only happens when a lot of people come to the table. I am talking about the kind of advocacy that is harder to see from the outside, […]
loanDepot has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the lender of violating federal loan originator compensation rules, arguing that mortgage brokerage West Capital Lending (WCL) lacks standing to sue and is improperly trying to use consumer protection laws to pursue a competitive business dispute. In a reply brief filed Thursday in the […]
Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements for April showed that the nation’s top brokerages continued to originate federally insured reverse mortgages at higher or similar levels to their pace over the past year. That’s according to data released this week by Reverse Market Insight (RMI) and published by HECMWorld.com. Atlantic Avenue Mortgage remained on top […]
Carrington Mortgage Services announced Wednesday a key step in expanding its artificial intelligence strategy, selecting Kastle as its enterprise AI agent partner to automate servicing workflows and enhance borrower support. The partnership will bring Kastle’s AI agents into Carrington’s contact center and borrower-facing servicing operations, where the technology will handle high-volume interactions and provide quality […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) concluded that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) could use direct payments to lenders as the primary tool in a forthcoming small-dollar mortgage pilot program, arguing it is the only approach likely to meaningfully increase originations of mortgages below $100,000. In a comment letter dated July 16 and addressed […]
Point on Thursday announced the completion of a $508.6 million rated securitization backed by home equity investment (HEI) assets, marking what the company says is the largest transaction in the HEI market to date. The transaction, which closed July 15, is Point‘s eighth rated securitization and its second of 2026. More than 30 institutional investors […]
Fairway Home Mortgage has launched Fairway SAFE (Senior Advocacy & Financial Education), a nonprofit initiative focused on helping seniors and their families recognize, prevent and respond to financial scams and exploitation, the company announced Wednesday. Fairway SAFE is positioned as an education and advocacy arm that will offer free programming, resources and partnerships aimed at […]
Last week Kelley Blue Book entered the real estate space by launching Kelley Blue Book Homes, a home valuation platform for consumers and another lead generation tool for real estate professionals. While Russ Cofano, a co-founder of Alloy Advisors feels that the industry “needs another lead generation platform like it needs a hole in the […]