Origination

Purchases of new single-family homes fell 2.5% to an annualized 697,000 pace after a downward revision to the prior month, government data showed Wednesday.

The growing number of financially troubled customers and servicing transfers gone wrong helped to lower the overall industry score by 6 points, J.D. Power said.

Equity-rich mortgages — those that have a loan-to value ratio of 50% or lower, meaning the mortgage holder's equity stake is at least half the property's worth — made up some 49% of the national total in the second quarter of this year, according to a report by Attom, a real estate data provider.

The mortgage industry may be largely in the dark about the process, which could save homeowners potentially thousands of dollars a year.

Renovations, already the leading use for these borrowings, increased their share to nearly two-thirds of the products' market, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

The decline occurred even as interest rates held steady, but average loan amounts shot up due to a heightened slowdown of federally sponsored activity, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

The Mortgage Cadence's pipeline of potential customers has shifted from "niche players" to primarily nonbank lenders, Executive Vice President Joe Camerieri said.

Major firms cite costly devastating hurricanes and widespread litigation against the industry as reasons to sunset policies for an unspecified number of property owners.

In the Pacific region and Mountain states recorded real estate value drops compared to last year, the Federal Housing Finance Agency found.

"I do believe you'll begin to see some improvement, or increases, in new housing as we head into the back half of the year," Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters said in an interview. "We're hearing optimistic stuff from the builders we deal with."