Origination

But scarce housing inventory has helped to bring home equity values back upward, offsetting some of the losses of late 2022.

Both loan demand and credit availability have contracted sharply, according to senior executives at several of the nation's largest banks. Their comments came against the specter of a potential recession.

State Farm General Insurance Co. said it's no longer accepting new applications for property and casualty coverage in California last week, a year after Allstate Corp. also paused new policies, worsening what FAIR Plan, a state-mandated insurance pool, called a "looming insurance unavailability crisis." 

Staff retained or added for the spring homebuying season has stemmed the tide of layoffs for now, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' latest figures.

Six regulatory agencies are seeking public comment on a proposed rule that would establish best practices for using automated valuation models to assess collateral.

When the once-ubiquitous interest rate goes away at the end of June, some businesses that have older loans may see a sudden jump in their payments. Banks, lawyers and business leaders are doing last-minute work to avoid that scenario.

A change in investor sentiment toward an expected pause by the Fed in short-term rate hikes was the driving force behind the current surge, Freddie Mac said.

But when compared past periods of upheaval, those rates remain relatively low, the Mortgage Bankers Association report showed.

Businesses in the first quarter lost money in 1 of every 7 home sales, a rate which approached a seven-year high, Redfin said.

The top five depositories have a combined HELOC volume of more than $91 billion at the end of Q1 2023.