Origination

The Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 20,000 threshold for the first time Wednesday, but the post-election stock market rally has produced a mixed bag for mortgage demand and the industry's publicly traded companies.

Despite claims that digitizing the mortgage process will require less human capital, consumer desires for people on the other end of the phone or computer will keep mortgage loan officers in demand for the foreseeable future.

A tactic that helped define the height of homebuying madness in the U.S. in the years before the market collapsed is rearing its head again.

Mortgage application volume increased 4% from one week earlier even as interest rates rose during the period, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

BankUnited said that its fourth-quarter earnings increased 12% from the same period in 2015, to $63.3 million, as strong gains in interest income more than offset rising expenses and a sharply lower gain on sales of loans.

BOK Financial was victimized by the effect of rising interest rates in the fourth-quarter profit, as losses on the company's hedge positions resulted in a profit decline.

A $90 billion wave of maturing commercial mortgages, leftover debt from the 2007 lending boom, is laying bare the weak links in the U.S. real estate market.

Increases in commercial real estate, C&I and municipal and state loans boosted fourth-quarter profit at the $13 billion-asset Trustmark.

The company wants a big deal to help push it over $50 billion of assets, at which point it will be considered systematically important.

Big increases in construction and commercial real estate lending boosted revenue at the Kansas City, Mo., company.