Refinance

With housing affordability still a prominent hurdle to homeownership, prospective buyers — especially millennials — now get creative in order to find suitable homes, according to Chase and the Property Brothers.

Economic issues were the biggest influence on average mortgage rates in the past week, although two trackers moved in different directions.

Millennials took advantage of mortgage rates falling to near three-year lows in August, increasing their refinance share to the highest percentage since December 2015, according to Ellie Mae.

Mortgage applications increased 8.1% from one week earlier as conventional mortgage rates fell under 4% again, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The switch to a buyer's home purchase market, as well as fewer natural disasters helped drive the five-month-long decline in mortgage application fraud risk, First American said.

The recent spike in mortgage interest rates reduced home purchase application activity last week, contributing to a 10.1% decline in total activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Denmark is about to become a test case for what happens when banks start charging a lot of customers to store their money.

Foreclosure starts dropped to their lowest level in 18 years, and properties foreclosed on but not yet sold fell to a 14-year low in August, according to Black Knight.

The number of mortgage holders with refinancing potential dropped by 1.5 million as the average long-term rate for home loans continued to rise, according to Black Knight.

Mortgage applications decreased 0.1% from one week earlier as conforming and jumbo interest rates climbed back above 4%, which slowed refinance activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

While the critical defect rate for closed mortgage loans fell on a quarter-to-quarter basis, there were increases in income and packaging-related deficiencies, an Aces Risk Management study found.

A mere 7-basis-point increase in interest rates reduced what was a record-high number of borrowers with refinancing incentive by 2 million in a matter of days, according to Black Knight.

Mortgage credit availability tightened in August by the most since the end of last year, even though falling interest rates sparked a strong uptick in refinancings, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

Digital mortgage strategies do more to support loan officers than some people think, according to Tom Wind, executive vice president of consumer lending at U.S. Bank.

A swell of refinance demand amid a low mortgage rate environment pushed lender profit margin outlooks to the highest level since the first quarter of 2015, according to Fannie Mae.

Mortgage application fraud risk plummeted in the second quarter as refinance loans poured into the market, according to CoreLogic.

Mortgage applications increased 2% on an adjusted basis from one week earlier driven by gains in the purchase market while refinance activity was flat, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

While many lenders lately managed their business expecting reduced volume, now they get to capitalize on extremely low mortgage rates. But today's benevolent conditions will not always be with the industry.

Expectations of lower mortgage rates are the only thing keeping up consumer confidence in the housing market, according to Fannie Mae's Home Purchase Sentiment Index.

With more rate-and-term refinancing in the mix, home lenders did a better job of retaining borrowers in the second quarter, but there's still room for improvement.