Interest rates

The new policy, meant to assist borrowers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, will let servicers evaluate borrowers using pre-disaster payment information.

Despite available home equity shooting up in the first quarter, the share of total equity withdrawn by borrowers hit a four-year low, likely due to an increase in interest rates, according to Black Knight.

Higher interest rates on home mortgages drove the share of loans used to purchase houses rather than refinance to new heights in May.

Despite the long, stratospheric rise of home prices in the U.S., the inflation-adjusted monthly payment on the median single-family home in 2017 was less than in 1987, when home prices were lower but interest rates were higher.

The Fed’s rate hike and its signal of two more increases to come this year will only add to investors’ worry that the U.S. housing market is getting too expensive.

The value of commercial-property deals rose 6.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, but higher interest rates and softer demand will weigh on the market, Ten-X Commercial said.

As mortgage rates continued rising, the percentage of closed home purchase loans grew to its highest level in about four years, according to Ellie Mae.

The news of the data breach cast a shadow over relatively strong first-quarter earnings for the Atlanta bank.

Automating the mortgage process will force tighter margins, but drive higher volume, for lenders.

Growing competition may prompt commercial mortgage-backed securities issuers to accept higher loan-to-value ratios in their deals.