Interest rates

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.

Churchill Mortgage is building the "preunderwriting" process used to give borrowers a stronger sense of preapproval into its workflow to make financed offers on homes more competitive.

The mortgage industry should expect significant volatility that could result in a wave of lender consolidation in 2018, warns an analyst at risk management technology vendor LoanLogics.

Warehouse lines of credit are getting more expensive as short-term interest rates rise, and lenders have limited options for reducing their costs.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., was the only member of the Senate Banking Committee to oppose the nomination of Federal Reserve Board Gov. Jerome Powell to lead the central bank.

Private mortgage insurers are better positioned to weather a flatter or even inverted yield curve than other financials from an investment perspective, a report from FBR Capital Markets said.

Federal Reserve officials meeting earlier this month saw an interest-rate increase in the near term even as divisions persisted over the policy path forward amid tepid inflation.

Capital One Financial will stop originating mortgage and home-equity loans after competition made it difficult for the businesses to be profitable.

Fannie Mae used last year's Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data to increase its origination projections for both 2017 and 2018 even as its overall economic outlook remained unchanged from September.