Interest rates

Mortgage applications fell last week as rates for the 30-year fixed conforming loan topped 5% for the first time since 2011, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported.

Rising interest rates, both current and the prospect for future increases, took a toll on consumers' outlook on the housing market during September, according to Fannie Mae.

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Despite available home equity shooting up in the first quarter, the share of total equity withdrawn by borrowers hit a four-year low, likely due to an increase in interest rates, according to Black Knight.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

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.