Underwriting

A likely recession will only further the six active players' conservatism in their capital strategies, Fitch Ratings said.

The business is heavily reliant on mortgage originations and some participants are turning to other sources of income to bolster results.

Weaker economic conditions, rising interest rates and expected changes in investment returns drove the reduced expectations, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

But with rates turning back up this past week, activity could fall in February, Black Knight Optimal Blue said.

More than half of borrowers paid 0.5 points or more to cut their interest rate for the life of the loan, while just 3% chose the short-term option, Black Knight said.

In just the first few weeks of the year at least 10 transactions have taken place.

The private mortgage insurer is purchasing Agents National and Boston National from Incenter, which itself is a unit of Finance of America.

Various affiliated companies participated in the creation of the transaction, including its publicly traded REIT, which owned a significant portion of the mortgages.

Approximately 20 million U.S. residents – the majority of which were Gen Zers – took out their first debt product between the start of 2019 and mid-2022, a TransUnion study found.

The Chicago-based lender will provide up to $8,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to underserved potential home buyers.