Underwriting

Residential loan application activity continued its post-election slump, declining for the sixth time in the eight weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

In an enforcement action totaling more than $23 million in fines and restitution, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that TransUnion and Equifax — two of the largest consumer credit reporting agencies — had misled consumers on the value of the data they marketed.

This was a year of shocks and surprises, including a multimillion-dollar verdict after one lender sued another, regulations putting a lender out of business, Brexit driving rates down and Donald Trump's election pushing them back up. Here are 10 events and trends from 2016 that changed the industry.

The Rural Housing Service is expanding its manufactured housing loan guarantee program to include more refinancings of used or existing manufactured homes.

Mortgage rates moved higher, closing the year with nine consecutive weeks of increases, according to Freddie Mac.

The Department of Justice has agreed to a settlement with a pair of Cincinnati banks accused of redlining African-American neighborhoods in four cities in Ohio and Indiana.

Fannie Mae's Day 1 Certainty initiative and automated verification tools at Freddie Mac are set to improve mortgage loan application defect and misrepresentation risk in 2017, according to a report from First American Financial Corp.

Contracts to purchase previously owned homes unexpectedly decreased in November on a sudden pickup in mortgage rates and limited inventory, according to figures released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors.

Rising interest rates typically squelch demand for refinancing, leaving lenders to compete for homebuyers' business. But plain-vanilla purchase loans aren't the only saleable products in this rising-rate environment. Here are five other products likely to find demand.

A consumer's ability to afford to purchase a home during the fourth quarter was at its lowest level in eight years due to rapid price appreciation, moderate wage growth and the post-election increase in interest rates.