Mortgages

Companies reported positive numbers but see challenges in a sluggish housing environment, as federal pressure ramps up to address affordability.

On a year-over-year basis, Waterstone's mortgage business was able to grow pretax profits to $1.3 million in the third quarter, compared with $144,000 in 2024.

Several claims in a recent Loan Think column misrepresented how credit scores and resellers work in mortgage lending, according to the president of the National Consumer Reporting Association.

The number of prospective buyers touring properties in the city last week fell 8.5% from a year earlier, according to data from Bright MLS, a regional multiple listing service. It's the eighth straight weekly decline.

This is the second acquisition deal Old Republic has been involved in this year, after selling its title production business in January.

While expectations that another federal rate cut is on the way next week, other economic trends may be having a larger influence on mortgage lending.

Contract closings increased 1.5% to an annual rate of 4.06 million in September, the highest in seven months, according to National Association of Realtors figures released Thursday.

Decreased homeowner equity corresponds to recent declining prices reported by leading housing researchers, but tappable amounts still sit near record highs.

Forbearance or refinancing may help some, workarounds can keep many mainstream loans moving and one type of uncertainty does have an upside for rates.

While the Federal Open Market Committee has yet to meet this month, investor pricing of longer-term bonds helped mortgages by 11 basis points, Wallethub said.

While purchase volume is up 20% from last year, it was 5% lower than one week ago, although a 4% increase in refinance activity helped pick up the slack.

Top industry minds emphasized they're still bullish on the technology and said humans will still provide irreplaceable traits like empathy and trust.

The company's servicing valuations fell but by less than in previous quarters. Lower rates both aided production and created recapture opportunities.

Kin, a direct-to-consumer insurance provider, has started a mortgage broker in Florida which also takes loan applications through a call center or online.

The NRMLA/Riskspan Reverse Mortgage Market Index set a new high of 502.42, with the dollar amount of home equity for those 62 or over reaching $14.4 trillion.

Stenger joins the Chicago-based lender after more than a decade at Movement Mortgage and will oversee its retail platform, including new tech enhancements.

The lender, which reported over $200 million in home equity line of credit volume in the recent quarter, suggests the business can deliver massive scale.

The state court seemed open to a narrower view of the legal applicability to loans predating the statute than of broad constitutional challenges to it.

In dollar terms, the amounts consumers had to come up with increased by $500 on a consecutive quarter basis, in contrast to a $100 drop the year before.

The rollout comes as the company looks to build out offerings for originators, launching after PHH returned to the proprietary reverse-mortgage arena this year.