Mortgages

Housing starts increased 7.2% to an annual pace of 1.49 million homes in January, according to government figures out Thursday.

Agency MBS investors have had limited information about primary loans coexisting with home equity products, and may want to get more now, according to Experian.

A near-record share of homeowners unable to sell their properties are renting them out instead, with "accidental landlords" accounting for 2.3% of listed rental stock in October, per Zillow data.

Residents in more than half of U.S. counties need greater than one-third of income to successfully manage major housing costs, according to new Attom research.

Radian Group was looking to sell the aggregator, along with its title and real estate units, following a business model pivot related to the Inigo buy.

Some of the best mortgage companies to work for discuss how they incorporate community service in their plans and the resulting business and personnel benefits.

The increase in borrowing costs coincides with a sharp rise in the 10-year US Treasury yield, which is correlated with mortgage rates, as war with Iran disrupted oil flows and sparked concerns about inflation. 

On an adjusted basis, reverse mortgage company Finance of America reported $14 million in net income, down from $33 million in the third quarter.

CEO Anthony Hsieh said refinances should provide notable benefit to its direct lending unit a day after LoanDepot announced a return to the wholesale channel.

Nonagency underwriting is expanding but the public sector is a different story due to recent performance issues, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Several mortgage wholesale and partnership channel announcements came out coincidentally following loanDepot's return to the broker channel.

PHH Mortgage's new name comes after a recent sale of reverse lending assets and also arrives less than two years after Onity Group itself rebranded.

Contract closings increased 1.7% to a 4.09 million annualized rate, according to National Association of Realtors data released Tuesday.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell below 6% at the end of last month for the first time since 2022, bringing purchase borrowers back to the market.

Mortgage servicing rights are one of the most notoriously volatile assets in financial markets. The Federal Reserve's plan to loosen their capital treatment could foretell major problems in the future.

The company dropped the broker channel just months after Frank Martell became CEO; now that Anthony Hsieh is running things again, LoanDepot brought it back.

An estimated 565,000 first-lien refinances closed in the fourth quarter, up 50% from a year prior and the most since the second quarter of 2022, ICE found.

Borrowers or lenders could use the prediction markets as a hedging tool, although experts noted the lack of trading volume as cause for caution.

The industry welcomed the Department of Veterans Affairs' plan for implementing legislatively-created borrower relief but some would like more clarification.

While correspondent is still the bulk of Planet Financial's production, growth of its servicing portfolio helped the company increase retention volume.