Mortgage rates remained unchanged last week despite the release of the stronger-than-expected jobs report. HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed the average 30-year fixed rate for conventional loans at 7.16% on Tuesday, unchanged from one week earlier. At the same time one year ago, the 30-year

Rocket Mortgage’s bet on artificial intelligence (AI) has resulted in a patented platform called Rocket Logic, which can automatically process nearly 90% of data points extracted from documents in a month and reduce by 25% the number of times a professional interacts with a mortgage loan year over y

It’s an election year, and housing affordability appears to be a big concern for voters. So, it’s not surprising to see the administration and members of Congress announcing big-ticket legislative initiatives to boost homeownership — like a first-time homebuyer tax credit and the Neighborhood Invest

In a message to mortgage brokers, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) defended itself from the Hunterbrook Media report that claims the lender orchestrated a scheme to steer loans. The wholesale lender said it’s offering legal support to partners in case they are sued and once again accused Rocket Mortg

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced this week that it has appointed Tracy Stephan to serve as its chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO), adding the position to her existing duties leading the agency’s Office of Financial Technology.Stephan is described as a 25-year veteran in

Insurance companies are leveraging aerial images of homes to drop properties deemed too risky, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Consumer advocates are concerned that customers are not always able to challenge images that could be out of date or inaccurate. The increased use of aeria

After a few months of downward data in its performance metrics, the reverse mortgage industry saw a slightly different story play out in March that should come as welcome news.Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsements increased 8.3% to 2,058 loans in March, an increase helped by new case n

With the Easter holiday last week, data for housing inventory, new listings and the pace of new contracts started all took a breather from their growth pace. Each of those notched down from a week ago and compared to a year ago. This is a holiday effect and it should all be reversed back onto the ye

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s policy advocacy group, the Mortgage Action Alliance (MAA), is urging its members in the state of Massachusetts to support the continued use of remote telephone and video counseling for reverse mortgages in the state following the lapse of an exemption allowin

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Friday issued a report indicating that it is taking a closer look at the impact of “discount points” on mortgage transactions, noting that use of the practice has picked up over the past two years with undetermined value for mortgage borrowers.“The

Fast-growing, publicly traded The Real Brokerage announced Monday that it had reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs in the Umpa commission lawsuit. The Umpa suit is the only commission lawsuit in which Real has been named as a defendant. The brokerage will pay $9.25 million into a quali

Analysts at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods believe that the Department of Justice will intervene in Sitzer/Burnett commission lawsuit after receiving the green light to reopen its investigation into the National Association of Realtors.In a note published on Sunday, the analysts wrote that

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) unveiled a new partnership with  SoFi on Monday. As part of the agreement, NAR members and their clients will be eligible to receive exclusive rates and discounts on mortgages, student loan refinancing, and personal loans, among other perks.“This partnershi

United Wholesale Mortgage’s (UWM) revenue margins “don’t stand out like” one would expect if the company was overcharging borrowers, analysts at BTIG said on Monday. The comments follow a Hunterbrook Media report from last week stating that UWM pressures brokers to send loans its way, resulting in h

The lack of affordable housing in the United States is well-documented in the nation’s urban markets, where it is contributing to the swelling ranks of the homeless. That same dire need for affordable housing for the least prosperous among us, however, also is a serious problem in rural America — ho

Weekly housing inventory data — both active inventory and new listings  — are prone to one-week moves that deviate from a trend, especially if people are going Easter egg hunting. So, the fact that active inventory and new listings data fell last week isn’t a big deal. Although I expect some of the

The number of first-time homebuyers made up 32% of all buyers in 2023, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors. Millennials comprised 75% of this demographic, with older millennials and Generation X (ages 44 to 58) accounting for 44% and 24% of first-time buyers. Again

Ginnie Mae this week issued a public notice to its issuer partners warning of an observation of higher prepayments in some of its mortgage-backed securities (MBS) programs, reminding issuers that a violation of its requirements could result in punitive action.In a prior All Participants Memorandum (

Today’s jobs report beat estimates, but the internals show the labor market is softening, as the Federal Reserve wants. The data shows that wage growth is cooling down and the job opening quits rate is below pre-COVID-19 levels. This bodes well for those hoping to see a soft landing, and for those h