New American Funding (NAF) expanded its Midwest footprint with the launch of One Goal Mortgage powered by NAF, a new branch serving the Omaha, Nebraska, metro area and southwest Iowa, the company announced this week. The move gives the California-based independent mortgage lender its first physical branch presence in Nebraska. The One Goal Mortgage team […]
Earlier this week, Rocktop Technologies announced the formation of Rocktop Digital, a new business focused on digitizing and tokenizing mortgage and private credit assets. As part of the launch, Brett Benson was promoted to CEO of Rocktop Digital. Benson, the former co-president of Rocktop Technologies, is stepping into his new role with the mindset that the […]
A new report released on April 6 found that community lenders could play a larger role in attracting institutional investment for climate and infrastructure projects, despite longstanding concerns around risk, scale and liquidity. The report, “Bridging Institutional Capital and Community Climate Investments,” published by Ceres and the Justice Climate Fund, argues that community-based financing institutions […]
A new appraisal management platform is aiming to upend the traditional role of appraisal management companies (AMCs) by allowing mortgage lenders to oversee the process internally while maintaining regulatory compliance. The platform, known as PAM, or Private Asset & Management Group LLC, is designed as a web-based system that enables lenders to manage appraisal workflows […]
Surge, a partner intelligence platform for wholesale mortgage lenders, has been acquired by New Cheval Holdings as the wholesale channel faces tighter scrutiny on broker oversight and market share pressure from retail and direct-to-consumer lenders. The transaction brings dedicated ownership and institutional backing to a platform used by wholesale lenders that are regularly ranked among […]
loanDepot announced Thursday that it has formed a strategic partnership with Figure Technology Solutions to power a new “express-path” home loan product through loanDepot’s mello platform. Under the agreement, loanDepot will integrate Figure’s proprietary credit and loan underwriting engine into its mello technology stack and point-of-sale system. The integration is designed to allow loanDepot to […]
Mortgage credit availability increased in March, reaching its highest level since August 2022, as lenders modestly eased standards across conventional and government loan programs. That’s according to the Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The MCAI, which analyzes data from ICE Mortgage Technology, rose 1.1% to a reading […]
Florida-based AD Mortgage on Thursday announced the launch of Quick Pricer Pro, an advanced version of its existing Quick Pricer tool, now available at no cost to mortgage brokers through the company’s AIM Partner Portal. Built as an AIM-native solution, Quick Pricer Pro pulls partner-specific data directly into the pricing workflow. This allows brokers to […]
About 60% of parents have provided or plan to provide financial help so their child can buy a home, according to survey results released Thursday by Veterans United Home Loans. This underscores how family wealth is increasingly shaping access to homeownership. The poll of 400 veterans, active service members and civilians found that 59% of […]
Rocktop Technologies has launched Rocktop Digital, a new business focused on digitizing and tokenizing mortgage and private credit assets to modernize how the assets are financed, owned and traded, the company announced Wednesday. As part of the launch, Dallas-based Rocktop Technologies promoted Brett Benson, previously its co-president, to CEO of Rocktop Digital. The move formalizes […]
Philadelphia-based RenoFi announced Wednesday that it has hired Brandon Silvia as executive vice president and national production leader, moving to the renovation financing platform from top-10 U.S. mortgage lender Rate. Silvia will oversee all sales and production operations nationwide, with a mandate to scale volume, grow RenoFi’s originator network and boost adoption of its artificial […]
United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is offering a new 50-basis-point pricing incentive on purchase loans this week, one piece of a wider set of rate specials the lender is using to support broker volume in a competitive spring market. The program, called Purchase Boost 50, provides the pricing incentive on purchase loans locked between April 8 […]
The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) filed a statement of charges against multichannel mortgage lender Newrez, alleging repeated servicing violations between 2021 and 2026. It seeks a fine of about $4 million and broad consumer remediation. DFI said the action, announced Monday, follows an in-depth investigation of more than 125 consumer complaints involving […]
Mortgage applications decreased 0.8% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending April 3. On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 1% compared with the previous week. The refinance index decreased 3% from the previous week and was 4% lower than the same […]
AI is shifting negotiating power from lenders to borrowers at scale. The institutions that restructure their workflows and tools to meet that reality will grow. The ones that don’t will feel it in pull-through rates before they understand why. For most of mortgage’s recent history, information asymmetry was a structural advantage. Most borrowers didn’t know […]
“Local community developers buying at auction expect a slow-motion housing correction to continue in 2026,” Jason Allnutt, CEO of Auction.com, said in a statement. “The silver lining is they are also reporting improved affordability in an increasing number of local markets.” Affordability improves, but buyers still see more downside Despite the bearish outlook, only 36% […]
Mortgage rates have soared in the past month, but market participants appeared to take a wait-and-see approach this week as they contemplate further price increases for home loans. On Monday, Mortgage News Daily reported that 30-year fixed rates averaged 6.43%, down 4 basis points in the past week. MND rates are based on best-execution pricing […]
First American Title Insurance Co. and First American Mortgage Solutions LLC have filed a federal lawsuit against Novad Management Consulting LLC, alleging breach of contract and seeking to secure more than $1.6 million in disputed payments tied to reverse mortgage services. The complaint, filed March 30 in the U.S. District Court for the District of […]
At Rocket Pro‘s Ignite 26 event in February, the company told its business partners that it would have a “Power Play” announcement on the first Tuesday of every month. The company is following through with that promise by announcing several incentives with the purpose of “tripling down” on purchase lending. Following a February announcement of […]
Mike Detwiler is returning to the company he co-founded more than two decades ago, stepping back in as CEO of Mortgage Cadence with a focus on reshaping mortgage origination through artificial intelligence and modern technology. Mortgage Cadence announced Detwiler’s return Tuesday and he joined HousingWire CEO Clayton Collins on this episode of the Power House podcast […]
For decades, mortgage underwriting has followed the same basic structure: verify income, review credit, apply ratios, and make a decision. The tools have improved. The thinking largely hasn’t. Automated systems like Desktop Underwriter and Loan Product Advisor can process loans faster than ever. But they still rely on a core assumption: if income can be […]
Americasa, a division of Nationwide Mortgage Bankers (NMB), has promoted Yasser Valdes Herrera to president. Since December 2023, he has been based in Miami and has served as vice president of Americasa, a Spanish-language mortgage platform helping the Hispanic community achieve homeownership. “Yasser has such an incredible drive and understands that our business is rooted […]
Click n’ Close announced its appointment of Delores Lopez as chief operating officer, effective Monday. In this role, Lopez will lead operations, drive scalable growth initiatives and implement operational strategy across the organization — reporting to company President Ian Kimball. “I’m pleased to welcome Delores to Click n’ Close,” said Kimball. “Her deep operational expertise […]
Redding, California-based Reverse Focus announced April 3 that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Apiro Marketing as it looks to expand beyond reverse mortgages and deepen its marketing and content offerings for the broader U.S. mortgage industry. Reverse Focus operates a marketing software platform for reverse mortgage originators, and it publishes industry […]
Mortgage delinquency rates are increasing modestly from historic low points as declining cure rates push more borrowers into serious distress, even as affordability has improved on a year-over-year basis, according to Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)’s April 2026 Mortgage Monitor. The report, which draws on ICE’s McDash loan-level database and home price index, shows the national delinquency […]
Tradeweb is looking to expand its footprint into the residential private credit sector. But it didn’t have to build from scratch since it found a partner: Maxex. Tradeweb, an operator of electronic trading platforms, moves over $3 trillion a day across the fixed-income landscape and commands roughly 80% of the agency mortgage-backed securities (MBS) market. […]
Elly Johnson has spent than 40 years in the mortgage industry, with the bulk of that time centered on reverse mortgages. That level of experience gives her the unique ability to train others on various aspects of the federal Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) and a growing array of proprietary loan products. Johnson, who’s based […]
Though I’ve never taken a marketing class, I remember fellow students quoting the famous Philip Kotler, who said that marketing is “the creation of demand.” Simplistic to be sure, but a useful shorthand for that many-splendored thing that many of us do for a living. We market to create demand, which enables us to sell […]
Better.com says that its new integration with ChatGPT is more than a flashy plugin. According to CEO Vishal Garg, it’s a tool that could shift how mortgage technology is distributed and adopted across the industry. In early March, Better announced the conversational credit decision engine that allows lenders to run underwriting through ChatGPT using its […]
PartnerOne has completed its acquisition of Mortgage Cadence, adding another long-standing mortgage technology platform to the portfolio of the global enterprise software group, the company announced Thursday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction was previously announced as an agreement with Accenture to sell Mortgage Cadence, which provides a cloud-based digital lending platform […]
Lower has launched Movoto Advantage, a limited-access, subscription-based program that connects high-performing solo real estate agents with motivated home buyers and sellers through real-time live transfers, the company announced Thursday. The program, which Lower began rolling out in late 2025, operates within Lower’s Movoto real estate marketplace and has enrolled about 200 agents to date. […]
Finance of America (FOA) on Thursday introduced HomeSafe Second Line of Credit, a second-lien reverse mortgage line of credit now available in California that lets homeowners 55 and older tap home equity over time without refinancing or taking on a new required monthly mortgage payment. The product, which became available April 1, is designed to […]
Frost Bank previously announced in 2023 that it was reentering the mortgage business after a multiyear buildup that included system development and pilot programs. Now, reporting from Dallas news outlet WFAA says that the Texas-based bank is coming back swinging with a new program for borrowers who have been priced out of the housing market. […]
Mortgage lenders are increasingly formalizing or expanding their homebuilder divisions as they look to capture a larger share of the purchase lending pie, even as broader housing activity remains uneven. CrossCountry Mortgage (CCM) launched a dedicated builder division in March, positioning it as a way to deepen relationships with homebuilders while gearing products for new-home […]
The HousingWire Mortgage Rankings launched this week to give the housing industry a standardized, transaction-based view of origination activity across the country. The rankings are powered by InGenius data and they’re built on recorded mortgage transactions, not submissions or self-reported numbers. That matters because most industry “top producer” lists are based on submissions, self-reported volume […]
When UWM Holdings Corp. lost its bid last week to acquire Two Harbors Investment Corp. (TWO), upstaged by an offer from rival CrossCountry Intermediate HoldCo, analysts were not entirely surprised. “It was such a wild turn of events,” said Eric Hagen, an analyst at BTIG. “But we were not surprised that it broke up.” The […]
Detroit-based Rocket Companies this week moved to dismiss a lawsuit alleging violations of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), arguing that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate injury, relied on claims beyond the one-year statute of limitations and did not sufficiently plead unjust enrichment. The class-action suit, filed in late January, alleges that homebuyers who began […]
Dark Matter Technologies has launched Ask Aiva, a conversational AI-powered assistant embedded in its Empower loan origination system (LOS). The technology lets mortgage lenders query their origination environment in plain language and receive instant answers that can be traced to trusted sources, the company announced recently. Available now to Empower clients and debuting at Dark […]
REVERSE plus announced Tuesday that it has integrated proprietary reverse mortgage programs from Smartfi Home Loans into its ANALYZER Pro platform, giving loan officers and brokers the ability to model both proprietary and federally insured Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) scenarios in a single system. REVERSE plus, a software-as-a-service provider of reverse mortgage scenario modeling […]
Opendoor has agreed to acquire the closing and escrow operations of Doma Holdings, a move that would extend the iBuyer’s reach into refinance closings and deeper into title automation, the companies announced on Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is paired with a three-way […]
The cost of credit scores used in mortgage lending has climbed sharply in recent years, with lenders now paying an average of more than $500 per loan, according to a new analysis from the Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA). The report, released Tuesday as an update to the group’s 2024 white paper on mortgage […]
Mortgage applications decreased 10.4% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending March 27. On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 10% compared with the previous week. The refinance index decreased 17% from the previous week and was 33% higher than the […]
The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a rule that would make it easier for retirement plan sponsors to include alternative investments — such as private equity, private credit, real estate and cryptocurrency — in workers’ 401(k) plans while reducing regulatory burdens and the threat of lawsuits. The rule aims to carry out goals that […]
Mortgage rates continued to rise this week, placing more strain on a 2026 spring housing market that was expected to be robust but is now fighting an uphill battle against a slowing economy. Mortgage News Daily reported Monday that 30-year fixed rates averaged 6.55%. That was up 6 basis points from a week earlier but […]
A new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Research Institute for Housing America (RIHA), MBA’s 501(c)(3) trust fund that supports independent research on housing finance and policy, found that while pandemic-era forbearance helped most borrowers avoid foreclosure, the federal Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF) became a critical backstop for more vulnerable homeowners who needed help […]