Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be allowed to double their annual investments in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) properties from $2 billion to $4 billion, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced Tuesday. The move, which is intended to advance the affordable housing missions of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), aligns with the Trump’s administration’s […]
Conventional loans remained the most popular loan type for preapproved borrowers in Q2, increasing their share from 74.2% to 74.7% on a quarterly basis. Preapprovals for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans saw a slight decrease in share, from 19% to 18.6%, while U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) loans and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) […]
Executives at Onity Group have managed to preserve “marginal profitability” in their reverse mortgage origination operations, despite ongoing headwinds in the market. “Higher rates for an extended period have limited the amount of benefit a reverse borrower can realize on a new loan,” Sean O’Neil, Onity‘s chief financial officer, said during the company’s second-quarter earnings […]
Housing professionals and consumers have reasons to celebrate this week as the 30-year fixed mortgage rate reached its lowest point of 2025. It’s a particularly interesting development given that the Federal Reserve has yet to cut benchmark rates this year, and mortgage rates could soon move even lower if some policymakers get their way. On […]
Dominick Marchetti and Sean DeJulia, two executives instrumental in developing loanDepot’s mello technology platform, are rejoining the company under the leadership of founder Anthony Hsieh. Their return follows loanDepot’s announcement last week that Hsieh is back in the CEO role permanently. He founded the lender in 2010 and has outlined a renewed focus on returning […]
The Community Home Lenders of America (CHLA) on Tuesday unveiled a tax proposal designed to tap into trillions of dollars of assets locked up by capital gains tax consequences to help children or grandchildren buy their first home. The national nonprofit says that it released the plan after President Trump recently expressed support for changes […]
If you were to ask anyone in the mortgage industry what “1004” means, they would immediately tell you that it is the Fannie Mae appraisal form for single-family homes. How about “1004 C?” That’s their form for manufactured homes and “1073” is their form for condominiums. Freddie Mac uses the same form templates, just with […]
Mortgage applications don’t always fail with a formal rejection — many simply stall. A report released last month by Cotality found that homebuyer hesitation often predicts loan fallout, even without an official withdrawal. As a result, the property analytics firm found that 16% of buyers “ghosted” their mortgage applications last year — a trend attributed […]
UBS Group said on Monday that it will pay $300 million to settle lingering obligations tied to a Credit Suisse deal with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) over the sales of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS). UBS inherited the obligations when it acquired Credit Suisse in a 2023 rescue arranged by Swiss regulators. The bank […]
The reverse mortgage market appeared to recover in July after dipping in June, according to Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) endorsement data compiled by Reverse Market Insight (RMI) that was released late last week. HECM endorsements rose 5.6% in July to 2,369 loans, the highest level recorded since February 2025. HECMs also saw regional gains […]
Texas-based MCS, a property services company that moved into the reverse mortgage space last year, on Monday announced its acquisition of MSI as it seeks to grow its nationwide presence. A press release from the companies said that the deal unites “two of the industry’s market leaders.” MSI’s current employees and services, along with its […]
Frank Cassidy, the principal deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been nominated to serve as the commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Cassidy has been with HUD since April of this year. Before joining the department, Cassidy was a senior managing director at Walker & Dunlop, […]
Florida-based wholesale lender A&D Mortgage has secured a $250 million capital commitment from alternative asset manager Canyon Partners to support the securitization of non-agency mortgages, the companies announced Monday. The investment will help accelerate the joint securitization program between A&D and Imperial Fund Asset Management, enabling the issuance of up to $5 billion in non-agency […]
Ginnie Mae, the government-owned corporation within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that provides funding for many U.S. mortgages, now has a nominee to fill its long-vacant president’s role. Over the weekend, the Senate received Joseph Gormley’s nomination to lead Ginnie Mae and forwarded it to the committee on banking, housing and […]
Six North Carolina borrowers have filed separate lawsuits against CrossCountry Mortgage and a local real estate brokerage, alleging they ran a kickback scheme disguised as a co‑marketing deal. The complaints accuse the national lender of paying Raleigh Realty $15,000 per month in 2021 and 2022 in exchange for exclusive client referrals. Nearly identical filings also […]
Our industry stands at a critical crossroads in the rapidly evolving mortgage technology landscape. For decades, customer service teams have been relegated to roles as reactive problem solvers and order-takers who simply put out fires as they arise. Still, the future of mortgage technology demands a radical reimagining of what customer success truly means. With […]
The Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act (H.R. 2808) passed through the U.S. Senate with unanimous consent and without amendments late Saturday. The legislation gained approval from the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in June. The legislation is designed to enact a national prohibition on the misuse of trigger leads. Under this act, companies are prohibited from […]
The American dream of homeownership has been a way to build wealth for decades as people pay down their debt while their homes appreciate in value. The result is a nice home equity nest egg — especially for seniors who have owned homes for many years. But an outdated tax law could claw back much of […]
Welcome back to Tech Pulse — HousingWire‘s weekly series rounding up the latest in technology news, including tools, integrations and trends that impact mortgage and real estate. Here’s what happened this week: ICE posts $851M profit in Q2 2025, raises revenue guidance Intercontinental Exchange reported $851 million in net income for the second quarter and a return to profitability in […]
The Federal Reserve Board announced on Friday that Adriana D. Kugler will step down from her position as governor. Kugler, whose term was set to expire at the end of January 2026, joined the board of governors in September 2023 after being nominated by former President Joe Biden. She submitted her letter of resignation to […]
Existing investors in Flyhomes, a fintech company that specializes in buy-before-you-sell products, have committed an additional $15 million in a Series D funding round to expand the company’s wholesale lending platform nationwide. “This is a natural evolution of our business,” Flyhomes CEO Tushar Garg said in a statement. “Our Series D funding and the recent […]
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) on Thursday announced net income of $851 million and a return to profitability in its mortgage segment for the second quarter of 2025. ICE, which operates exchanges including the New York Stock Exchange, posted $2.5 billion in net revenue from April through June, with $1.4 billion from exchanges, $597 million from fixed […]
Rocket Companies, the parent of Rocket Mortgage, has returned to profitability despite a challenging second quarter for the mortgage industry, marked by economic uncertainties in the U.S. The company is now focusing on integrating the recently acquired real estate brokerage firm Redfin, which has already shown early benefits. In the second quarter, Rocket reported a […]
Homebuyer affordability improved in June, as evidenced by the national median payment for purchase mortgage applicants decreasing to $2,172 — down from $2,211 in May. That’s according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA)’s Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI), which measures how new monthly mortgage payments vary across time relative to income, using data from MBA’s […]
The boards of directors for Rocket Companies and Mr. Cooper Group have given their approvals to the eye-opening, $9.4 billion all-stock deal first announced in late March. Under the agreement, Mr. Cooper’s common stock, valued at $0.01 per share, will automatically convert into the right to receive 11 shares of Rocket’s Class A common stock. […]
Optimal Blue announced on Wednesday a new capability in its product, pricing and eligibility (PPE) engine that fully automates the process for a lock desk user to execute locks directly with participating investors through an application programming interface (API). The PPE already automates pricing, lock requests, post-lock changes and mandatory execution. This week’s move eliminates […]
Freddie Mac released its second-quarter 2025 earnings on Thursday morning, reporting net income of $2.4 billion from April through June. That marked a decrease of 14% compared to the same period last year, driven primarily by an increase in the provision for credit losses. At the end of Q2, Freddie‘s net worth was $65 billion. […]
ICE is rewriting the playbook on how lenders engage with customers across the homeownership journey. Matt Dowd, VP of Product Management at ICE, shares the company’s strategy to unify its origination and servicing solutions, allowing lenders to more easily identify, engage and convert opportunities within their existing portfolios to drive business growth. This integrated approach […]
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed Rep. Derrick Van Orden’s bill, the VA Home Loan Program Reform Act, into law after it received approval last week from the Senate. The VA Home Loan Program Reform Act will reform the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) mortgage program by adding a partial claim option — a […]
After a public backlash against the Social Security Administration (SSA) earlier this year, the federal agency said it would walk back some of its plans that would’ve required more beneficiaries to make in-person office visits. But a report released this week by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan research group, counteracts […]
The Federal Reserve has decided to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at a range of 4.25% to 4.5% following its two-day meeting on Wednesday. The decision aligns with market expectations as the central bank remains cautious amid persistent inflation. Most market participants are now anticipating a rate cut in September, which could provide relief […]
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is urging the Trump administration to release $324 million in funding that was already approved to help small businesses and communities in poor and rural areas. In a letter viewed by Bloomberg News, lawmakers led by Senate Banking Committee members Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) requested that […]
Fannie Mae announced its second quarter 2025 earnings on Wednesday and reported net income of $3.3 billion, which marked the government-sponsored enterprise’s 30th consecutive quarter of positive earnings. The company grew its net worth to $101.6 billion, representing $88.1 billion in net worth added since the start of 2020 and up from the first quarter’s […]
Mortgage applications decreased 3.8% from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) weekly mortgage applications survey for the week ending July 25, 2025. The decrease represented the applications’ lowest level since May. On an unadjusted basis, the index decreased 4% compared with the previous week. “Mortgage applications fell to their […]
A new bill introduced in the Senate would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider unconverted digital assets in mortgage underwriting. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) introduced the legislation, known as the 21st Century Mortgage Act, on Tuesday. S.B. 2471 is a response to a directive from Bill Pulte, the director of the Federal Housing […]
Amid increasing levels of mortgage fraud, the FBI has renewed a warning to Americans about an app that could trick victims into losing their entire banking, savings, retirement or investment accounts. The FBI first issued a public service announcement on the Phantom Hacker scam in September 2023. But on July 15, the bureau’s Los Angeles […]
Mortgage rates have stayed remarkably consistent for much of 2025. With the calendar set to flip to August this week, there’s little to suggest that trend will change. On Tuesday, HousingWire’s Mortgage Rates Center showed that rates for 30-year conforming loans averaged 6.91%, down 1 basis point from a week ago. Rates for 30-year loans […]
The bipartisan “Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream to Housing Act of 2025,” or “ROAD to Housing Act,” took a step forward on Monday, advancing through a Senate Banking Committee markup. The legislation, led by Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), aims to increase housing supply and affordability while improving oversight […]
Audit software and automation solutions company LoanLogics announced Tuesday that 11.5% of all U.S. mortgage file content was missing or erroneous over the past 10 years, according to an analysis of internal data. LoanLogics provides technology used to originate, manufacture, audit and service loans. Its systems process more than half of all U.S. mortgages each […]
ICE Mortgage Technology’s new integration of its servicing and origination platforms reflects a broader trend in the mortgage industry — offering home equity loans while rates remain high and preparing for refinances as rates begin to decline. The same logic underpins deals such as Rocket Companies’ acquisition of Mr. Cooper Group and Bayview Asset Management’s […]
Anthony Hsieh is back in the CEO role at loanDepot — the company he founded in 2010 — on a permanent basis. His focus will be on returning the mortgage lender to profitability and regaining market share, the company announced on Monday. Hsieh stepped down as CEO in April 2022 and was succeeded by industry […]
Figure Technology Solutions, a blockchain-native capital marketplace, announced on Monday an expansion of Intellidebt, its Direct Debt Payoff (DDP) solution. The move aims to allow borrowers to consolidate existing liens and high-interest debt directly through the loan application process. The upgrade boosts borrower qualification potential by improving combined loan-to-value (CLTV) ratios, debt-to-income (DTI) ratios and […]
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is proposing to repeal its fair lending, fair housing and equitable housing finance rule, arguing that the regulation is duplicative that the repeal aligns with prior executive orders aimed at streamlining agency functions. The rule, finalized in May 2024 under the Biden administration, required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac […]
Rithm Capital, the parent of multichannel mortgage lender Newrez, said it’s not currently moving forward with plans on an initial public offering for the subsidiary as it focuses on supporting the firm’s broader portfolio. Instead, the firm is turning its attention to mergers and acquisitions, even amid macroeconomic uncertainty. “First of all, we spent a […]
A class action lawsuit filed this week against loanDepot, alleging steering and violations of loan originator (LO) compensation rules, has brought to light practices used by lenders for years that lacked clear guidance from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Attorneys told HousingWire that lenders often allow compensation tied to lead source and internal loan […]