Mortgage lenders that rely on cutting-edge financial technology – or fintech – may be just as guilty as traditional face-to-face lenders of pricing discrimination, according to a new study by economists at the University of California at Berkeley. The researchers found that both traditional and online lenders charge Latino and African-American borrowers 6 to 9 basis points higher interest rates than their white counterparts for purchase-mortgage loans, and 1 to 3 bps more for refinancing ...

Rising interest rates aren’t a major inhibitor of demand for purchase mortgages but they have reduced housing inventory, according to Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American. “Rising mortgage rates create a financial disincentive for existing homeowners with low mortgage rates from selling their homes,” he said in an analysis this week. “This phenomenon impacts both sides of the supply-and-demand dynamic – those who don’t sell, don’t buy either.” First American, a title insurance ...

Retail-originated loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the third quarter generally had stronger credit scores than similar loans produced by third-party lenders, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level data. The average credit score for a retail purchase loan pooled in an agency mortgage-backed security during the period was 735.47, compared with 720.20 for correspondent purchase ... [Includes two data charts]

Single-family mortgage business slowed predictably at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last month, although there was surprising resilience in the refinance market. [Includes two data charts.]

The primary mortgage market’s growing reliance on purchase-money lending helped swing a little more business to correspondent lenders in the third quarter of 2018, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. [Includes four data charts.]

Carrington Mortgage this week announced the launch of its correspondent lending division.

Impac CEO George Mangiaracina: “I don’t believe we’ve seen capitulation yet with respect to other originators.”

In its comment letter to the FHFA, Fannie Mae suggests the rule should use original credit scores and LTV ratios, rather than mark-to-market values…

The appraisal exemption proposal needs final approval from the CFPB...

Wells Fargo remained the top producer of correspondent-originated loans with $26.64 billion in third-quarter volume and a 20.2 percent share of the market…