In a split ruling, the Fourth Circuit upheld a trial court’s decision to impose a $9.7 million fine against the nonbank lender for allegedly influencing appraisers to raise their valuation if it didn’t match a refi borrower’s estimate.

Many of the bank’s mortgage borrowers saw income increase during the pandemic, with boosts from stimulus checks and unemployment benefits.

Income accounts for 80% of the valuation gap between homes owned by whites and minorities, while 20% can be attributed to current or past racial bias, according to the American Enterprise Institute.

Bank acquisitions in the mortgage space have been few and far between the past few years. Still, officials at Western Alliance believe it makes perfect sense for the bank to acquire AmeriHome Mortgage.

EarnUp offers payment and saving-services to consumers and is using the access to borrowers’ bank accounts to provide insights to mortgage servicers.

Although lending volumes are still robust, managers are looking at cross-training employees to handle a shift from originations to servicing.

Research by Jornaya found the search for homes nearly doubling early in the new year.

In an attempt to outbid two private equity firms, CoStar Group raised its offer price for mortgage data vendor CoreLogic to $95.76 a share.

The company, which buys and sells homes directly, cautioned that it may not have sufficient cash flow from its businesses to pay down its substantial debt.

It’s not every day that a lender commits to sell $34 billion of MSRs. IMA is the investment banker on the package and speculation is rising on who the seller might be.