Mortgage repurchases by banks and thrifts fell to $2.29 billion in 2018, the lowest annual total since institutions began reporting this activity on quarterly call reports in 2007. It would have been a lot lower without Bank of America. [Includes one data chart]

Mortgage banking firms trimmed 1,100 posi-tions during January, ending the month with 239,900 full-timers on their payrolls, according to figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Loan brokers, on the other hand, added 500 positions, bringing employment in the sector to 86,300.

A lack of digital offerings has become a major drag on the home-equity market as customers are more likely turning to alternative sources of funding, according to a new study by J.D. Power.

After more than a year of pessimism among many lenders regarding profit margins, the outlook is improving, according to a survey by Fannie Mae.

Impac Mortgage Holdings is putting a strong emphasis on originating non-qualified mortgages as the product offers attractive margins. But the shift also has prompted large layoffs and employee turnover as non-QM volume hasn’t completely replaced production of conforming mortgages.

There was nowhere to hide in the fourth quarter of 2018 as mortgage banking income fell sharply both in loan production and servicing, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports from publicly held companies. [Includes one data chart]

Several publicly held nonbank lenders took a beating on servicing hedges and other factors during the fourth quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports. Seven public firms reported a combined loss of $120.53 million on mortgage banking activity during the fourth quarter. [Includes one data chart]

Despite hefty declines in their sales volume last year, Wells Fargo and PennyMac continued to rank as the top sources of third-party originations in agency mortgage-backed securities. [Includes one data chart]

A disparity between black and white homeowners regarding the value of their homes is making the racial wealth gap much worse, according to a new study from the Urban Institute.

The mortgage market expects output to be flat this year, but digital mortgage lender Better.com said it could double its production to $2.5 billion. “We did about $1.3 billion last year, which is three times what we did in 2017,” the company’s President Jerry Selitto said.