Demand from borrowers increases when mortgage rates fall below 6.5%, according to Owen Lee, CEO of Success Mortgage Partners. Due to policies from the Trump administration, it’s unclear whether rates will decline to that level in the near term.

Parallel bills were introduced this week in what policymakers and lenders hope will be a final bipartisan push to tighten restrictions on the abusive use of credit trigger leads.

Fitch Ratings warned that it could downgrade its corporate rating on Rocket following the company’s planned acquisition of Mr. Cooper. Rocket’s corporate leverage looks poised to increase.

An increase in housing supply has helped increase options for buyers, limiting home price appreciation.

Fannie’s AI-powered Ask Poli allows quality control personnel to identify frequently researched topics, both within and outside their organization, as a way to forecast current or future loan defects.

The founder of Rocket Companies could see $571.9 million in tax benefits triggered by the company’s planned acquisition of Mr. Cooper; legislation in the House would set standards for remote online notarization; new company offering NMLS-approved education.

Most lenders reported significant improvement in servicing profitability that was driven by MSR markups. But results varied greatly on the production side, where lenders that rely on TPO channels fared much better. (Includes data tables.)

Hispanics accounted for 35% of U.S. homeownership growth last year, the largest share of any racial or ethnic group, according to a new report from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

The decline in retail origination at banks and thrifts came even as overall originations increased slightly from the third to the fourth quarter. (Includes two data tables.)

Better is touting investments in artificial intelligence to help slash costs tied to originating refis. The lender is also building a distributed retail operation to increase production of purchase mortgages.