Interest rates tick up, mortgage applications slow near the end of September and refi rate locks spike during the month; Annaly turns to Rocket for subservicing and retention; Fairway touts returning employees; mortgage tech developments; SitusAMC sells loan insurance entity.

Soaring home price appreciation in recent years has created plenty of tappable home equity. Firms offering equity-extraction products use various techniques to make homeowners aware of their offerings.

United Wholesale Mortgage has introduced a new AI-based platform to help its brokers recapture borrowers with a refinance.

Lower interest rates bring refi opportunities; borrowers experience frustration at closing; improvements at Provident Funding Associates; Spanish translation efforts; tech firm acquires mortgage brokerage.

With interest rates on mortgages set to come down, some lenders are looking to quickly adopt tech to help with originations. Blend Labs is seeing lenders use more of the tech vendor’s products and an automated refi offering is on the way.

Rocket is turning profits again after taking a loss in 2023. Now the lender is working to regain the market share it lost, using various strategies for both purchase mortgages and refinances.

FHFA economists estimate that the average required monthly payment for a new mortgage rose 57% between 2022 and the end of 2023.

Borrowers who obtained mortgages in recent years are prime targets for refis as interest rates decline.

FHFA’s home price index cools off; MBA’s outlook for interest rates unchanged; Treasury looking into AI use in financial services; trade groups request delay on implementation of overtime rule.

The mortgage giant itemizes the sources of the increased cost of loan origination, then pitches the technological tools embedded in its underwriting system as a potential remedy.