Some 13.8% of the total number of applications for conventional-conforming mortgages submitted last year were denied, compared to 14.3% in 2022. Denials for refinances jumped. (Includes data table.)

HUD issues guidance on mortgage advertising; UWM expands title services for brokers; Freedom issues debt; Incenter offers review services for taxes and insurance; most housing inventory in Florida, Texas.

Cyberattack will cost loanDepot at least $12 million; average borrower has nearly $300,000 in home equity; home prices overvalued across the country; MSR gain some value; new servicing platform from Sagent; MCT offers TBA pricing indicators; lender launches real estate platform.

Proceeds from the recent issuance have largely gone toward paying down the companies’ debt issuance from 2021 when they needed funds for their refi business.

Lenders cut more staff; rate locks up 14% in January; borrowers have plenty of equity; bill to limit trigger leads in House; LoanCare revamps servicing website; Staircase launches ChatMTG.

The GSEs and FHA should publish daily rate sheets with disclosures on interest rates for mortgages locked the previous day, according to analysts at the Urban Institute. The analysts likened their proposal to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price seen for cars and books.

Fed researchers show that, when interest rates increase, refinances decline, but alternative forms of household borrowing increase proportionally. This borrowing substitution diminishes the value of refinances as a path for monetary policy.

Regional differences in mortgage closing costs largely explain the seemingly irrational “failure to refinance” of some borrowers when rates fall.

An increase in the number of borrowers with non-traditional income sources has led more lenders to consider automated and AI-based underwriting practices, according to Ocrolus, a tech vendor.

Lenders gravitated toward lower loan-to-value ratios and higher credit scores with their deliveries to the GSEs in the third quarter.