Even considering factors like credit score and income level, the denial rate for Black mortgage applicants is more than twice that of white applicants, according to an analysis of confidential HMDA data.

Underwriting standards tend to deteriorate in dire circumstances, but GSE sellers appeared to avoid taking excessive risk as 2022 wound down even as sales volumes plummeted. (Includes two data charts.)

FHFA economists focus on the mechanisms driving and defining home prices.

COVID sent home prices soaring and sped up sales. But it also created a spike in the proportion of homes removed from the market.

Single borrowers were more likely to use forbearance programs during the pandemic than coborrowers and were disproportionately helped by them, the Urban Institute found.

While interest rate hikes are deflating originations, lenders aren’t budging much on underwriting standards for purchase mortgages, based on an analysis of mortgages delivered to the GSEs in the third quarter. (Includes two data charts.)

New Zealand researchers find that analysis of a borrower’s digital footprint improves loan performance and reduces discrimination.

Under the proposal from Urban Institute authors, mortgage servicers would be required to call borrowers within three months to offer refinancing once a payment reduction is triggered.

The overall delinquency rate in agency MBS inched up to 1.97% at the end of June. All of the increase in late payments was seen in the Ginnie Mae program. (Includes data chart.)

Alternate finance options make homeownership possible for first-time buyers unable to access traditional home loans, but more protections are needed to foster sustainable homeownership, according to industry experts.