Private mortgage insurance companies lost nearly $6 billion of business on the purchase-mortgage side in the fourth quarter, but gained back almost all of it on the refinance side. (Includes two data tables.)

PennyMac Financial Services upsizes debt offering by $200 million; Freedom Mortgage is set to issue $500 million of senior unsecured notes; Beeline Labs raises capital for MagicBlocks; Rocktop Technologies and One Diligence launch an AI-enabled natural disaster risk evaluation solution; Usherpa launches a new workflow management tool.

Some market participants have raised concerns that the improved efficiency of DeepSeek’s artificial intelligence model could reduce demand for data centers that house hardware and energy resources.

The changes reflect the risk of collateral impairment and challenges in refinancing tied to climate-related issues.

Necessary functions continue at the CFPB; two new non-agency deals backed by GSE-eligible loans hit the market.

Refinance lending ended 2024 on a high note as interest rates on mortgages declined in the second half of the year. The purchase-mortgage market saw little growth, most of it driven by first-time homebuyer activity.

The rising homeowner insurance crisis could make getting affordable coverage or getting coverage at all difficult in some parts of the country and, by extension, make properties in those areas unmortgageable.

Absent APOR figure, lenders and mortgage-backed securities buyers would be uncertain whether loans were QM.

VA is considering a rule that would require lenders to use a new application program interface to report loan information and remit funding fees to the agency. It also plans to rewrite rules regarding when VA would assert a defense for a partial or total loss of a guarantee.

The fees in question related to mortgage payments made over the phone or online. HUD said accepting and processing mortgage payments is part of a servicer’s ordinary activities for which it is already paid.