#mortgage-banking-concerns

#mortgage-banking-concerns

Ginsburg stated that treating builder business as a core pillar rather than a side channel reflects a broader industry shift. He believes a healthy balance of builders should be around 15% to 20% of the overall retail book of business.

The sharp rise in oil prices and renewed inflation concerns created significant pressure on both stocks and bonds, impacting investor sentiment and market dynamics.

The insights from this report help us think about potential gaps in the loss mitigation waterfall and the types of homeowners who may benefit from targeted support when they experience a crisis.

The scale of the increases reflects limited competition in the mortgage credit score market, where lenders are required to use approved scoring models and have few alternatives.

HousingWire's 2026 Rising Stars honor industry leaders age 40 and under who are making an impact across mortgage, real estate and homebuilding. The honorees represent a range of roles and are recognized for driving innovation, supporting their organizations and contributing to broader industry progress.

Eric Ellman, president of the National Consumer Reporting Association (NCRA) said we learned from the 2008 housing crisis that more data is better than less data, especially when the financial stakes are so high. He added, The cost of being right for spending an extra $100 is so much stronger a case to make than the downside risk for a consumer who might lose thousands over the lifetime of a loan.

Lenders use debt-to-income ratio to determine how much a potential borrower can afford to pay on a mortgage. This ratio includes most sources of debt and income, but it doesn't include everyday expenses like utilities or groceries. Generally, having a higher debt-to-income ratio makes it harder to secure financing to buy a house.

"Today, an increasing number of consumers include crypto in their investment portfolios, while major financial institutions are deepening their involvement in crypto assets, supported by key regulatory developments," Newrez President Baron Silverstein said in the announcement, adding that now is the "right time" to weave crypto into the mortgage lending business.

Investment and multifamily loans remained the highest-risk categories, according to the data. An estimated one in 43 investment property applications and one in 27 multifamily applications showed signs of fraud risk during the quarter, well above the broader industry average. The percentage ofrefinancesin the Cotality data set has increased year-over-year by19%, yetthe fraud index is up 1.5% over that time.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is deeply entrenched in the U.S. system. It benefits from decades of investor demand, a robust securitization framework and established insurance support. Once loan terms extend beyond 30 years, those structural advantages begin to erode. There is also a cost that often gets overlooked. A 50-year mortgage dramatically increases the total interest paid over the life of the loan. While monthly payments may appear more manageable, borrowers can end up paying nearly double the interest compared to a traditional 30-year mortgage.

Sales of new single-family houses in October 2025 were at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 737,000, according to estimates released jointly today by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This is 0.1 percent (14.2 percent)* below the September 2025 rate of 738,000, and is 18.7 percent (21.7 percent)* above the October 2024 rate of 621,000. There were some negative revisions to the past three months, but the trend still stayed positive.