|
Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey
December 24 2025 | |
“Overall mortgage application volume fell last week, despite the slight decline in mortgage rates,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s SVP and Chief Economist. “MBA expects the trends of a softening job market, sticky inflation, elevated home inventories, and steady mortgage rates will persist into the new year.” Added Fratantoni, “Purchase application volume last week was 16 percent higher than a year earlier. We are forecasting continued, modest growth in terms of home sales in 2026.”
|
|
Department of Justice Files Statement of Interest Supporting Competition Among Real Estate Brokerages
December 19 2025 | |
“Purchasing a home is the single biggest purchase most Americans make in a lifetime,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s soaring housing prices make competition in real estate brokerage more important than ever. Antitrust laws are key to safeguarding competition, which reduces prices and improves services for homebuyers.”
|
|
NAR Existing-Home Sales Report Shows 0.5% Increase in November
December 19 2025 | |
"Existing-home sales increased for the third straight month due to lower mortgage rates this autumn," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "However, inventory growth is beginning to stall. With distressed property sales at historic lows and housing wealth at an all-time high, homeowners are in no rush to list their properties during the winter months."
|
|
Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey
December 17 2025 | |
“Mortgage rates inched up last week following the FOMC meeting, as investors interpreted the comments to signal that we are near the end of this rate cutting cycle. As a result, mortgage applications declined slightly,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s SVP and Chief Economist. “Purchase application volume typically drops off quickly at the end of the year, and this shifts the mix of the business, with the refinance share reaching 59 percent last week, the highest level since September."
|
|
|
New York Legislation Will Protect Homebuyers from Predatory Contracts
December 17 2025 | |
“The property rights of American homeowners must be safeguarded,” said Caroline Cone, ALTA's director of state government affairs. “It is essential to ensure there are no unreasonable restraints on a homeowner's ability to sell or refinance their home in the future due to unwarranted transaction costs.”
|
|
November Jobs Report Commentary from MBA's Mike Fratantoni
December 16 2025 | |
“The BLS released two months of payroll employment data today, along with the household survey data for November. The net is that the job market is softening more rapidly than markets had anticipated, but in line with MBA’s forecast."
|
|
November New Home Purchase Mortgage Applications Increased 3.1 Percent
December 16 2025 | |
“While the arrival date of official data from the Census Bureau on the pace of new home sales remains ‘TBD,’ according to the Census website, MBA’s Builder Application Survey data show that new home purchase activity was up 3 percent on an annual basis in November, and down 7 percent from the prior month,” said Mike Fratantoni, MBA’s SVP and Chief Economist.
|
|
Builder Sentiment Inches Higher but Ends the Year in Negative Territory
December 15 2025 | |
“Market conditions remain challenging with two-thirds of builders reporting they are offering incentives to move buyers off the fence,” said NAHB Chairman Buddy Hughes, a home builder and developer from Lexington, N.C. “Meanwhile, builders are contending with rising material and labor prices, as tariffs are having serious repercussions on construction costs.”
|
|
Settlor Unveils Integration with DataTrace®
December 12 2025 | |
Settlor, an independent national provider of title and settlement services technology, has unveiled an integration with DataTrace®, the nation’s largest provider of data and automation solutions to the title and settlement services industry. The integration will empower users of Settlor’s provider-agnostic title production system access to a wealth of DataTrace® data-focused tools from within the Settlor platform.
|
|
MBA Statement on President Donald Trump's Executive Order on AI
December 12 2025 | |
“Technology does not stop at a state border. We believe strongly that a unified federal approach is necessary to avoid a confusing patchwork of state laws and regulations that would stifle innovation and raise compliance and borrower costs."
|
|
FirstClose Integrates Stewart Home Equity Solutions into OMS to Streamline Lender Workflows
December 10 2025 | |
Stewart’s addition to FirstClose OMS provides lenders with data, property reports, title insurance, and an E&O Policy covering home equity loans, offering options and rapid response. Stewart also offers automated title decisioning tools and a streamlined curative process, which supports faster eligibility checks and quicker clear-to-close outcomes for many loan scenarios.
|
|
Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey
December 10 2025 | |
“Compared to the prior week’s data, which included an adjustment for the Thanksgiving holiday, mortgage application activity increased last week, driven by an uptick in refinance applications,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “Conventional refinance applications were up almost 8 percent and government refinances were up 24 percent as the FHA rate dipped to its lowest level since September 2024."
|
|
MISMO Calls for Participation in New Initiative to Develop Standard Commitment File to Speed the Exchange of Data
December 09 2025 | |
“The Commitment File is essential to the selling of loans, yet today it is handled differently across the market. Establishing a standard will streamline operations, reduce manual effort, and speed the exchange of information between lenders and capital markets participants,” said Rusty Emory, CSMP, VP of Investor Delivery at PrimeLending. “MISMO invites the industry to come together to create a solution that will drive real modernization in the post-closing space.”
|
|
National Association of REALTORS® Unveils Top 10 Homebuying Hot Spots for 2026
December 09 2025 | |
"Lower mortgage rates and larger inventory will attract buyers back to the market in 2026," said NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. "The top 10 housing hot spots for 2026 have a combination of strong demand potential, projected improvements in affordability, and, most critically, a housing stock that matches the budgets of the buyers who are returning to the market."
|
|
|
|
|
|
Commercial and Multifamily Mortgage Delinquency Rates Mixed in Third-Quarter 2025
December 04 2025 | |
“Commercial mortgage delinquencies increased for CMBS and GSE loans in the third quarter and decreased slightly for banks and life companies as pressures remain in certain segments of the market,” said Reggie Booker, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research. “Property values have stabilized, but loan performance is impacted by shifting property fundamentals, including higher vacancy rates and slower rent growth. Delinquency performance remains highly dependent on property type and loan structure.”
|
|
Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey
December 03 2025 | |
“Mortgage rates moved lower in line with Treasury yields, which declined on data showing a weaker labor market and declining consumer confidence. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate declined to 6.32 percent after steadily increasing over the past month,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Vice President and Deputy Chief Economist. “After adjusting for the impact of the Thanksgiving holiday, refinance activity decreased across both conventional and government loans, as borrowers held out for lower rates. Purchase applications were up slightly, but we continue to see mixed results each week as the broader economic outlook remains cloudy, even as cooling home-price growth and increasing for-sale inventory bring some buyers back into the market.”
|
|
ALTA, ILTA Applaud Idaho AG on Consumer Exploitation Lawsuit
December 02 2025 | |
“American homeowners deserve unwavering protection of their property rights,” said ALTA Director of State Government Affairs Caroline Cone. “We commend Attorney General Labrador for taking decisive action to eliminate these harmful practices, securing a settlement and safeguarding Idaho families.”
|
|
DataTrace Launches StarterIQT, a National, AI-Driven Starter Policy Marketplace
December 01 2025 | |
“StarterIQ is the next step in our mission to make property and title data faster, smarter, and more connected,” said Kim Armstrong, vice president of product & strategy at DataTrace. “With a single search by address, APN, or owner name, title professionals can instantly find the right starter policy, powered by a title-driven logic ranking and indexed search fields from legal description to subdivision.”
|
|
|
|