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A 5 basis point drop in conforming mortgage rates boosted loan refinance application volume this week, but overall activity was down from seven days' prior, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.Its Market Composite Index found application activity inched 0.3% lower on a seasonally adjusted basis from seven days prior and fell 0.2% on an unadjusted basis for the period ended Oct. 17.The Refinance Index, however, was 4% higher when compared to the Oct. 10 survey and at levels 81% above the same week in 2024, fueled in part by adjustable-rate mortgage activity."The lowest mortgage rates in a month spurred an increase in refinance activity, including another pickup in ARM applications," said Joel Kan, the MBA's vice president and deputy chief economist, in a press release.The news was not as good for purchase application volume, which was down 5%, both on an adjusted and an unadjusted basis. Compared with a seasonally similar period a year ago, purchase apps were up 20%. "While buyers have tended to be ultraresponsive to rate decreases, it wouldn't be surprising if some are choosing to hold off on homebuying for now," Kate Wood, lending expert at Nerdwallet, in a statement regarding this week's survey. "Folks feeling the pinch of higher prices and the anxiety of an uncertain job market probably aren't looking to make major financial commitments."A 6% increase in conventional applications and a 12% surge in their Federal Housing Administration counterparts drove the rise in the Refinance Index."Borrowers remain attentive to these opportunities to lower their monthly mortgage payment," Kan said.However, refinances of Veterans Affairs-guaranteed mortgages, whose Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan is considered a rather easy product for originators to produce, "bucked the trend and were down 12%," he added.However, refinances of Veterans Affairs-guaranteed mortgages, "bucked the trend and were down 12%," he added. The VA's Interest Rate Reduction Refinance Loan is considered a rather easy product for originators to produce but does have some seasoning requirements.The overall refinance share grew to 55.9%, from 53.6% a week ago.Even with the drop in fixed rates, ARM volume and share both increased this past week. Applications submitted increased by 16%, while the product now makes up 10.8% of total volume. The rate for the hybrid ARM the MBA tracks, which is fixed for five years before adjusting, was about 80 basis points lower than the conforming rate, Kan noted. For the past week it was down to 5.55% from 5.63%.FHA apps had a 21.8% share this week, versus 20.5% for the period ended Oct. 10, while VA fell to 13.5% from 14.5% and U.S. Department of Agriculture volume fell to 0.3% from 0.4%. The USDA sector has been disproportionately impacted by the government shutdown.The average rate for conforming mortgages, loans with balances of $806,500 or lower, fell to 6.37% from 6.42%. Jumbo mortgage interest rates fell to 6.39% from 6.47%, while FHA rates fell to 6.12% from 6.19%.Rates for the 15-year FRM fell by just 3 basis points, to 5.74% from 5.77% last week.

Key insight: The Department of Justice filed a motion opposing a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau employee union's appeal of a DC Circuit ruling allowing the administration to fire hundreds of agency workers.What's at stake: The CFPB employee union has been arguing that the administration is seeking to shut down the agency, something that only Congress has the power to do.Forward look: The outcome of the case could have important implications for similar mass firings taking place across the federal government as Congress' budget deadlock enters its fourth week.  The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau urged a federal appeals court to deny a motion by the agency's employee union to rehear arguments about whether the Trump administration's planned layoffs amount to an attempt to shut down the agency.  The Department of Justice on Tuesday filed a motion in opposition to the National Treasury Employees Union's petition for an en banc rehearing before the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The union is appealing a decision by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit from August that held acting CFPB Director Russ Vought can fire up to 1,400 employees through a mass reduction-in-force, or RIF. The Justice Department had initially asked for an extension due to the government shutdown. But on Friday, the D.C. Circuit rebuffed the request and ordered the administration to respond by the original filing date.The case is being closely watched, not just for its implications for the CFPB and its employees, but also for the broader impact of actions taken by agency heads that are not officially made in writing. At issue is whether government officials can shut down an agency if their plan is not explicitly laid out in an official memo or policy. The DOJ acknowledged in its 26-page brief that shortly after President Trump took office, acting CFPB Director Russ Vought undertook a series of actions that included terminating employees, cancelling contracts, declining additional funding, and locking employees out of the agency's Washington D.C. headquarters. The DOJ said that the CFPB's union "inferred" there was an overarching decision from various actions taken by Vought to downsize the agency, and that nothing was officially stated in writing. The union sued Vought in February under both the Administration Procedure Act, which governs how agencies conduct business, and separation-of-powers claims.The union claimed that Vought had hatched a plan to shut down the CFPB, which can only be done by an act of Congress. The DOJ countered that Vought's actions did not constitute a policy or official action, and therefore, was not reviewable by the courts under the APA. The three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit agreed. "This posited decision is not in any 'regulation, order, document, email, or other statement, written or oral, purporting to shut down the CFPB," the DOJ stated. "The panel correctly concluded that abstract plans to take future action are not reviewable under the APA.""Consistent with precedent, the panel's opinion reflects only that there was no final, ripe, and discrete action, and that the absence of any embodiment or announcement of a purported agency decision is merely relevant to — not dispositive of — the APA inquiry," the DOJ said. In May, a district court heard oral arguments and sided with the CFPB's union, finding that Vought sought to shutter the agency. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued a wide-ranging injunction that required Vought to reinstate all probationary and term employees and barred the CFPB from firing any employee "except for cause," or from instituting any work stoppage. She also ordered the rescission of all contract terminations, as well as various provisions mandating employee access to office space and remote-work.The union had also challenged Vought's Feb. 10 "stop work" order, which the appeals panel ruled was also not a reviewable final agency action. The D.C. Circuit appeals panel, in a 2-1 decision with two Trump-appointed judges siding with the Trump administration, and one Obama-appointee dissenting, ruled that Vought could fire up to 90% of the agency's employees. The CFPB currently has about 1,400 employees and senior CFPB officials have said they can run the agency with just 200.  The saga of the beleaguered CFPB is similar to other partisan showdowns playing out in court as the Trump administration tests the limits of executive power. Last week, Vought said in an interview on "The Charlie Kirk Show" that the administration will issue RIFs at other agencies as long as the government shutdown continues. He also said that he thinks he will be successful in shutting down the CFPB "within the next two to three months."The DOJ even said that the union can file a lawsuit if the agency fails to fulfill its lawful requirements — but must wait until after employees have been fired. "Should CFPB unlawfully cease performing its mandatory statutory duties, plaintiffs may challenge such a failure within the APA's well-established limits," the DOJ brief states. "Plaintiffs' dissatisfaction with those limits is hardly a reason for the en banc court to intervene. The petition for rehearing en banc should be denied." 

Artificial intelligence dominated the conversations at the 2025 Mortgage Bankers Association Annual conference in Las Vegas, but a top mortgage executive called the hype a bubble. As lenders, servicers and vendors race to invest in AI and are touting their AI prowess alongside countless companies across the nation's economy, Brian Woodring, chief information officer at Newrez issued a warning."I don't think you could look at the industry and not think we're in the middle of an AI bubble," said Woodring. The executive evoked the dot-com bubble of the 2000s, but balanced that view by mentioning how tech giants emerged at the same time. Others speaking Tuesday suggested they're bullish on AI but emphasized that firms need to identify strong use cases and tangible results. Experts also echoed frequent industry forecasts regarding AI enhancing, or replacing workers. Terry Schmidt, CEO and director of Guild Mortgage, said employees will become more efficient at what they do and that human communication skills will always be in demand. Woodring gave the example of a chatbot's potential weaknesses in trying to solve some customer problems. "When [borrowers are] struggling to make their payments, who do they want to talk to?" said Woodring. "So I think of irreplaceable things like empathy and trust, the ability to listen and the ability to communicate as being effectively irreplaceable."The Newrez leader also predicted the cost to service and originate loans, which has cut into lenders' profits in recent quarters, would decrease in the next five years. Schmidt, whose company uses its own proprietary tech, cautioned firms who are sitting on the sidelines. "I think it's going to be difficult for companies that don't get on the bandwagon quickly to continue to be competitive, I think it's going to be harder," she said. Industry attorneys warn of risks in AI adoptionThe trade group featured numerous AI sessions and standing room-only crowds participated in exercises such as "vibe coding," in which non-engineers created loan calculators, marketing templates and other mortgage website functions with a literal click of a button. Attorneys Tuesday afternoon urged companies to implement strong risk management as state and federal lawmakers mull new legislation. Seven of the nation's most populous states are proposing, have proposed, or are studying laws around AI and bias mitigation. Companies budgeting for AI often aren't including testing, said Wendy Lee, managing partner at the LOGS Legal Group. Firms can begin by testing AI tools against themselves, by asking the platforms to show the source of their output.  Brian K. Stucky, CEO of AI governance firm Decision-X and senior advisor to the MBA's Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, called on companies to evaluate how vendors are using AI. He shared an anecdote of a vendor which could not define what a protected class was when asked about the data it handles."I think all the vendor contracts you've had probably need to be tossed out and rewritten for AI," he said. Even if a vendor doesn't promote itself as an artificial intelligence solution, it's likely using the tools, said Anna Craft, a partner at the Bradley law firm. She alluded to cybersecurity risks and recalled the now long-standing guidance by firms for employees not to plug sensitive data into tools like ChatGPT."Because they have your data, and if they have something that results in your data escaping in the wild, then you are just as liable as they are," she said.

A new tech showcase is in the works that aims to provide guidance and clarity to the mortgage industry as it tries to uniformly address shared residential lending compliance issues. A cooperative effort between the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, the tech sprint will kick off with a virtual event on Dec. 3. The two groups invited state supervisors, lenders, technology providers and other interested parties to gather and discuss current obstacles to adopting common standards related to mortgage compliance. Based on shared feedback from the event, CSBS and MISMO will offer selected technology firms an opportunity to demo their solutions at the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System's annual conference in mid February. Ultimately, organizers expect the tech sprint to spur adoption of a MISMO dataset that will become an industry norm, streamlining supervisory examinations for residential loans. The mortgage compliance dataset was previously designed in a MISMO working group composed of lending industry participants."At MISMO, we believe that alignment between regulators and the mortgage industry is key to building a more transparent and efficient housing finance system," said President Brian Vieaux in a press release. The tech sprint would serve as an opportunity to "put that belief into action," he added. "By bringing supervisors and industry stakeholders together at this early stage, we can create a smoother pathway," concurred CSBS President and CEO Brandon Milhorn. "We are excited to partner with MISMO on this next step toward implementing the MCD." Previous mortgage events supporting tech developmentSimilar efforts to support innovation within the mortgage industry have taken place for several years in various forms. Earlier this decade, the Federal Housing Finance Agency held two editions of its own tech sprint.  The 2023 event spotlighted how data digitization might lead to increased access, fairness and affordability in mortgage lending. One year later, the technology industry gathered again to learn about the various benefits of generative artificial intelligence when applied to home finance activities. For several years beginning in 2019, Flagstar Bank also offered its own accelerator program, the sole initiative of its type that specifically supported the mortgage technology startup community. Past graduates of the accelerator include Stavvy, Orangegrid, Home Lending Pal and Calque. 

Pennymac's financial services unit built profits as it produced consistent consecutive-quarter loan volume and reduced servicing valuation-related losses in a market with lower rates, but it fell short of some consensus expectations.The $181.5 million in net income recorded under generally-accepted accounting principles topped the previous quarter's $136.5 million and $69.4 million a year earlier, but didn't quite reach the $200.9 million mark in Standard & Poor's Capital IQ's consensus estimates. Revenue jumped to $632.9 million from $411.8 million a year earlier and $444.7 million the previous quarter, outperforming a $573.5 million consensus mean. "These results highlight the strategic advantage of our balanced business model," CEO David Spector said in an earnings call, noting that strong hedging contributed to relatively strong servicing results.What servicing and production numbers looked likeHighlights of the third quarter include a previously reported sale of $12 billion in servicing assets to mortgage real estate investment trust Annaly, with subservicing retained, he said."This transaction allowed us to monetize a mature asset with a weighted average coupon of 3.1% and projected go-forward returns at the lower end of our target range, freeing up capital to deploy into new higher coupon MSRs with greater recapture and return potential," Spector said.Reduced net valuation losses in servicing drove an increase in segment pretax income from $54.2 million the prior quarter and $3.3 million a year earlier to $157.4 million.Hedge costs were "down significantly," Chief Financial Officer Dan Perotti said.While the company's correspondent volume dominated, its direct-to-consumer share also climbed, and its broker business also is on the rise, Spector said, noting that lower rates could boost the DTC business with contributions from servicing portfolio recapture."Over the last 12 months, we have generated more than $100 billion in UPB of correspondent production, achieving an estimated market share of approximately 20% in the first nine months of 2025," said Spector.Spector said Pennymac is on track to grow broker channel share that's just under 6% to a point above 10% by the end of 2026.Originations totaled $36.5 billion during the quarter, down just 4% from peak homebuying season in the second quarter and up 15% from the same period a year earlier.The production business' revenue contribution was up but margins were down due to a shift in the mix of first- and second-lien loans, according to Perotti. Production segment pretax income rose from $57.8 million in the second quarter to $122.9 million and inched down from $129.4 million from the third fiscal period of last year.What analysts wanted to know aboutCompany executives said they have an uptick in borrower inquiries related to the impact of the government shutdown but have taken precautions to address such events based on historical experience, like ensuring they have at least nine months of Ginnie Mae commitment authority.As one of the few large players in the publicly traded nonbank mortgage space, Pennymac also faced multiple questions from analysts about consolidation, but indicated it plans to stay the course as a company largely reliant on organic growth."While others may be focused on consolidation or other corporate activities, that allows us to continue to grow faster, and it allows us to do it profitably," Spector said.PMT is leaning into private-label securitiesIn a separate earnings call related to Pennymac's mortgage real estate investment trust unit, which Spector also leads, he indicated the REIT has been ramping up its activity in the private label securities market. The two units have a complementary business relationship.Perotti, who also fulfills a parallel role at PMT, said the company has been shifting more toward PLS and away from credit risk transfer securities, selling some during the period. The company's PLS activity includes some securitization of conventional loans.PMT reported $48 million in net income to common shareholders during the third quarter.

In a bid to expand its reach to even more home buyers, mortgage lender Lower has inked a new agreement with real estate brokerage HomeSmart.This comes just months after Lower acquired Movoto, a real estate portal similar to, but much smaller than the likes of Zillow.The two power moves might be enough to launch the Ohio-based lender into the top-25 nationally.As it stands, they’re a top-50 lender, but they’re clearly taking steps to get a lot bigger.And if it all works out, they could be a household name in the mortgage world before you know it.Lower’s New Collab with HomeSmart Gives Them Access to 25,000 Real Estate Agents NationwideIt’s been an interesting year for mortgage and real estate mashups.We’ve seen some pretty massive ones, not least of which Rocket’s acquisition of Redfin.Shortly after that took place, they snatched up mortgage loan servicer Mr. Cooper as well.They referred to it as a flywheel, where they essentially keep the customer for life from origination to servicing.It seems Lower took a page from Rocket’s playbook as they’ve been making similar moves lately as well.In May, Lower acquired Movoto, which while less well-known, is apparently the 5th largest real estate portal in the United States with 150 million visits in 2024 alone.If you go to that site, there’s now a little disclaimer on the bottom that reads, “Requests for information regarding mortgage products will be directed to Movoto.com affiliate, Lower, LLC.”But like Rocket, Lower wasn’t satisfied yet, and today, announced another big link-up with the nation’s largest 100% commission real estate brokerage HomeSmart.For the uninitiated, 100% commission brokerages give the full commission to their real estate agents instead of taking a split.However, the agents still have to pay a monthly fee, a flat transaction fee, and a standard risk reduction fee.Anyway, the main point is Lower will now have direct access to “HomeSmart’s expansive network of agents,” which totals about 25,000 at last glance across 250 offices in 48 states.So it’s yet another way for Lower to drum up business if a HomeSmart agent happens to use their new preferred lender.Strategic Marketing Agreement Will Increase Mortgage Lending at LowerThe new partnership isn’t a merger or acquisition, but rather a “strategic national marketing agreement.”What that means is HomeSmart’s 25,000 real estate agents will get direct access to Lower’s mortgage solutions, which they say will create “a seamless experience for agents, buyers, and homeowners nationwide.”Specifically, Lower and HomeSmart will roll out a joint marketing campaign that highlights their combined platforms.Other than co-branded marketing resources, HomeSmart agents will receive specialized training and tools to close home loans faster.Ultimately though, it’s just a way for Lower to tap into another large pool of prospective home buyers before another lender does.Since mortgage rates jumped back in 2022, mortgage refinancing has dried up and lenders have increasingly worked to make inroads with real estate agents.As we all know, or you should know, most home buyers go with the mortgage company recommended to them by their real estate agent.This is why all these mortgage lenders and real estate companies are pairing up. They know it’s often a race to the customer, and simply being first wins that race most of the time.If you’re a prospective home buyer, pay close attention to your real estate agent’s lender recommendation.Do a quick search to see if there’s an affiliation, and if you’ve got the energy, get some outside quotes to compare to the affiliated lender.If you don’t take the time to do so, you won’t know what else is out there. And studies prove that those who obtain more than one mortgage rate quote save money, potentially a lot of it.Read on: Should I use the home builder’s mortgage lender? Before creating this site, I worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. My hands-on experience in the early 2000s inspired me to begin writing about mortgages 19 years ago to help prospective (and existing) home buyers better navigate the home loan process. Follow me on X for hot takes.Latest posts by Colin Robertson (see all)

Kin, a direct-to-consumer home insurance provider, has entered the mortgage broker business, starting in Florida, and offering a full array of mortgage and home equity products.The mortgage broker business is also direct-to-consumer and plans are to eventually expand to other states where Kin has a presence, said company founder and CEO Sean Harper. He noted that Florida was the first state Kin set up its insurance operations in as well. Sean Harper is the founder and CEO of Kin, which has entered the mortgage broker business. "It's one of our aspirations to provide multiple products to our customers," Harper said. It will be able to offer them mortgages at lower pricing because "we already have them," referring to the fact that customer acquisition costs are one of the major expense centers in mortgage. Its mortgage customers will be crossing over from the insurance side.It is the company's initial entry into the home finance business.When it comes to offering insurance, Kin gives clients credit if they have made their homes more resilient to stand up to the increased threat from natural disasters.Kin's footprint is in Florida and other states such as California, Texas and South Carolina, which are areas with higher catastrophe risk. The cost of insurance does enter the minds of home purchasers and Kin looks at detailed information about construction that other insurers might not."We think the two things play really well together," Harper said. "Because if you can get insurance, it's reliable, it's affordable, it's good, then that actually helps you get the mortgage; we can help you get the mortgage too."In particular, Florida has been a state where obtaining property insurance has been particularly difficult because of natural disasters.In Miami, 13.1% of monthly homeownership costs go towards property insurance, while in Tampa, it is 11.6%, a Valuepenguin survey found. The high price has left 20% of Miami homeowners deciding to go without coverage.But the secondary market requires property insurance on the mortgages it purchases.While the difficulties, not just in cost but obtaining an insurance policy, were not a direct reason for Kin to start its mortgage business in Florida, the company's ability to offer lower rates because of the access to the customer is a benefit and shows how the two products work well together, Harper reiterated.Those looking for a mortgage can apply online, but also they are able to reach out to Kin's call center if they need assistance.The company is already taking applications, Harper noted.

Key insight: The second-largest U.S. bank has been providing relief for federal employee customers since the start of the shutdown, CEO Brian Moynihan said.What's at stake: The shutdown has now reached 21 days, leaving many federal workers without regular paychecks, which can impact their ability to make payments.Expert quote: "We handle it just like any other storm or fire or whatever," Moynihan said.Bank of America is supporting customers affected by the government shutdown in the same way it helps customers after a natural disaster, BofA CEO Brian Moynihan said Tuesday.That means offering customer assistance programs, such as fee and payment waivers as well as loan deferrals and forbearance programs, to federal employees who are currently not receiving regular paychecks, Moynihan said during a question-and-answer session at the American Bankers Association's annual convention in Charlotte, North Carolina."We handle it just like any other storm or fire or whatever," Moynihan said. "We basically say, 'Look, what's important to you?'" No fees, waivers on payments, deferrals, forbearance, all those types of things, so that that customer can make it through this trough and get back on their feet."The federal government has now been shut down for 21 days. The disruption started on Oct. 1, marking the first such closure since early 2019, which was the longest in history at 35 days.Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked over a spending bill that doesn't extend health care subsidies scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Most federal agencies have gone dark, and their workers have been furloughed.During a shutdown, furloughed government workers do not get paid. After past shutdowns, Congress has generally provided back pay, but that money is not guaranteed, and it doesn't help furloughed workers to make ends meet in the short term.Banks and credit unions have responded to the shutdown by rolling out relief programs to help their customers. The American Bankers Association is keeping a running list of support options by bank.For instance, Hancock Whitney Corp. in Gulfport, Mississippi, has a loan program for furloughed government employees that provides loans up to $6,000 to help cover expenses. At TD Bank, affected customers can request refunds on fees including overdraft fees and monthly maintenance fees.California Credit Union in Glendale, California, is offering penalty-free withdrawal from certificate accounts, among other programs.At BofA, there's a playbook for such a scenario, Moynihan said Tuesday. Part of it is making sure certain federal government payments, such as Social Security checks, are processed, he said.Read more about Bank of America here: https://www.americanbanker.com/organization/bank-of-america"I like to think this is unusual, but we've gone through this," Moynihan said.During the session, which lasted about 30 minutes, Moynihan also talked about the changing regulatory dynamics in Washington, D.C. The Trump administration has taken a deregulatory stance, which many bank leaders view favorably."The reaction to the financial crisis was appropriate, but it needed to stop at some point," Moynihan told ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols. "It just kept going and going … The wheels kept turning and you're saying, 'Wait, I thought we solved that problem.'"Moynihan, who's led BofA since 2010, said it's hard to run a company when the regulatory pendulum swings back and forth and back between regulation and deregulation."So we just want it fair, down the middle, appropriate and then get it baked in because this is hard to adjust to," he said.

A potential government-sponsored enterprise stock offering President Trump and his team have been "opportunistically evaluating" could be done on a near-term basis, US Federal Housing Director Bill Pulte confirmed late Monday.That offering for an entity that Pulte and Trump have called the Great American Mortgage Corporation "could be as early as the end of 2025," Pulte said in an X post. Pulte, who heads the entity traditionally known as the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has a practice of using social media to make early announcements about policy inclinations.Industry groups are watching Pulte's plans for the GSEs closely and advocating for their interests given Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy a large number of loans in the market, with the two of them advocating for them to return to an old role buying mortgage-backed securities.Industry groups call for a return to MBS buying, with limitsIn a letter addressed to Pulte and the Treasury, which plays a role in the conservatorship the GSEs have been in since the Great Financial Crisis, the Community Home Lenders of America and the Independent Community Banker of America advocated for this on Tuesday.A return to the pre-crisis practice of buying MBS is one method a recent Stanford Institute Institute for Policy Research report and other sources have identified as a strategy which could lower primary mortgage rates by reducing spreads between those bonds and treasuries.The spread recently has been around 222 basis points, above a long-run average closer to 140-170, according to the two trade groups.Scott Olson, executive director of the CHLA, said in a press release that this is why the two groups have "joined together to ask Treasury and FHFA for action to bring down mortgage spreads back to historical levels.""Having the GSEs buy MBS would be both effective and prudent," he said, noting that it would "help today's young families afford homeownership." Stanford researchers noted that if Fannie and Freddie resume buying MBS, they may want to avoid the kind of risk on their balance sheet that forced them into conservatorship.The MBS buying the two groups advocate for would have guardrails unlike the unlimited authority the enterprises previously had prior to 2008.The enterprises would "buy MBS only when the spread was elevated about 170 basis points," and the amount "would be capped at $300 billion for each GSE," the CHLA and ICBA wrote. "Such a policy could reduce the cost of a mortgage by up to 30-35 basis points, a meaningful interest reduction that would help more young families and boost overall US growth accordingly," they said.Current portfolio caps are $225 billion for each GSE, and combined they have used just $204 billion of this capacity. Collectively they could increase their holdings by $246 billion under existing rules, the two groups noted.Pulte and his counterpart at the Treasury, Scott Bessent, have encouraged input from stakeholders on plans for Fannie and Freddie.How Pulte plans to donate his salaryThe FHFA director also announced on Tuesday that he will be redirecting his salary to wounded veterans as a donation, starting with his last pay period."Working in the most consequential administration in history to restore the American dream of homeownership is all the reward one needs," Pulte said in a press release.Pulte has owned a wide range of investments and his net worth is in the $200 million-plus range, according to a standard disclosure form associated with his confirmation earlier this year posted by Politico.The FHFA had not immediately responded to an inquiry requesting more details about the donation amount and what groups or individuals might be the recipients.PulteGroup, a building business the FHFA director has family ties to, has donated "mortgage free" homes to wounded veterans living with disabilities through a program called Built to Honor. Pulte said during a hearing prior to his confirmation that he sold all his stock in that company.Recently President Trump called upon Fannie and Freddie, who buy loans that finance new homes, to spur builders to create more homes at a lower cost. Pulte has announced that he has been working on disclosures that could be the start of a move to that end.

Seniors' home equity holdings set a record in the second quarter as property values continue to increase, albeit at a slower pace than earlier this year.However, given the ongoing government shutdown, endorsements of Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, the Federal Housing Administration product which makes up the bulk of reverse mortgage lending, are on hold.The shutdown does not affect proprietary reverse mortgage offerings, nor forward home equity products offered to seniors. Those with balance sheet capacity may also originate and look to get a HECM endorsement once the shutdown ends.The NRMLA/Riskspan Reverse Mortgage Market Index reached an all-time high of 502.42. In the first quarter, it was 486.69, while one year ago, it was 489.70.American homeowners 62 or older now have a combined $14.39 trillion in equity, topping the record set one year ago at a revised $14.18 trillion. In the fourth quarter of 2024 and first quarter this year, it was around $13.9 trillion.The gain in seniors' housing-related wealth was due to an estimated 2.9% (or $474.8 billion) increase in their home values, offset by a 0.9% (or $23 billion) rise in the amount of mortgage debt they carry."Inflation is still hitting the pocketbooks for many older Americans, especially when it comes to groceries and healthcare premiums," said National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association President Steve Irwin in a press release. "Now may be an appropriate time to think about how home equity can be used strategically to help lessen the financial impact that these everyday costs are having."The impact of home price growth on seniors' equityMeanwhile, home price growth in September was 3%, the slowest annual increase since 2012, according to the Redfin Home Price Index. This was down from 3.3% in August; earlier this year, annual growth was at 5% to 6%.The month-to-month gain was 0.2%, unchanged from August, and ahead of a flat month for growth in July."Prices are relatively flat because both buyers and sellers are cautious right now," said Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari in a press release. "Buyers have more options than they did a year ago, but affordability remains stretched and many people are holding off on making major purchases because they're worried about the economy and the possibility of losing their job."Does the growing share of people not relocating impact equityAnother reason why tappable home equity levels are important, not just to property owners, but also lenders, is that only 11% of the U.S. population relocated last year, an all-time low, according to a Point2Homes study. The data includes both renters and owners, but is not broken down by age.A decade ago, 14.3% of Americans changed their address, while in the 1960s, the share was 20%.The increase in homeownership rates from 45% at the start of the 20th Century to 65% after the Great Financial Crisis, had an impact on mobility rates, Point2Homes said.It also noted the current economic instability, with a volatile jobs market, higher home prices and rising interest rates. Then, the increase in remote work, likely impacted decisions to relocate closer to an office.