https://mavengity.com/categories/mortgage/ Mortgage rate, refinancing, and first-time buyer articles from Mavengity: plain-English explanations of how lenders actually decide. en-us Wed, 28 Oct 2026 23:35:00 +0000 https://mavengity.com/assets/img/mavengity-yt-logo.png https://mavengity.com/categories/mortgage/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/ten-states-occ-escrow-stay-opposition/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/ten-states-occ-escrow-stay-opposition/ Thu, 29 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage Ten states told an Oregon federal court that three Supreme Court petitions will not answer whether the OCC's escrow rules are lawful, and that a pause would let banks stop paying interest on escrow balances now. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/skipton-mortgage-offer-validity-nine-months/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/skipton-mortgage-offer-validity-nine-months/ Wed, 28 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage Skipton Building Society extended standard mortgage offer validity from six to nine months on October 27, a response to chains and legal delays rather than affordability. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/treasury-road-investor-ban-350-homes-exceptions/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/treasury-road-investor-ban-350-homes-exceptions/ Fri, 23 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage Treasury's proposed rule bars large owners from buying more after January 7. Four exceptions, including an 18-month window for new construction, will decide how much of the market the ban reaches. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/pending-home-sales-record-low-rate-lock-freeze/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/pending-home-sales-record-low-rate-lock-freeze/ Wed, 21 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage The September pending-sales index fell 7.3% to its lowest reading since 2001 as mortgage rates climbed back to 7.4%. The drop is a freeze on both sides of the market, not a buyer strike. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/mortgage-rates-three-year-high-adjustable-shift/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/mortgage-rates-three-year-high-adjustable-shift/ Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose 25 basis points to 7.28 percent, its highest level since November 2023, and the weekly applications survey shows demand moving toward adjustable-rate loans rather than out of the market. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/nfm-lending-ransomware-claim-notification-clock/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/nfm-lending-ransomware-claim-notification-clock/ Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage A ransomware gang says it took 2.5 terabytes from a Maryland mortgage lender. Five federal suits were filed while the notification deadlines that bind the lender were still open. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/30-year-mortgage-6-95-percent-after-fed-hike/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/30-year-mortgage-6-95-percent-after-fed-hike/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose 19 basis points this week to 6.95 percent, the market's fast repricing after the Federal Reserve's first hike in three years, and buyers are now credit-checked against the new level. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/danish-5-percent-mortgage-loan-opens/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/danish-5-percent-mortgage-loan-opens/ Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage Jyske Realkredit opened a 5 percent fixed-rate mortgage for the first time since December 2023 as rising oil prices, inflation expectations, and U.S. rates pushed the long-running 4 percent loan toward closure. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/euribor-jump-portuguese-mortgages/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/euribor-jump-portuguese-mortgages/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage Euribor posted its biggest one-day jump in six months this week, and in Portugal, where most home loans track it directly, monthly payments are set to rise between 25 and 80 euros at the next review. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/fha-vantagescore-fico-10t-2027/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/fha-vantagescore-fico-10t-2027/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage FHA-insured loans will accept VantageScore 4.0 and FICO 10T starting January 1, 2027, a quiet shift that could reshape who qualifies for a government-backed mortgage and how lenders price risk. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/mba-new-jersey-disparate-impact-lawsuit/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/mba-new-jersey-disparate-impact-lawsuit/ Tue, 15 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage The Mortgage Bankers Association is asking a federal court to strike down New Jersey's disparate impact regulations, arguing the rule forces lenders into race-conscious decision-making that federal fair lending law forbids. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/credit-score-monopoly-changed-hands/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/credit-score-monopoly-changed-hands/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage The FHFA ordered Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to accept VantageScore from every lender, ending FICO's regulatory lock. The pilot already showed the real constraint was never permission. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/california-second-fair-lending-regulator/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/california-second-fair-lending-regulator/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage With federal fair-lending enforcement in retreat, a bill on Governor Newsom's desk would give California examiners their own four-year inspection cycle over mortgage lenders. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/one-in-ten-mortgages-outside-qualified-mortgage-box/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/one-in-ten-mortgages-outside-qualified-mortgage-box/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage Non-QM lending reached $239 billion in 2025, a tenth of all US originations, and the fastest growth comes from self-employed borrowers and investors the rules never learned to see. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/quiet-streets-aging-in-place-block-senior-housing/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/quiet-streets-aging-in-place-block-senior-housing/ Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage Retirement communities across the country are stalling in fights with organized opposition from seniors themselves. The single-family stock that lets an older homeowner age in place is the same stock zoning rules keep anything else from joining. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/home-loan-banks-get-paid-first-when-a-bank-fails/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/home-loan-banks-get-paid-first-when-a-bank-fails/ Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage The Federal Home Loan Bank System has never taken a credit loss in 94 years. That record reflects where it stands in the repayment line, not how well it underwrites, and the losses did not disappear. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/why-condo-dues-are-rising-cost-was-always-there/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/why-condo-dues-are-rising-cost-was-always-there/ Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage The median condo fee is up 29% since 2019, and special assessments are hitting some owners for over $100,000. The rising dues are not a new cost. They're a decades-old cost, deferred through underfunded reserves, finally coming due after the Surfside collapse forced a reckoning. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/hoa-foreclosure-debt-decoupled-fee-machinery-misaligned-incentive/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/hoa-foreclosure-debt-decoupled-fee-machinery-misaligned-incentive/ Mon, 03 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage HOA foreclosure filings are up nearly 40% in two years. The disproportion between a trivial trigger debt and a home-destroying consequence isn't an accident, it's built into a fee-collection machinery that rewards the lawyers who escalate it. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/gse-loss-mitigation-tool-mix-diagnosis-temporary-versus-permanent/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/gse-loss-mitigation-tool-mix-diagnosis-temporary-versus-permanent/ Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage FHFA data shows GSE loan modifications rising while forbearance and payment deferrals fall, just ahead of a policy shift to shorter forbearance windows. The tool mix is itself a diagnosis of whether borrower distress is temporary or permanent. https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/ice-ai-value-migration-model-versus-moat-regulated-mortgage/ https://mavengity.com/articles/mortgage/ice-ai-value-migration-model-versus-moat-regulated-mortgage/ Sat, 01 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 mortgage ICE Mortgage Technology returned to profitability and argued its data and workflow, not its models, are what AI cannot replicate. The bet is stronger in regulated mortgage than in most industries, but it is still a bet.