Editor’s Note: The Mortgage Mix is RISMedia’s biweekly highlight reel of need-to-know mortgage-industry happenings. Watch for it every other Friday afternoon.
– In the last week of June, mortgage rates continued to hover around 6.5%, with rates hitting the lowest 30-year fixed rate (6.53%) since May 14 at the end of the week. These rates remain relatively elevated, leading to negligible change in mortgage application activity the following week.
– Ralo, describing itself as the first AI-native mortgage broker, launched on June 18 with $2.9 million in seed funding. The value proposition is a “consumer-first approach,” achieving automation to cut out fees from providers such as loan officers and secure for borrowers rates that, Ralo claims, are “more than half a point better than the national average.”
– A new study from Bankrate found that, as of 2025, 87% of homeowners are overpaying on their mortgages, or a $65 billion excess burden on households. “Our research suggests that for most borrowers, competitive rates exist; borrowers just never see them. When lenders compete for a borrower’s business, the savings are meaningful and immediate: $279 a month on average, an amount that puts homeownership out of reach for many borrowers,” said Bankrate CEO and report author Matt Fellowes in an attached statement.
– Real estate investment trust Two Harbors Investment Corp. has once more postponed a shareholder vote on its planned acquisition by CrossCountry Mortgage. This fourth postponement pushes the vote until Thursday, July 2. “The TWO Board of Directors continues to believe that the pending CCM transaction is in the best interests of TWO stockholders and unanimously recommends stockholders support the CCM transaction and vote ‘FOR’ each proposal at the Special Meeting,” the company said in a statement.
– MidWest America Federal Credit Union is streamlining the lending process with the adoption of AI platform Algebrik One to unify different steps of the lending process—borrower point-of-sale, loan origination, automated decisioning and portfolio analytics—into a single workflow rather than separate systems.
– Lender Newrez has agreed to settle a 2024 lawsuit from a borrower who sued over “pay to pay fees,” the accusation being that Newrez subsidiary Specialized Loan Servicing charged borrowers a $7.50 fee to process mortgage payments over telephone. The case was undergoing class certification when the settlement was reached.
– United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is offering new “Doctor Loans,” targeted at a broad array of medical professionals who face “common financial hurdles” when trying to get a loan, including large student loan debt and limited savings. Applicants must hold one of a handful of advanced professional designations (MD, CRNA, DO, etc.) and still meet several other requirements. The “Doctor Loans” have no mortgage insurance, with loan amounts up to $2 million.
– The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) has, in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs, released new data standards designed to help lenders process VA loan eligibility requests.
