There were always going to be casualties of the so-called “Credit Wars” fought between FICO & the credit reporting bureaus. It’s just too bad that the borrowers & mortgage lenders appear to be cannon fodder in this insane price war over pretty blah technology.

Yes, friends, I have some unsurprising news to share w/ you: Credit reporting costs for mortgage lenders are going to rise yet again in ‘26. By some estimates, they are already up roughly 600% over the last 5 years. So what’s another 40-50%?

Several of the CRAs are now sharing credit report pricing updates w/ lender clients for ‘26 & it ain’t pretty. Prices could increase between 35% and 75% depending on the lender & their credit reporting strategy, sources told The Mortgage Scoop. Paid subscribers get an early look at how the credit wars are shaking out 👇.

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A federal grand jury in Greenbelt, Maryland has begun subpoenaing records related to Bill Pulte & Ed Martin’s mortgage fraud investigations into political enemies of President Trump, MSNBC MSNow reports. The Justice Department is investigating whether people impersonated federal agents in mortgage fraud probes of prominent Democrats, including Sen. Adam Schiff.

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the embattled head of Federal Housing. Bloomberg published a story on Thursday that described Pulte as a “potential liability” for the Trump administration & said that he’d been stuck w/ babysitters b/c he lacked housing policy knowledge. Some top executives in the housing industry expressed concern that Pulte could be a turnoff for potential investors in Fannie & Freddie, sources told the outlet.

“To keep the stock offering on track, the Trump administration brought in seasoned officials from other parts of the government, including Mark Calabria, an Office of Management and Budget official who led FHFA in Trump’s first term. The group was called in because some officials worried Pulte lacks a detailed understanding of housing policy, Bloomberg has previously reported. Pulte played a limited role in recent meetings FHFA and Treasury held with housing advocates, think tanks and mortgage-industry representatives about the stock sales, according to participants who declined to be identified.”

More importantly, as of Friday morning Pulte has also only tweeted once in the past week. You alright, Bill?

The good news: Your mortgage payment is only $800. Woo! The bad news? Your home insurance payment is $1,000 & your home is losing value every single day.

Since 2018, a “financial shock in the home insurance market” has meant that homes in the ZIP codes most exposed to hurricanes & wildfires sell for an average of $43,900 less than they would otherwise, according to new research. No surprise, but those ZIPs include coastal areas of Louisiana & low-lying parts of Florida, the NYT reports.

Reinsurance companies in recent years have doubled the rates they charge home insurance providers. This has loads of obvious impacts. For starters, high insurance prices & interest rates are stopping FTHB from getting into homes. One LO told the NYT that more than a third of would-be buyers in her area of Louisiana backed out 😱 of the market this year.

When insurance payments go up $300 a month, it pushes borrowers into delinquency/foreclosure. It’s a key reason why we’re seeing FHA delinquencies & foreclosures pick up speed, particularly in the Gulf.

Diane Yu’s mortgage tech startup Tidalwave just closed a $22M Series A funding round.

First, so far as I can tell they’re the first proper mortgage tech company that’s been able to raise big money in a Series A over the last 2 years. They’re looking to work 200K loans annually, roughly 4% of the U.S. mortgage market. Right now, they’re probably as close to that as I am to 1 million subscribers.

But the most interesting thing to me is that (cont.)