"No lender has challenged this redlining theory before, since the 1990s, when DOJ and the banking regulators started using this redlining theory against banks. This is a first. I think the CFPB was trying to get a settlement against a non-bank; Townstone was a tiny mortgage company in 2017 and the Bureau thought it would probably just roll over." --Richard Horn, Co-Managing Partner of Garris Horn LLP, Tucson, Ariz.

Mortgage applications rose last week as interest rates inched lower for the fifth straight week, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 3.