“Vacant and zombie homes can hurt the value of surrounding properties and start a negative spiral in a local housing market. While we’ve seen the rate of zombie homes tick up a tiny bit this quarter, the overall rate of vacant homes and homes in the foreclosure process has remained remarkably steady.”
–Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM
This Chart of the Week focuses on trends in mortgage industry employment and appropriately coincides with Labor Day and MBA’s upcoming Human Resources Symposium. In this chart, we focus on three different measurements of mortgage employment from three different sources.
MBA responded to the Federal Housing Administration’s Request for Information concerning Buy Now Pay Later debt.
ATTOM, Irvine, Calif., released its third-quarter Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, finding that 1.4 million residential properties are vacant. That’s about 1.3% of all homes in the U.S.
Trepp, New York, released its CMBS Delinquency report for August, highlighting that the rate increased for the sixth consecutive month.
MISMO, the real estate finance industry’s standards organization, is seeking public comment on the new Version 3.6.2 MISMO Reference Model, which includes new data points, containers, and enumerations to support MISMO work products and broader mortgage industry needs. The public comment period will remain open through Sept. 27, 2025.
Redfin, Seattle, reported that the U.S. housing market has seen both buyers and sellers retreating recently.
“Servicing net financial income improved slightly, as impairments on mortgage servicing rights were minimal. Combining production and servicing operations, 80% of mortgage companies in the sample posted overall profits – the highest percentage since the third quarter of 2021.”
–Marina Walsh, CMB, MBA’s Vice President of Industry Analysis
Independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a pre-tax net production profit of $950 on each loan they originated in the second quarter of 2025, compared to a net loss of $28 per loan in the first quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s newly released Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report.
Refinances ticked up and non-QM lending hit a record high as purchase activity fell nearly 5% in July, according to Optimal Blue, Plano, Texas.
