loanDepot is back in the wholesale game

👋 Ah, Wednesday! Glad to see you again. Today’s newsletter is a 2.5-minute read.

1. loanDepot is back in the wholesale game

After shutting down its wholesale division in 2022 during a rough stretch for the mortgage market, loanDepot is relaunching the channel — this time built on its own proprietary tech platform.

The new unit lets independent mortgage brokers originate loans funded by loanDepot. Dan Peña (20+ years with loanDepot's JV business) leads the channel, with industry vet Matt Mancasola (25+ years in wholesale) as VP.

CEO Anthony Hsieh says this rounds out the company's multi-channel strategy alongside its retail and direct-to-consumer operations.

2. TransUnion slashes VantageScore 4.0 pricing

TransUnion is dropping the price of VantageScore 4.0 to $0.99 per score for mortgage lenders — and still offering it free when bundled with a FICO purchase. That's compared to FICO's $10-per-score fee for 2026.

The move comes as credit report costs have already jumped as much as 50% this year. Experian also cut VantageScore pricing last week, though it simultaneously raised FICO prices by ~3%.

Adoption of VantageScore has been slow since FHFA greenlit it as a FICO alternative last July, largely because there's still no GSE pricing grid tied to the model.

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3. More Nuggets

🏠 Weekly mortgage demand increases despite big interest rate volatility. (CNBC)

📈 Existing-home sales report shows 1.7% increase in February. (NAR)

🚨 Alexander brothers, famous real estate brokers, guilty of sex trafficking. (Guardian)

🏦 Radian winds down mortgage conduit after exploring a sale. (HousingWire)

🤝 Better teams with Credit Karma to launch AI-powered refi platform. (Press)

4. West Capital sues loanDepot over illegal pay scheme

WCL claims loanDepot's consumer direct division paid production managers more when borrowers got higher-rate loans — and penalized them for approving pricing exceptions. That structure, WCL argues, violates TILA's Loan Officer Compensation Rule and gave loanDepot an unfair competitive edge.

This is a counterpunch — loanDepot sued WCL back in October for allegedly poaching hundreds of employees and misappropriating trade secrets.

It's also not loanDepot's only legal headache. A separate class-action filed in Maryland last July accuses the company of steering customers into higher-rate loans to inflate performance before its 2021 IPO.

5. Housing markets where deals are most likely to close

The housing market is resilient. The national contract cancellation rate fell to 7.2% in February, down from 7.6% in January and 7.4% a year ago, while pending home sales rose 4.2% year over year, the largest increase in 15 months. Despite economic uncertainty, most buyers who go under contract are still following through with their purchases.

Here are the top 10 metros where home deals were least likely to fall through in February, ordered by cancellation rate:

☀️ You’re all caught up. See you on Friday!

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