Home Equity Lending

FirstClose, a fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for home equity and mortgage lenders nationwide, announced a strategic alliance with Cotality, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider that supports 80% of real estate transactions in North America. Together, the companies are delivering an integrated home equity lending platform designed to help banks, credit unions and independent mortgage banks (IMBs) deliver a streamlined borrower experience and close home equity loans in as little as seven days.

ATTOM released its second quarter 2026 U.S. Home Equity & Underwater Report, which shows that 41.1 percent of mortgaged residential properties in the country were equity-rich, meaning the combined estimated amount of loan balances secured by those properties was no more than half of their estimated market value.

Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE) released its August 2026 Mortgage Monitor Report, which found that mortgage holder equity reached $18 trillion for the first time on record while annual home price growth reached a 14-month high in July.

For decades, the American Dream was defined by geographic and social mobility. A home was a stepping stone, an asset to be bought, lived in for a few years, and then traded up as a family grew or a career advanced. But over the last four years, a violent macroeconomic shift has quietly dismantled this paradigm. The American home is no longer a temporary stepping stone; it has been transformed into a financial fortress, and the ramifications are reshaping the landscape of our national economy.

Gershman Mortgage announced its 5-Day HELOC, a standalone home equity line of credit built for homeowners who want to put their equity to work fast, without giving up the mortgage rate they already have.

Deephaven Mortgage LLC, a non-QM lender, has enhanced its Equity Advantage HELOC to expand its wholesale and correspondent partners’ sales advantage in the equity products market.

FirstClose, a provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, announced that Kitsap Credit Union has selected FirstClose to support its home equity lending operations with a bundled, end-to-end digital tool.

Lake Michigan Credit Union (LMCU) has implemented FirstClose’s Equity Order Management to automate settlement workflows for its home equity lending operations.

NotaryCam®, a Stewart-owned company and a provider of remote online notarization (RON) and identity verification/authentication technology for real estate and legal transactions, announced that its eClose360® platform is fully compatible with the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization’s (MISMO) newly published SMART Doc® V3 standard for electronic home equity lines of credit (eHELOCs).

American Senior Lending, a national home equity solutions leader, has launched EquitySelect –  an innovative, nonrecourse, first lien home equity loan designed to advance the financial flexibility of Americans entering or in retirement.