For much of the past century, the concept of the “starter home” served as the foundational entry point into homeownership, offering a predictable path in which households could save, purchase modestly, and gradually trade up over time. That model relied on a housing market where entry-level inventory was abundant and prices moved in relative alignment with income growth. Today, those conditions no longer hold. Home prices have persistently outpaced wages, supply remains structurally...

For a long time, mortgage technology has been built the way organizations chart themselves on paper, neatly divided into stages, each with its own system, its own owner, and its own version of the truth. One platform captures the lead, another manages the relationship, another takes over the loan file, and yet another steps in at closing. On paper, it looks efficient. In practice, each system becomes very good at doing its own job while knowing very little about what came before or what comes...

The residential lending industry stands at a critical crossroads. Decades of traditional practices have left the mortgage process...