The purchase-mortgage market is beginning to kick into gear, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of agency mortgage-backed securities issuance through the first five months of 2017. Collectively, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized $268.36 billion of single-family purchase mortgages from January through May. That was up 10.5 percent from the same period in 2016. Purchase-mortgage volume has ... [Includes one data chart]
An increasing number of mortgage lenders have eased up on their underwriting standards recently and are likely to continue doing so in the months ahead in order to counter cooling consumer demand for residential financing, according to a new survey from government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae. Decreased housing affordability and loan profitability, coupled with increased competition, are driving the expansion of the credit box. Lenders also cited reduced ...
A number of factors beyond offering mortgages with low interest rates can help boost customer satisfaction, said Strategic Mortgage Finance Group. Officials at the advisory firm suggest that communication with borrowers can help reduce complaints. Garth Graham, a senior partner at Stratmor and head of its marketing strategy and execution practice, said lenders can gain market share by using seven practices to improve borrower satisfaction. His advice was based on ...
loanDepot would like to see more digital closings, according to Dominick Marchetti, the firm’s chief technology officer. The loanDepot official said there has been very little use of e-closings since he first witnessed one over a decade ago in 2002. “It’s fairly disappointing, actually,” Marchetti said, adding that fewer than 100 digital mortgages are closed per month. Only 1,600 of the nation’s 3,800 counties are equipped to handle digital closings, he added. The slow adoption rate ...
Mortgage escrow accounts are getting more popular among lenders and borrowers on both state and national levels, according to CoreLogic, a provider of financial analytics and business intelligence. The analysis confirms a trend observed over the past several years to move borrowers to mortgage escrow accounts, said CoreLogic Principal Dominique Lalisse. In a blog, Lalisse noted that nearly 80 percent of borrowers have established escrow accounts from which ...
Mortgage-banking activity slowed significantly at commercial banks and savings institutions in the first quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Banks reported a total of $71.99 billion in retail 1-4 family originations in their mortgage-banking operations during the first three months of 2017, down 40.1 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. Loan sales volume also fell off sharply, dropping 29.1 percent to $163.75 billion during ... [Includes one data chart]
As much as the False Claims Act has been a formidable government enforcement tool against FHA loan originators, the statute is also being used increasingly against mortgage servicers, according to compliance experts. Within the last 18 months, the DOJ has expanded FCA use to reverse mortgages and loan servicing, according to Phil Schulman and Krista Cooley, both partners in Mayer Brown’s Washington office and members of the firm’s Consumer Financial Services group, during a recent podcast. While the Department of Justice has consistently used the FCA and its treble-damage provision to enforce FHA loan origination rules, the economic downturn and foreclosure crisis has put...
Over the past 18 months or so, the DOJ has expanded FCA use to reverse mortgages and loan servicing, according to attorneys Phil Schulman and Kristie Kully…
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