A number of factors, including looser underwriting standards, low interest rates and low oil prices, could help bolster the housing sector in 2015, according to industry analysts. However, total mortgage originations are still expected to decline this year compared with 2014, and consumer confidence toward the housing market is lagging optimism about the broader economy. Analysts at Fitch Ratings recently pointed to a “confluence of events” that could ...
The executive suites of mortgage banking firms are well represented by members of the “baby boom” generation who aren’t getting any younger. And therein lies a potential problem. “Millennials certainly appear to be under-represented in the mortgage industry, while members of the baby boom and Gen X generations appear to be over-represented,” said Glen Corso, executive director of Community Mortgage Lenders of America. The way Corso sees it ...
This year could be a watershed moment for mortgage lending as industry representatives feel their way around a brand new approach to closing disclosures, thanks to the pending implementation of the integrated disclosure rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As a result, it’s likely that more lenders will assume greater control over the closing process as well as the end product. The new closing form is “unlike anything the industry has seen before ...
Commercial banks and thrifts originated $89.88 billion of home mortgages through their retail production channels during the third quarter of 2014, a healthy 7.7 increase from the prior quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. That brought year-to-date retail originations by banks to $236.57 billion, off 55.5 percent from the first nine months of 2013. Bank and thrift retail originations appeared to trail the overall market ... [Includes one data chart]
The layoffs “were in various departments and locations, but the majority of them were in corporate (administrative) departments at our headquarters,” spokesman for the company told IMFnews.
Buybacks and indemnifications by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sellers fell sharply during the third quarter of 2014, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, an affiliated newsletter. The two government-sponsored enterprises reported a total of just $543.1 million of repurchases and indemnifications of securitized mortgages in disclosures filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That was down a whopping 68.7 percent from the second quarter and was, by far, the lowest quarterly buyback total since the GSEs started disclosing such activity in early 2012. In fact, Fannie and Freddie withdrew...
Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, pointed to a flaw in the beta version of Rate Checker: it doesn't show the annual percentage rate.
Meanwhile, JPM marked down the asset value of its residential servicing portfolio to $7.436 billion at Dec. 31, 2014, a 10 percent reduction from 3Q14.
RSS