Some 60.7 percent of the mortgages in the deal have interest-only features.

Hiring top performers can cost a company in terms of salary and bonus pay, but many believe such hires are worth it because such LOs bring in a ton of volume.

BB&T posted $80 million of mortgage banking net income in the third quarter, up sharply from a negative $21 million suffered in the previous quarter.

If housing markets are stronger than expected and rates stay low enough, originations could hit $1.421 trillion next year.

What? Are piggy-back mortgages making a comeback?

Mortgage industry economists agreed that 2014 loan origination volume would be down significantly from 2013, tapering off to another drop in new business in 2015. With a surprising increase in production during the third quarter and an early October bond market rally, the outlook for next year is less clear. Mike Fratantoni, chief economist at the Mortgage Bankers Association, last week predicted that mortgage originations would grow by 7.4 percent next year ... [Includes one data chart]

Regional banks generally reported improvements to mortgage-banking income in the third quarter of 2014, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Third-quarter mortgage-banking income for a group of 17 regional banks rose 10.7 percent from the previous quarter and was up 12.5 percent from the third quarter of 2013, when some of the lenders reported record origination volumes. Results were mixed among the group. Flagstar Bank reported $58.40 million in mortgage-banking income ...

Homes are worth more than borrowers currently estimate, according to new indices from Quicken Loans. Last week, Quicken published a home value index based on appraisal data and a home-price perception index based on loan applicants’ estimated values. “Quicken Loans records refinancing homeowners’ estimate of the value of their home at time of application as well as the agreed upon purchase price of homebuyers and home sellers,” the lender said. “The company then ...

Chicago-based Guaranteed Rate claims to have significantly advanced towards the world’s first fully digital mortgage with Transfersafe, its latest cloud-based technology service for homebuyers. “Transfersafe is the next major step in our evolution of the mortgage process,” said Victor Ciardelli, company president and CEO. “We’ve already brought our online loan application to the market, which has funded more than $3 billion in loans to date.” Transfersafe facilitates instant ...

EverBank has relied on its correspondent jumbo business to help prop up loan origination volume in 2014 at a time when agency production figures have fallen way off 2013 levels. In fact, during the third quarter of 2014, 52 percent of the company’s $2.30 billion of new mortgage lending were jumbos. Jumbo production – most of it coming through EverBank’s correspondent program – was up 55 percent from the third quarter of 2013, when it accounted for 28 percent of the bank’s total mortgage originations ...