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Inside Mortgage Trends

January 30, 2015

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Regional Banks Report Falling Income From Mortgage Banking During 4Q14

Regional banks are reporting significant declines in mortgage-banking income during the fourth quarter, although nearly all institutions continue to earn a profit from the business. A diverse group of 20 regional banks posted a combined $684.2 million in mortgage-banking income for the fourth quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports. That was down 13.5 percent from the group’s aggregate $790.5 million in ... Read More

Forms, eSignatures Drive Growth at DocMagic

Mortgage vendors usually see their fortunes rise and fall based on loan origination volume, but don’t tell that to DocMagic, which is consolidating its hold in the document preparation business. In a year in which residential production fell 34 percent, the Torrance, CA-based DocMagic grew its client base to 7,500, a gain of 1,000 in just over 12 months. The privately held doc prep/software company doesn’t generally disclose revenue figures, but according to ... Read More

Titan Capital Moves Into Scratch-and-Dent Market

Titan Capital Solutions has branched out from its jumbo correspondent investor niche into the scratch-and-dent market to take advantage of new business opportunities arising from repurchase demands and loans that aren’t qualified mortgages. The Denver-based correspondent investor has begun purchasing loans rejected by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and private investors due to information, document and compliance errors. Historically, “scratch-and-dent” ... Read More

Refi Wave to Boost 1Q Results, But Can it Last?

The stars appear to be aligning for a wave of refinance activity in the first quarter, which is expected to boost the revenues and results for U.S. mortgage companies during the period, according to an analyst at Keefe Bruyette & Woods. Can it last? “With the 10-year [Treasury] now below 2 percent, the average effective conforming rate is below 4 percent,” analyst Bose George said during a recent KBW podcast. “That rate should continue to trend down as long as ... Read More

ARMs Remain Out of Favor Among Borrowers

With interest rates at exceptionally low levels in recent years, borrowers have been reluctant to choose adjustable-rate mortgages. For those opting for ARMs, hybrids remain the most popular, according to results from the annual ARM survey recently released by Freddie Mac. ARMs accounted for 4.6 percent of the $921.72 billion in mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae in 2014 ... [Includes one data chart] Read More

Most Buyers Get a Mortgage Using Online Tech

Is the mortgage industry nearing a tipping point in terms of homebuyers using online capabilities predominantly to secure financing for the biggest purchase of their lives? That increasingly appears to be the case, a recent survey suggests. Nine out of 10 respondents to a survey commissioned by Discover Home Loans said they used online technology of one form or another in the home financing process. One of the benefits of technology is that it ... Read More

Most Mortgage Lenders Want to Grow in 2015

The majority of mortgage lenders are forging ahead in 2015 to grow their origination and servicing businesses notwithstanding concerns about compliance and weak consumer demand, according to Fannie Mae’s fourth quarter 2014 survey of senior mortgage executives. The survey found that 88 percent of executives aim to grow their loan origination business by increasing the number of retail branches and loan officers and expanding their ... Read More

Watch for Legal Risk in E-signatures

Electronic signatures and records have become such crucial components of mortgage lending that lenders need to understand the process and the risks to avoid potential liability, according to panelists at a recent webinar. Several significant regulatory actions in 2014 opened the door to the increased adoption and use of electronic records and signatures. However, lenders face growing pressure from regulators to maintain appropriate measures when ... Read More

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