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Inside Mortgage Finance

March 12, 2015

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Jumbo Market Showed Modest Gains in 4Q14, Claimed Growing Share of New Originations

Jumbo mortgage production last year grew its share of total originations to its highest level since well before the financial collapse that launched the era of the “agency jumbo” loan. Mortgage lenders cranked out a total of $291.1 billion of home mortgages with loan balances exceeding the old conforming loan limit of $417,000. Like everything else in mortgages, jumbo production was down from 2013, by 22.4 percent. But total mortgage originations fell...[Includes three data charts] Read More

Real Estate Agents a Factor in Homebuyer’s Choice of Lender in About One-Third of Sales

Real estate agents have significant influence when it comes to which lender a homebuyer will choose, according to new research by Campbell Surveys, based on a national survey sponsored byInside Mortgage Finance Publications. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said real estate agents recommend specific mortgage providers for 55 percent of their mortgage-financed transactions, on average. When agents recommend mortgage providers, homebuyers use one of the recommended mortgage providers 68 percent of the time, on average. “We can therefore impute... Read More

Compliance Fears Drive Growth in Subservicing Business as Sector Increases Its Market Reach

Subservicing vendors increased their contracts by 23.1 percent in terms of dollar volume over the past year and now process an estimated $1.12 trillion of home mortgages, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance. When it comes to market share, subservicers control 12.3 percent of all U.S. housing receivables. According to interviews with industry executives, compliance costs are...[Includes one data chart] Read More

Supreme Court Upholds U.S. Labor Department Interpretation; Loan Officers Entitled to Overtime

The U.S. Supreme Court this week dealt a heavy blow to the mortgage industry, holding that the Department of Labor’s most recent regulatory interpretation is valid, meaning mortgage loan officers are eligible for overtime pay. The DOL went back and forth, through formal rulemaking and regulator interpretations, on whether loan officers should be exempt. At one point, it said lenders did not have to pay LOs overtime because they fit in the so-called administrative exemption. But in its most recent position, a 2010 opinion letter, the agency said loan officers are not exempt from the protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act, including overtime pay. The Mortgage Bankers Association challenged... Read More

Mortgage M&A Begins to Slow as Ratio Of Buyers to Sellers Begins to Even Out

The days of it being a seller’s market for mortgage banking franchises appears to be over, with current owners are increasingly unwilling to part with their companies at reduced prices. As one merger-and-acquisitions specialist put it, “It’s just hard getting deals done these days.” It looks like a case of supply and demand – and, of course, cash. At the very least, sellers want to receive book value for their companies plus some type of “earn-out” that could last up to 10 years. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance over the past week, the ratio of buyers to sellers has... Read More

CFPB Receives Complaints from Lenders on Consumer Complaint Submission Process

Industry participants continue to call for changes to how the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau operates its consumer complaint database. A proposal in December to renew the CFPB’s Consumer Response Intake Form drew criticism from the Mortgage Bankers Association and others. “CFPB and industry data both show that a small fraction of consumer complaints warrant any action beyond an explanation,” Stephen O’Connor, a senior vice president of public policy and industry relations at the MBA, said in a comment letter to the CFPB. The Office of Management and Budget approved... Read More

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