Black Knight

The distressed mortgage market continues to dry up, with delinquencies shriveling to a record low rate and foreclosure filings dropping annually for 10 consecutive months.

Customer retention for mortgage servicers hit an all-time low at the start of the year, and a sensitive mortgage rate environment is only creating more competition, according to Black Knight.

First-quarter year-over-year results declined at a pair of mortgage bankers active in the acquisitions market as well as at the provider of the most used servicing technology.

Mortgage prepayments came gushing in at the start of the spring home buying season as delinquencies also improved, according to Black Knight.

The number of homeowners likely to qualify for a refinance nearly doubled in a single week following the largest mortgage rate decline since the housing bubble burst, according to Black Knight.

Now that Ocwen settled the servicing practices lawsuit brought by the Massachusetts attorney general, just two outstanding complaints remain from the 30 filed nearly two years ago.

While fading 9.53% annually, February mortgage delinquencies posted a month-over-month increase for the first time in 12 years, according to Black Knight.

Despite the pool of refinance candidates shrinking 30% from late 2017, the incentive for mortgage borrowers to refi shot up at the start of the year on interest rate declines, according to Black Knight.

Mortgage prepayment speeds fell to a 19-year trough despite recent interest rate declines, but could rise if those lower rates lead to an increase in home purchases, according to Black Knight.

Black Knight reported lower net earnings, but higher revenue in the fourth quarter compared with the previous year, driven by growth in the company's software segment.

Better credit quality and the influx of refinancing during the low interest rates of the last few years pushed mortgage performance to the highest levels since the turn of the century, according to Black Knight.

Risk aversion, economic momentum and the multidecade nadir of unemployment rates helped push delinquencies to the lowest year-end measure of the 21st century, according to Black Knight.

As the industry shuffles closer to completely digital mortgages, the next wave of technology aims to usher in total automation and uniformity.

Continual declines in the refinance share of mortgage originations led to prepay rates dropping to their lowest levels since 2009, according to Black Knight.

These days, no wedding is complete without a hashtag combining the happy couple's names. It got us thinking: Why not give mortgage industry M&A deals the same treatment?

Mortgage prepayment speeds fell to their lowest level in 10 years in November as rising interest rates took a toll on origination activity, according to Black Knight.

Weakening prices from the most expensive metro areas caused the first decline in available equity since the market started recovering from the housing crisis, according to Black Knight.

October's loan delinquencies, especially those in serious delinquency, got much healthier after improving from the fallout of the last two hurricane seasons, according to Black Knight.

Lenders are constantly looking for ways they can streamline their operations and produce savings for themselves and their borrowers in order to compete in a leaner market this year.

Black Knight added to its mortgage loan data product offerings by acquiring Ernst Publishing, an Albany, N.Y.-based provider of recording fee, transfer tax and title premium fee information.