Black Knight

Mortgage industry technology providers are adjusting their processes to allow for originations to keep flowing through the system as the nation combats the coronavirus.

Mortgage-related companies finalized four partnerships, a servicing-retention firm went up for sale, and a long-delayed insurance-related transaction moved forward this week in a wave of industry merger and acquisition activity.

Servicers' struggle to retain borrowers mounted in the fourth quarter when a type of loan that is tough to recapture rose to a more than 10-year high, according to Black Knight.

Fears stemming from the coronavirus have resulted in lower mortgage rates and more business for now, but if the situation deteriorates further, consumers could decide to put off buying a home.

From increased consumer engagement to new forms of payment, mortgage servicers are finding themselves faced with new trends in the market that they need to address.

Black Knight introduced a model to gauge prepayment speeds and credit risk for investors that purchase commercial mortgage-backed securities.

For the first time in 15 years, fewer than 2 million mortgaged properties lie in default or foreclosure status as of the end of January, according to Black Knight.

With steady home price appreciation and falling interest rates, by some measures the shares of distressed mortgages existing in the market shrunk to record lows, according to Black Knight.

After being range-bound for several weeks, mortgage rates are fluctuating enough to spur significant changes in refi incentive, according to Black Knight.

November's foreclosure starts hit their lowest level since Black Knight started tracking this data in 2000, while the foreclosure rate reached a 14-year low.

More than half of the third quarter refinance activity was the cash-out variety, with borrowers removing the most total equity from their homes in nearly 12 years, according to Black Knight.

Mortgage prepayment levels were at their highest in over six years during October, as existing homeowners took advantage of the lower rates to refinance, or to a lesser extent, purchase a new residence, Black Knight said.

Black Knight and PennyMac Financial Services are suing each other in separate disputes linked respectively to the latter's creation of a servicing platform and the former's dominant position in the market.

Early payment mortgage defaults went to the highest level in nearly a decade, particularly among loans included in Ginnie Mae securities, a Black Knight report said.

While home affordability reached a 32-month high in September, it could continue to increase in the fall months, according to Black Knight's Mortgage Monitor.

Foreclosure starts dropped to their lowest level in 18 years, and properties foreclosed on but not yet sold fell to a 14-year low in August, according to Black Knight.

The number of mortgage holders with refinancing potential dropped by 1.5 million as the average long-term rate for home loans continued to rise, according to Black Knight.

A mere 7-basis-point increase in interest rates reduced what was a record-high number of borrowers with refinancing incentive by 2 million in a matter of days, according to Black Knight.

With more rate-and-term refinancing in the mix, home lenders did a better job of retaining borrowers in the second quarter, but there's still room for improvement.

There's a silver lining to the recent economic turbulence: Mortgage rates have tumbled in recent weeks, triggering a rush to refinance and a race to the closing table for many Twin Citians.