Origination

Truckloads of Realtors – more than 10,000 of them, according to their leader – will swarm Capitol Hill Thursday with this familiar message for lawmakers: Housing is key to the economic recovery.

When I first landed in the business of mortgage loan origination back in 1983, the first milestone I was told to shoot for was $12 million a year. Originators who produced a million dollars in total closed loans each month were said to have “arrived.” Once there, the second level of success to set your sights on was $25 million a year. People who consistently produced over $2 million a month were said to have “achieved.” Finally, the peak performance group to belong to was the $50-million-plus club. Those stellar, superstar originators “amazed” everyone with the volume of loans they closed and the money they made.

An answer to why people hold their job in the mortgage marketplace or elsewhere does not come by so easily. Do people work simply to survive, or because it’s enjoyable and meaningful? The world of work is in a state of transition. It is now facing a new direction.

A pair of analysts at the Mortgage Bankers Association Secondary Market Conference said they don't believe there will be a private-label mortgage-backed securities product anytime soon.

Loan origination system vendor Mortgage Builder announced that it will acquire GCC Servicing Systems, the mortgage technology vendor it was spun off from in 1998.

A 21% year-over-year decline in the inventory of homes listed for sale by mid-May indicates many metro areas hardest hit by price declines may be recovering.

At some point the White House might finally understand that the regulatory pendulum has swung much too far in the other direction.

Mortgage lenders are unlikely to loosen credit or expand their servicing and origination capacities until Washington policymakers make key decisions about the future of the nation’s housing finance system.

Residential lenders funded $462 billion of home mortgages in the first quarter, the industry’s best showing since the fourth quarter of 2010.

REO assets represented one-third of the overall CMBS delinquency rate in April, reaching $11.1 billion in scheduled loan balance.