Origination

Refinance activity in the Central Florida region remains relatively low compared to the rest of the country but experienced a notable pickup in September, according to an Orlando mortgage lender's report for the month.

New York Community Bancorp Inc., Westbury, N.Y., reported its mortgage banking income doubled between the second and third quarters, driven by the drop in interest rates and an increase in refinance applications.

Multifamily starts spiked 50% in September to the highest level in three years while single-family starts edged up 1.7%, according to new government figures released Wednesday morning.

The residential mortgage banking segment at PNC Financial Services Group, Pittsburgh, earned $22 million in the third quarter, less than half of the $55 million it made in the second quarter and one-fourth of the $97 million profit of the third quarter 2010.

An executive with Reverse Mortgage Solutions said he believes mortgage brokers will be the big winner from the exit of Bank of America and Wells Fargo from the reverse mortgage field.

TD Bank is hiring 87 new mortgage operations staffers, with 50 to be located at its Lexington, S.C., loan center. The rest of the new personnel will be placed in locations across the bank's retail branch footprint on the East Coast from Maine to Florida.

For a while it looked as though MetLife wanted to be a top player in mortgage banking. But not anymore. Late last week, the insurance conglomerate said it would explore a sale of MetLife Home Loans, Irving, Texas, stressing that it might only sell its “forward” business.

Despite rock bottom interest rates, mortgage applications fell 15% for the week ending October 14 with purchase money loans hitting their lowest level in 15 years, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

U.S. Bancorp, a top ranked player in residential mortgages, reported $17.2 billion of originations in the third quarter, more than double its home funding production in the prior period.

Morgan Stanley & Co. last week took a final round of bids on its residential servicing division, Saxon Mortgage, Ft. Worth, Texas, which holds $28 billion of contracts on its books, according to investment banking officials familiar with the situation.