Origination

Rates are attractive to borrowers but lenders are finding the advantage of the housing market's low prices more difficult to explain to them, Scott Stern, chief executive of the St. Louis-based Lenders One cooperative, told this publication.

Home sales are still lackluster, but FirstBank in Lakewood, Colo., is ramping up its mortgage lending as if immune to the weak demand.

Now that Bank of America has signaled its intention to exit the correspondent lending arena, speculation is centering on the next mortgage shoe to drop at the company: warehouse credit and whether it might have a successor of sorts.

Home sales fell in September after rising all summer, including a 4% increase in August, according to the Re/Max National Housing Report.

The numbers show it. Between midyear 2010 and midyear 2011, the originations share of the top five mortgage lenders dropped by more than 250 basis points.

Existing home sales in California fell by over 2% between August and September on a seasonally adjusted basis due to the debt debate in Washington, a weaker stock market and the pending drop in the conforming loan limit, the California Association of Realtors said.

Fitch Ratings said it could cut Bank of America's viability rating one notch if certain concerns regarding the company's exposure to the residential mortgage business are worse than what the rating agency expects.

The House of Representatives this week passed a bill to assist unemployed veterans through a measure that also extends the maximum VA loan limits for three more years.

Officials from the government-sponsored enterprises continue to encourage lenders to be proactive with their appraisal and origination technology vendors in preparation for the new requirements in the Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

Bank of America, which has been cutting many of its non-core mortgage divisions for well over a year now, said it is committed to maintaining a retail loan officer work force of 4,000 well into 2012.