Origination

The South shall rise again, according to the latest report from Housing Intelligence, which says three Southern metropolitan areas sat atop the housing market in the first quarter.

A drop in mortgage lending volumes to the lowest level in over a decade is forcing lenders to consider new cost cuts and staff reductions. The lack of activity comes despite a boost from low interest rates that has sparked a wave of refinancings, and is prompting lenders to face the prospect that refis and home purchases may remain moribund for an extended period.

Mortgage bankers funded $351 billion of new residential loans in the first quarter, a 35% decline from a robust 4Q, but a slight gain from the year ago period, according to new figures compiled by National Mortgage News.

As part of its acquisition of the 16 Ohio branches of Liberty Savings Bank, First Financial Bancorp, Cincinnati, is buying a $143 million in-market performing loan portfolio. The portfolio is made up of 38% residential mortgages, 37% commercial real estate/multifamily loans and 20% home equity loans.

IServe Residential Lending, an 18-state lender, this week announced that it has added seven new retail branch locations: three each in California and Washington state, and one in North Carolina.

Freddie Mac on Friday began making adjustable-rate mortgages eligible for securitization into its K certificate multifamily mortgage-backed securities.

The market share gap between Fidelity National Financial and First American continues to shrink, even as both companies are losing business to smaller national and regional competitors, according to first quarter data compiled by the American Land Title Association.

Over the past 28 years, in delivering over 1200 training sessions and workshops, I have fielded lots of questions. Many of the same ones about parts of the sales call, some good, others not so much. But some of the toughest ones I ever received were from my kids years ago when they were younger.

The Mortgage Bankers Association has stepped up its advocacy of electronic signatures, sending an open letter to the acting commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration requesting the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s home finance unit begin accepting e-signatures on all loan documents.

Ellie Mae has hired Parvesh Sahi to serve as vice president of compliance solutions, overseeing development of Ellie’s acquisition of compliance software provider Mavent.