Origination

Electronic mortgage and paperless processing advocates encouraged lenders to start slow and go paperless in pieces, rather than taking on the entire task at once during a pair of sessions at a technology conference ongoing in Las Vegas this week.

Electronic mortgage and paperless processing advocates encouraged lenders to start slow and go paperless in pieces, rather than taking on the entire task at once, during a pair of sessions at a technology conference ongoing in Las Vegas this week.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is engaging in an exhaustive process of testing and refining a new mortgage disclosure and it is actively seeking industry input to make sure it is easier and less costly to use than the existing Good Faith Estimate and Truth in Lending Act disclosures.

Guaranteed Rate Inc., a Chicago-based mortgage lender, is formalizing its nationwide relocation business into a new program at the company and is now seeking relationships with corporate employers and their human resources departments.

Mortgage origination volume for 2011 could be as low as $825 billion as demand disappears, declare the latest projections from iEmergent, Des Moines, Iowa. The company now predicts a range of between $825 billion and $942 billion; back in November, it projected 2011 volume of between $904 billion and $991 billion.

Two Harbors Investment Corp. said it is closing on a warehouse facility in partnership with Barclays Bank to aggregate loans for issuance into new jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities, making it the second REIT in this space since the downturn.

Foreign buyers are continuing their recent surge in purchasing properties in the United States, according to the National Association of Realtors’ 2011 profile of international home buying activity.

Finding capital for worthy projects remains a challenge for many senior housing/healthcare borrowers, the head of a company that specializes in lending on these properties said at a recent conference.

Mortgage application volume increased by 7.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended May 13, as the continuing decline in interest rates drives those consumers who can to refinance. Still, refi application volume is 50% below the most recent peak in this activity which occurred last October, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The need for the reverse mortgage product years down the road will be great if Americans are not, can not or will not save money for retirement. A number of studies in recent months expresses the doubts that many current working people have regarding financing their retirement years.