Origination

Mortgage lenders of all sizes are expected to increase their technology spending by 15% this year to $4.11 billion, according to the new MORTECH study.

Like many in the mortgage industry, analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods are projecting a decline in originations in 2011, the result of refinance activity declining after many borrowers refinanced to the historically low rates of 2009 and 2010.

A number of commercial real estate experts are predicting 2011 will be a year of recovery for that business, continuing on trends that developed at the end of 2010.

Home sales and prices could register a small increase in 2011, but there is a downside risk that foreclosures could overwhelm buyer demand, sending values down, according to a panel of economists from some of the nation's largest banks.

State Bank & Trust of North Dakota has completed its purchase of Bell Mortgage, a 130-year-old residential lender based in Minneapolis. No purchase price was disclosed.

NexBank Capital Inc., a Dallas-based thrift-holding company, has raised $10 million in additional capital which will be used to support growth in its commercial lending business.

Commercial real estate lender FundCore Finance Group is teaming up with Cohen & Co., an investment banking firm based in New York to form a CRE conduit lender. The venture will start funding loans in the first quarter.

Welcome to 2011! As has been true for the last several years, few areas in ethics or the law are changing as rapidly as those related to the use and maintenance of electronic documents. Case law is rapidly evolving and, even so, it still lags behind the ever-changing uses and abuses of electronic technologies.

The residential mortgage division of JPMorgan Chase saw its net earnings more than double to $577 million in the fourth quarter, thanks to rising loan demand and strong profit margins in residential finance.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University says after a double-digit decline since its peak in 2007 the U.S. remodeling industry is “poised for growth.”