Origination

The current—and somewhat robust—refinancing boom has to end sometime, and already mortgage bankers are asking the obvious: If home purchases don’t pick up, then what?

Residential loan applications rebounded last week with increased demand for both purchases and refinancings, according to figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Title insurance giant Fidelity National Financial, Jacksonville, Fla., earned $83.2 million in the third quarter, a 14% rise from the same period a year ago, citing strong business inflows thanks to rising refinancings.

As the mortgage industry tries to entice private investors back into the space, lenders are looking to technology to provide data verification and analysis of the loans they're originating, according to a panel discussion at the Mortgage Bankers Association convention and expo in Atlanta.

New home sales rose by almost 7% in September to the highest level since June, a sign that the market might be stabilizing.

The Federal Housing Administration said it was responding to market demand when it started modifying its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage products. The result consists of several changes to the standard program, HECM Saver, a new option that requires lower upfront premiums, and new opportunity to use this affordable option as an REO disposition tool.

Well, it’s the end of October. The leaves are falling; the weather has begun to change. This signals an important time of the year for me….planning for what looks to be a good 2011 in the reverse mortgage business.

Mortgage bankers relied on MERS to be responsible for all of the documentation used in the home buying process, and as a result few in the industry looked at the paper work after the fact, said Becky Walzak, president and CEO at RJB Walzak Consulting Inc.

Residential appraisers should command higher fees now that new regulations will require lenders and appraisal management companies to pay them "customary and reasonable" compensation.

Even if the GOP gains a chamber in the upcoming federal elections, chances are the Dodd-Frank legislation will not be changed in any substantive way, according to the top lobbyist for the Mortgage Bankers Association.