Origination

Wells Fargo & Co. funded $81 billion of home mortgages in the second quarter, a 38% decline from the same period last year, but enough to best its top rival in home lending, Bank of America.

Existing home sales in the Houston area remained in positive territory in June for the fourth consecutive month.

Even with the state kicking in a tax credit of its own, home builders in the Golden State did not weather very well the end of the federal homebuyer tax credit.

Since the proceeds of a reverse mortgage is based on the value of the property, an appraisal holds special significance in the origination of these loans.

AppraiserLoft, an appraisal management company based in San Diego, says it is dedicated to working with reverse mortgage wholesalers.

Its client list includes: Bank of America Reverse, Financial Freedom/OWB, James B. Nutter and Co., Generation Mortgage, Urban Financial, Genworth Financial, LiveWell Financial, Security One Lending and 1st Mariner Bank.

Marshall & Ilsley Corp.'s second-quarter loss narrowed as the depository said credit quality was improving and its loan-loss provisions declined.

Mortgage Banking Solutions of Texas is launching a new service to help residential lenders fight loan buyback requests.

Tom Wind, CEO of Aurora Loan Services, once the premier mortgage banking arm of Lehman Brothers, is expected to step down from the lender/servicer some time this summer, according to officials familiar with the situation.

Some commercial real estate niche firms are following in the footsteps of their residential real estate counterparts that are keeping up with changing loss risk mitigation needs through partnerships.

Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services of San Francisco formed a strategic alliance with Property Sciences, a national real estate appraisal and consulting company based in Pleasant Hill, Calif., in an effort to expand the range of portfolio valuation services it provides to lenders and servicers.

"The recent alliance gives lenders the opportunity to analyze and evaluate their commercial real estate portfolios using a new suite of hybrid valuation tools," says Property Sciences vice president Andrew Mekjavich.

Even though mortgage bankers are still enjoying the steepest yield curve in years, lenders saw their average profit per loan fall to $606 in the first quarter, a 40% drop from the same period last year, according to new figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

While the lessons of a survey Mintel Comperemedia reported on this past spring applies specifically to banks, there are messages to learn for mortgage originators (of which many people place in the same boat) as well.Mintel said the "secret weapon" for banks to combat distrust by consumers is the social media. The company cited a survey which found less than half of respondents said their bank is a company they can trust, and 50% said they had less trust in banks than they did two years prior.However, 22% of respondents in the same survey said they thought social media sites helped them make good decisions about their purchases, with an equal number saying social networking sites helped them to make good decisions about life in general.