Data and information management

Businesses went knocking on banks' doors to ask for more loans over the past few months, boosting optimism that demand would continue to rise in the coming year.

New figures compiled by the National Mortgage Licensing System show a wide difference between the operations of state-licensed mortgage companies and depository mortgage lenders.

The interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate loan fell to 3.67% for the week ending June 7, an eight basis point decline from seven days earlier.

Navy Federal Credit Union unveiled two new ARM products: a 3/5 and 5/5 conforming (or jumbo) loan with start rates as low as 2.875% (2.943% APR).

All regions except for the Midwest showed positive results regarding home values for the latest rolling quarter—the most recent four months compared to the previous three months—and year, Clear Capital said.

Applications to refinance returned to highs last seen in February as a new round of record-low contract rates helped drive new business upward by 1.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending June 1.

Home prices—including distressed sales—increased in April for the second consecutive month (by 2.2%), the first time this has happened in almost two years.

The final wholesale tally is in for 2011and the nation’s top ranked wholesalers – in terms of volume – were: Provident Funding Associates ($19.8 billion), Wells Fargo ($18.1 billion), U.S. Bank Home Mortgage ($7.3 billion), MetLife Home Loans ($6.6 billion), and Fifth Third Mortgage ($6.1 billion).

Amherst notes that lending standards in FHA/VA programs have remained “roughly constant” with more activity gravitating toward the two programs.

The expanded Home Affordable Refinancing Program kicked into full speed during the first quarter with volumes doubling to 180,000 units compared to the prior period.

If you’re looking for a patch of brightness in the national job numbers that came out Friday morning look at the mortgage brokerage employment line: broker firms added 2,300 loan officers and other staffers to their payrolls in April.

Fannie Mae bought just $52 billion of home mortgages from its seller/servicers in April, a 45% plunge from March, according to new figures released by the GSE. Freddie Mac bought $26 billion of loans, a 39% decline from March.

Employment in the residential finance sector fell to 266,100 full-time positions in April from 267,600 in March, a difference of about 1,500 jobs.

Newly initiated foreclosures by the Federal Housing Administration jumped 247% in April from a year earlier, while the overall number of foreclosure starts fell 3.1% in the same period.

Deloitte says that assets controlled by the shadow banking system—including asset- and mortgage-backed securities—have declined by more than 50% in the last four years, to $9.53 trillion at Dec. 31.

Foreclosure-related sales made up 26% of all home sales through the first three months of 2012, up from 22% in the last quarter of 2011 and 25% seen a year ago.

The National Association of Realtors’ leading indicator of future home sales hit a downdraft in April after three months of solid gains.

Lenders are writing off fewer loans because consumers have improved in repaying their debt and there are fewer bankruptcies, Equifax said.

Credit quality improved in all major loan categories at commercial banks, savings banks and thrifts, except for single-family loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

LendingTree said from January to May, the proportion of borrowers who refinance into a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has increased by 5% on a year-over-year basis.