Originations

Total employment in the mortgage industry was flat in May, but the ground has been shifting over the past few months with brokerage firms hiring while other lenders have been cutting back.

If your mortgage banking employer isn’t making money hand-over-fist then there’s something terribly wrong.

By 2005, in spite of Washington Mutual's concerns that there was a housing bubble brewing, they began to focus on option ARM loans.

Residential loan officers are entitled to overtime pay if their primary duty involves selling mortgages, according to the United States District Court in Washington.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is planning stronger disclosure requirements for reverse mortgages as more evidence emerges that senior citizens are using the product without fully understanding its main features and risks.

While the U.S. Supreme Court decision on "Obamacare" did not put the issue to rest, it has in many quarters turned the debate around to the importance for everyone to be attuned to his or her health. This is the latest in a series of items from a contributor who wishes to remain anonymous. His point is that to be successful in the mortgage business, you need to remain healthy.

It's not easy being a residential property appraiser these days.

A House investigative report says Countrywide Home Loans doled out almost 18,000 “Friends of Angelo” loans over a 12-year period, but the price breaks were not very significant.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should outline what constitutes potentially "abusive" acts or practices.

The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a lower court decision holding that the patent infringement asserted against MarketLinx, a business unit of CoreLogic, was invalid.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in the throes of working on financial compliance audits of some of the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage lenders and hopes to complete at least one of these audits in the next few weeks.

Over the past 18 months, KB Home experienced a “great deal of disruption” as Bank of America and MetLife curtained their lending mortgage activities.

Accurate disclosure of fees topped access to rates without having to disclose personal information in what American consumers most want in a mortgage shopping website.

Saudi Arabia’s mortgage law, approved two days ago after more than a decade of debate, will encourage banks to expand lending in a $16 billion market that now accounts for less than 4% of all home purchases.

It’s no secret that the mortgage industry – loan brokers in particular – hate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s loan officer compensation proposal, especially any language that offers ‘flat fee’ payments to companies or originators. Comments about the proposal are still being filed and some trade group officials (speaking off-the-record) contend that the “fix is in” and that the young agency is more concerned with meeting the rule making deadline of early 2013 instead of “getting it right.”

China’s new home prices rose for the first time in 10 months as the government eased its monetary policies to bolster the economy.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage during the week ending July 5 dropped by four basis points to yet another record low of 3.62%.

A decline in applications for government-insured mortgage loans helped to drag down total loan application volume by 6.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended June 29.

Financial institutions that limit their social media strategies to Twitter and Facebook are also limiting their potential.

Amid growing controversy fueled in part by the new mortgage servicing rules to be finalized by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau next year, the debate over the validity of lender-placed insurance is in full swing and expected to continue.