Originations

The new year started off with a bang in the Houston metropolitan area, where home sales were up for the eighth consecutive month in January.

The acting commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration this week blasted news reports that claim Bank of America Corp. was essentially bailing out the agency's mortgage insurance fund.

A pair of mortgage real estate investment trusts each priced their public offerings Wednesday morning - but at prices below their Tuesday night close.

Sales of existing homes rose 4.3% in January from the prior month as a mild winter and improving economic conditions encouraged buyers, according to figures released Wednesday morning.

The nation's new housing commissioner has a message for the mortgage industry: FHA insurance guarantees are falling - and that's a good thing.

Mortgage applications declined by almost 5% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Feb. 17, as refinancings declined and rates on fixed-rate loans began to increase, according to figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Joining ranks with 37 other states, South Carolina has outlawed private transfer fees on homes.

There's more "real" in real estate these days, according to the Coldwell Banker brokerage firm.

For every 12 relationships that you systematically market to each year, you can expect two transactions. One will be a direct buyer or seller, and the other will be a referral. Compare that to your marketing efforts towards strangers. He found that for every 50 people that you market to that you don’t know, you can expect one transaction. Which approach makes more sense?

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke called on regulators to "look carefully" at rules that diminish the origination of prudently underwritten mortgages, telling a gathering of homebuilders that the health of the housing market is central to the vitality of the economy as a whole.

I believe that being a baseball or softball umpire (as I've been since 1984) had skills and lessons that very easily translated into the sales process. After all, new umpires are instructed to sell the call through their mannerisms and use of logic on the field.

United Guaranty Corp., Greensboro, N.C., the nation's third largest mortgage insurer, Tuesday named Kim Garland to be the firm's new president and CEO.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is determined to continue its mission of shrinking the balance sheets of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and plans only to add product when the two need to buy delinquent mortgages out of delinquent MBS pools.

A majority of Supreme Court justices seem convinced that RESPA is simply an anti-kickback statute -- but may rule that the 1974 law has a broader reach if they defer to HUD's interpretation concerning unearned loan fees.

Navy Federal Credit Union, Merrifield, Va., the largest CU player in mortgages, plans to hire as many as 600 employees at its Pensacola, Fla., call center campus to accommodate growth.

A bullish thesis on construction activity has taken hold among investors who have bid up the shares of major home builders by as much as 80% in the last six months.

Certain appraisal management companies acting as a middleman between an originator and appraiser are not registering with the states, raising concerns about lost tax revenue, according to the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals.

Given the ugly employment picture in the U.S., now isn't exactly the best time for a company to be crowing about how cheap its labor costs are thanks to overseas outsourcing. But don't tell that to Ocwen Financial, soon to become the nation's largest specialty servicer.

The last round of good faith estimate reform from 2010 is still causing some consternation two years later, and the industry is heading toward another round.

All of the major mortgage industry economists are predicting that 2012 will see a decline in originations from 2011. Yet, instead of retrenching, several organizations are predicting increased volume and acting upon that by expanding their retail branch networks.