Originations

The FHA loan guaranty was introduced to make homeownership affordable for those who might otherwise be unable to obtain a mortgage. For generations, that is exactly the way the program played out.

A mortgage lender looking to take advantage of the displacement in the marketplace is Greenlight Financial Services, Irvine, Calif. The company is celebrating its 10th year in business by hiring 400 people and expanding its business profile.

A lot of mortgage applications went unfunded last year. A whole lot. In fact, a full $1 trillion in apps went unfunded for a variety of reasons. Compared to the $1.6 trillion that did get funded, that's a big turndown rate of 38%.

The Securities and Exchange Commission could hurt the housing recovery if it imposes tighter restrictions on real estate investment trusts that purchase and securitize mortgages, according to industry comments filed with the agency.

Despite continuing housing market and mortgage-related challenges, builder D.R. Horton Inc. generated profits in its fourth fiscal quarter and full fiscal year ending Sept. 30 that improved upon the same quarter last year but were lower than FY 2010.

The simplest things can often yield the greatest results. Or, ignoring them can mean negative implications, including losing sales opportunities.

Mortgage technology vendor Ellie Mae on Friday announced that it has promoted Jonathan Corr to chief operating officer.

Farmer Mac lost $23 million in the third quarter due to changes in the fair market value of its financial derivatives. But the company does not include its derivative positions in what it terms its core earnings, which showed a profit of $11 million, up from $8 million for the same period in 2010.

When it comes to analyzing mortgage origination numbers, it's a matter of relativity.

Radian Guaranty's efforts to build market share seem to be paying off in a big way. The company had nearly $2.1 billion of primary mortgage insurance written during October, up from $1.2 billion written for the same month one year prior.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage during the week ending Nov. 10 came in below 4% for the second time this year, remaining near record lows.

The residential mortgage-backed securities and related collateralized debt obligation sectors lead the pack in both realized and expected future credit losses from U.S. structured finance issuances, according to Fitch Ratings. But it added commercial MBS are expected to experience losses at a lower level than many may have anticipated.

Let me throw a National Association of Realtors statistic at you—70% of all first time homebuyers rented before buying their first home. So, when you market to apartment complexes, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, right?

Mortgage Technology magazine, an Origination News affiliate, presented its 12th annual awards last month.

Wells Fargo & Co. this week launched a new unit to provide financial services to publicly traded real estate investment trusts involved in commercial properties.

Home prices, which have fallen nearly 6% over the past four quarters (ending June 30), could fall another 3.6% by the second quarter of next year, according to analysts at Fiserv, which owns and generates the Case/Shiller house price indexes.

The Federal Housing Administration and Internal Revenue Service will begin allowing electronic signatures on FHA loan documents and the 4506-T form in 2012, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

MarketAxess, a U.S. and European fixed-income electronic trading platform, has made an initial foray into U.S. nonagency residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities markets that appears to be drawing some interest.

Ginnie Mae reported a $1.2 billion profit from its secondary market operations in fiscal year 2011 — up 84% from FY 2010 — due to lower loss provisioning.

MetLife has originated over $1.6 billion in agricultural mortgages in the first nine months of 2011. It provides mortgage loans on farms, ranches, timberland and agribusiness facilities throughout North America.