Originations

Ever have that prospect who doesn't follow through with what they promised to do by the next call?

Although Bank of America – for now – is committed to staying in warehouse finance, it may exit that business as well.

Missing for nearly three years and thought to be possibly extinct in South Florida, the official bird of the housing boom – the construction crane – has been spotted again in downtown Miami.

Home sales are still lackluster, but FirstBank in Lakewood, Colo., is ramping up its mortgage lending as if immune to the weak demand.

There is more than enough capacity in the system for the remaining private mortgage insurers to handle the current volume of low-downpayment loans originated as PMI and Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. stop writing new business, industry executives feel.

Nonprime lender/servicer Springleaf Financial late Wednesday priced a $242 million nonprime residential MBS, at a yield of 4%, according to market reports.

With the 2010 revisions to the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act requiring lenders to provide mortgage and closing services information to consumers in an accurate and timely manner, ClosingCorp of La Jolla, Calif., has created a new pricing tool for title companies and settlement service providers to put on their own websites.

Mortgage rates in Freddie Mac's weekly survey have come in at or near record lows again this week.

Starting today, your appraisals are going to look a bit different. Basically, the agencies have been warning us for the last year or so that they were creating a uniform set of "codes" that will be used by all appraisers nationwide.

Appraisers will be following new procedures for gathering and reporting property data starting Thursday, as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac move forward with the appraisal requirements of their Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

Icon Residential, Irvine, Calif., recently pulled the plug on its plans to enter the correspondent lending channel, laying off roughly 120 full-time employees at the unit and a related division.

Fannie Mae bought $39.4 billion of home mortgages from its seller/servicers in July, a 5% decline from the previous month. But compared to the same month a year ago the GSE's acquisitions fell 26%.

Home prices rose in July for the fourth consecutive month, according to CoreLogic, which tracks the market through its house price index.

Bank of America is hiring financial advisors, including mortgage specialists, as it expands its network of high tech "specialty stores" for customers with $50,000 to $250,000 in "investable assets."

A few years back there was a growing school of thought—and factual proof—that the entire mortgage banking landscape would be 90% controlled by just five lenders and servicers, mostly megabanks.But that was before the bubble burst on housing and foreclosures soared to record levels.

Kinecta Federal Credit Union has launched a jumbo loan program for high net worth borrowers that allows them to use a percentage of their assets in certain other financial products to help them qualify for hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages from $417,001 to $3 million in size.

Independent mortgage banking firms made an average profit of $575 per origination in the second quarter, a 66% gain compared to 1Q -- but a significant decline from two years ago when the average gain was $1,358.

Congress begins its fall session on Tuesday and lawmakers will have only a few weeks to act before the authority of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to issue new flood insurance policies expires on Sept. 30.

In the last 12 months, those who use an Individual Retirement Account to save money for their post-workplace lifestyle have put $450 million of their funds into real estate, according to IRA Financial Group, New York.

Mortgage applications dropped 9.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis last week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly mortgage applications survey.