Originations

News of the retirement of Mark Oman as the head of the mortgage group at Wells Fargo reminds us that the career of this unassuming mortgage banker has been exceptional.

A new high-rise has begun pre-sales on the Atlantic Ocean between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami Beach, a possible sign that the Southeast Florida market is starting the recovery process.

Every week it seems another state outlaws private transfer fees. The latest is Indiana, where governor and possible Republican presidential candidate Mitch Daniels has signed legislation to ban the charges.

Affordable financing will be a challenge in the near and the distant future. The very slow recovery from the overall economic crisis has initiated a new era of affordable housing incentives.

Marketing your mortgage origination business should be a year-round event. But, according to Chase's Annual List of Events, it takes on an even bigger prominence in June.

Single-family housing starts fell 5.1% in April, yet another sign that the market for both new – and existing – homes continues to be anemic despite ultra low mortgages rates.

Mortgage bankers funded $118 billion of Federal Housing Administration backed single-family loans during first-half of fiscal year 2011, a 19% decline from the same period last year.

The connection between jobs and home sales has been well documented. But how about the correlation between employment and house prices?

Nationstar Mortgage Holdings, the nation’s 19th largest servicer of residential loans – and a top subservicer for Fannie Mae -- late Monday filed registration papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission, declaring its intention to go public.

The House Financial Services Committee late last week approved several bills to restructure the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and curb its powers until the agency’s first director is confirmed by the Senate.

The modification of the Farallon portfolio, which has a $1.6 billion whole loan balance, is part of a wave of large-loan servicing activity noted in recent commercial mortgage-related securities reports.

Home builders continue to be depressed about their prospects for new construction despite a decline in mortgage rates over the past few weeks.

Nearly 95% of all the refinancings funded by Freddie Mac in the first quarter were into a fixed-rate loan product, according to the company's Quarterly Product Transition Report. The study only covers loans where Freddie Mac funded the original mortgage.

The spring home selling season started off slow, real estate agents reported in a monthly outlook survey.Potential buyer traffic dropped, but price expectations and listing activity both were up, according to Credit Suisse’s monthly survey of 1,200 real estate agents’ perceptions of traffic, inventory and prices.

With more and more home buyers turning to the Internet to start the process, GainClients Inc., Tucson, Ariz., is bringing its integrated lead generation platform, Sikku, that ties together mortgage lenders, real estate agents and title and escrow companies, out to the forefront. There is even a social media component.

A mortgage banking executive who is the new co-owner of a community bank’s assets and charter is continuing to look at other potential acquisitions of mortgage brokers and bankers.

The risk retention proposal drafted by federal regulators has stirred such widespread opposition—and controversy—that it may take years before it is finally implemented.

Consumers pulled $6 billion of equity out of their homes through cash-out refinancings in the first quarter, the lowest reading in 15 years, according to figures compiled by Freddie Mac.

Farm Credit System lenders have finally won permission from their regulator to bid on the assets of failed banks.

We all know we’ve left companies due to poor service. And we know, too, there are more than five unforgivable customer service mistakes. These, however, have been culled together from the many e-mails and comments we received over the years.