Originations

On January 19, Colorado had 3,614 licensed and approved loan officers, a 25% decline from just two weeks earlier, a sign that new licensing and testing requirements are weeding out professionals in the industry.

Last year wasn't the worst ever for home builders in California, but it was the second worst. And 2011 isn't shaping up to be too much better, the California Building Industry Association reported.

ORLANDO, FL—The New American Home, the centerpiece of the National Association of Home Builders annual convention, died on the vine at last year’s show in Las Vegas because the construction lender pulled out midway through the project.

It’s said that Texas is weathering the recession better than most states. Though it does have a big state budget crisis like many other states do now, the state of its mortgage banking industry is better than most.

The mortgage origination business will see a growth in the adoption of the Keiretsu model of doing business by leveraging vendor relationships on a single cloud technology platform, declared executives at Dorado Corp.

The “moral hazard” that keeps many Americans from defaulting on their mortgage loans is being turned upside down as a survey found that nearly half said if their lender was accused of predatory practices they would have no qualms about not paying, even if they were morally opposed to strategic defaults.

Commercial real estate prices are down on a national basis. But according to an index developed by the CoStar Group, November saw some significant price increases for high-profile core transactions in Washington and New York.

The commercial MBS market is getting a boost with the return of mezzanine investors that will purchase some of the riskiest pieces of securitizations or commercial real estate loans.

ATLANTA—Concerns about the volatility in the marketplace led the people behind the VantageScore algorithm to develop its newest model, the head of VantageScore Solutions said in an interview during the Mortgage Bankers Association’s annual convention here.

A survey of business economists has discovered a surprisingly high number of U.S. companies, including finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) firms, are planning to add more employees to their payrolls during the first half of this year.

It’s the give and take with your customers that gives you the edge.Communication is the key to better relationships with your customers and that could be the difference between the success and failure of a small business, according to one expert.

The operating structures of the nation’s title insurance underwriters are better equipped today to handle the expected decline in mortgage origination volume between 2010 and 2011 than in years past, a report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said.This is because these companies have been engaged in right-sizing their expenses over recent years.

If there hasn't been enough upheaval in the way mortgage originators and appraisers interact in the past few years, the next 12 months will see possibly the greatest changes to that relationship since the passage of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act in 1989.

Roughly $22.5 billion worth of commercial mortgages are set to mature over the next 12 months and will need to be rolled over, according to a new report from Fitch Ratings. In total, 22,000 loans will be affected.

Mortgage banking income at BB&T Corp., was down by $46 million between the third and fourth quarters for reasons related to the residential mortgage business. When the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010 are compared, mortgage banking income was down $4 million due to servicing-related issues.

A decline in mortgage-related income caused noninterest income at SunTrust Banks Inc., Atlanta to decline by $15 million between the third and fourth quarters.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is in the process of approving another one-year suspension of its anti-flipping rule on foreclosed properties bought with FHA loans.

Bank of America Corp., during an earnings conference call with analysts, pinned an upper bound to its risk of loss from litigation over private-label, mortgage-backed securities: $7 billion to $10 billion.

Kondaur Capital, a player in the distressed mortgage space, purchased roughly 1,500 loans in December, according to company CEO Jon Daurio.

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