Originations

Banks can mitigate damage from slowing origination activity by putting excess cash to work, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said.

The increase won’t hurt the incentive for the average home shopper, but it means those who were looking to “buy the dip” in prices amid the pandemic may have missed their chance.

Known for giving away its signature canary-hued Converse to employees and clients, this small API-centric fintech is poised to become a significant player in open banking thanks to parent company Mastercard and its vendor status with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In an increasingly volatile market, lenders need to come to terms with the fact that outsourcing might be the best option, writes Rob Wilson of Merchants Mortgage.

While there were fewer new mortgages sought on a week-to-week basis, the index was higher than it has been during the same week in the last two years.

Point of sales providers are bringing improvements to their systems as loan officers look for ways to keep their pipelines active.

Five transactions in the past week provided cash infusions for tech companies that are developing products for real estate finance.

That growth could be attractive to a housing finance industry that needs to find new loan sources as easy rate-and-term refinances dwindle.

But UWM says the provision is designed to protect against a broker double-locking the loan and is used by other lenders.

Despite a 3% increase in new mortgages, overall applications dropped 2% on a consecutive-week basis due to a 5% decline in refis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Volumes were at a record high in the final quarter of 2020 but lenders didn’t make quite as much since gains on loan sales to the secondary market fell.

The $10 million program appears to be the first of its kind in the nation.

The San Diego-based company produced $10.6 billion in the fourth quarter, and has done $6.1 billion in the first two months of 2021.

From offering operations folks big bonuses to grooming recent grads, lenders are getting creative in their efforts to manage staffing throughout the boom-bust cycle.

A slower rate of appreciation looks more likely than depreciation in most markets, according to the company’s latest report.

There are more than 60 banks and other firms financing flippers today, according to AlphaFlow, an investment firm that buys real estate loans from lenders. That’s an increase of almost 50% in a little more than two months.

The government-sponsored enterprise greenlit the use of CoreLogic and LoanCraft’s tools that validate self-employed borrowers’ incomes, and it certified Finicity, a firm that facilitates the equivalent for W-2 employees’ payroll data.

While the economic recovery and stimulus checks drove upward movement in purchases, it wasn’t enough to offset tumbling refinance activity.

The credit could cover the minimum down payment for the average Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage in most large metropolitan areas.

“Builders continue to be confronted with rising input costs and a lack of available lots, causing them to slow production,” MBA’s Joel Kan said.