Originations

After years of plowing resources into compliance projects, mortgage lenders surveyed by National Mortgage News are foregrounding core business initiatives in their plans for the coming year. High on to-do lists are projects aimed at improving the customer experience and seizing new business opportunities.

Luther Burbank Savings, in Santa Rosa, Calif., has established three home loan programs aimed at helping low- and moderate-income borrowers afford to buy homes in nine California counties.

Mortgage applications decreased 0.8% for the week ending Oct. 30 according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's weekly survey — an improvement from the 3.5% drop registered the week prior.

While Texas has been among the strongest housing markets in the country over the past few years, the recent decline in oil and gas prices is affecting its housing market at a time when an overall sluggish economy can't pick up the slack.

Greystone has secured $88.6 million in financing to rehabilitate 20 multifamily properties for low-income residents in Tennessee.

HomeFree-USA, a group that provides counseling to potential homebuyers, has opened a Baltimore office and introduced a campaign to promote neighborhoods in West Baltimore that had been ravaged by riots.

What's old is new again, but lenders should heed lessons from the past when re-entering the second-lien originations market.

The housing market displayed bright short-term and long-term trends in September, according to CoreLogic's Home Price Index.

American International Group Inc. CEO Peter Hancock dismissed activist investor Carl Icahn's proposal to split the company into three insurers, saying a division would limit earnings diversity and reduce the value of some tax assets.

Freddie Mac posted a third quarter loss of $501 million, its first quarterly loss in four years, but the government-sponsored enterprise will not request a draw from the U.S. Treasury.

Loan demand and conditions remained largely unchanged in the third quarter, with some easing of credit standards for consumer and auto loans, according to a survey of senior loan officers conducted by the Federal Reserve.

Though the deadline for compliance is more than two years away, lenders are already warning that they do not have enough time to comply with a new rule that requires institutions to report additional data to regulators on home loans.

The government-sponsored enterprise is working to rebuild partnerships with church organizations and housing financing agencies as part of a broader effort to make owning a home affordable for low- and moderate-income families.

Purchase mortgage originations are soaring because of high-credit score applicants, while refinance applications are declining among the same group of borrowers, according to Black Knight Financial Services.

Calling the purchase of its first customer-relationship management vendor "a mistake," Ellie Mae CEO Jonathan Corr is ready to tee off with its new CRM acquisition, Mortgage Returns.

Mortgage professional hiring and new job appointments for the week ending Oct. 30.

A handful of housing markets in the West showed signs of resilience in October, Pro Teck Valuation Services' monthly Home Value Forecast indicates.

Genworth Financial's third-quarter profit missed analysts' estimates as results deteriorated at its Canadian and Australian mortgage insurance units.

The Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday that it expects commercial and multifamily mortgage originations will increase year-over-year in 2016 by 6% to $485 billion.

Arch MI U.S. did $3.2 billion in new insurance written, approximately 60% more than the nearly $2 billion done in the same quarter in 2014.