Originations

Treasuries rallied with U.S. stocks, while the dollar tumbled to a three-week low after the Federal Reserve decided against curtailing stimulus that has helped propel the third-longest bull market since World War II.

Wells Fargo is raising minimum credit score requirements on Federal Housing Administration loans, part of the ongoing jockeying by large banks to limit lawsuits by the Justice Department for defective FHA loans.

Policies that seek to increase homeownership by extending more credit to homeowners are misguided, according to former Federal Housing Finance Agency chief Edward DeMarco.

Conforming mortgage rates barely budged this past week as the industry awaits news from the Federal Reserve Thursday afternoon regarding a potential rate hike.

There is no universal definition of "TRID-ready," but any vendor claiming it's prepared for the new integrated disclosures should allow lenders to test the changes. Here's what to look for, and the red flags that should be cause for concern.

New-home construction fell in August, indicating the real estate recovery will take time to evolve.

Heartland Financial USA has hired Insuritas to help it expand its insurance business.

Connected Investors has created a new centralized real estate investment funding portal that the Wilmington, N.C.-based company believes will simplify deals and relationships.

Refinancings as part of the total origination market rose slightly in August, according to Ellie Mae.

Mortgage applications dropped 7% from the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the period ending Sept. 11.

Confidence among homebuilders rose in September to the highest level in almost a decade, signaling momentum in residential real estate will support growth in the second half of 2015.

A survey from Wells Fargo and Gallup has found that investors continue to take advantage of low interest rates.

License numbers for loan officers, real estate agents and settlement agents will be required on one of the new TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure forms, raising questions about whether they could trigger investigations of possible illegal marketing services agreements.

FirstMerit Corp. has partnered with the Detroit Land Bank to create a down payment assistance program for Detroit homebuyers.

Wells Fargo has set a goal to originate $125 billion in residential mortgages to Hispanic borrowers by 2025.

Natural disasters and hidden property defects are about all lenders can count on to constitute a "changed circumstance" delay on the Loan Estimate — but prepare for a case-by-case evaluation, anyway.

The free market wouldn't plop down a trailer park just a few miles from downtown San Jose. At least not today, in a sharply spiking housing market that has made the metropolitan area one of the most expensive in the U.S.

Exchange Bank in Santa Rosa, Calif., has hired the president of Sequoia Pacific Mortgage.

Brian Webster, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's mortgage originations program manager who has worked on a number of technology-related policy and research initiatives, is leaving the agency to join Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Ten years ago, marketing departments focused mainly on transactions — continuously improving campaign response rates and measuring conversions in terms of dollars generated against dollars spent. Today's marketing departments are primarily focused on listening and engagement. They work to "own" the customer. Their focus is on the user and customer experience across a variety of platforms and media and making it as smooth and intuitive as possible.So, what does the future hold for marketers in the mortgage industry? The "martech revolution" has begun ushering in a digitally-powered age where borrowers are increasingly self-directing their own unique journeys to find the right mortgage company. Companies are doing the same as they seek to align with the right product and service providers to package themselves as an amazing overall experience.This self-directing of the buyer journey is a given outcome of the Information Age. Prospective buyers and users of products and services are much less influenced by your latest marketing campaign. The buyers' journey is no longer directed by you, and now includes a complex mixture of online research (blogs, social media, etc.), peer reviews, website views and comparisons. At the end of the journey, the prospective buyer has developed a sense of trust in one or more companies and then makes a decision.To facilitate these journeys, marketers will need to leverage big data to better understand customers, predict their behaviors (like the need to buy a house) and communicate with them directly. This means marketers will increasingly collect unstructured data from the online activities of the population and then analyze it to execute targeted digital engagement strategies. For example, someone conducting online searches and sharing content about planning a wedding may well indicate the future purchase of a home — which is useful data for any mortgage lender to act upon.Here are four new critical areas of focus for marketers in the mortgage industry: