Underwriting

For commercial real estate investors, the good times may be over.

Mortgage application defects reached a record low in November, according to First American Financial Corp.

Mid America Mortgage Inc. has created a scratch-and-dent purchase program to buy loans with TILA-RESPA integrated disclosure rule defects.

The rising number of Chinese buying U.S. homes could be a boon for investors with a stake in residential mortgages.

Arch Mortgage Insurance introduced a new pricing program to better aligns a policy's risk with the amount of the premium. But analysts have expressed concerns about pricing competition.

The recovery in the housing market will slow dramatically over the next 10 months, according to Weiss Analytics.

American Mortgage Consultants has bought JCIII & Associates, in a combination of providers of mortgage due diligence and consulting.

The Connecticut Housing Finance Authority issued more than $400 million of bonds in 2015 to finance mortgages at below-market interest rates for low- to moderate-income first-time homebuyers, according to authority officials.

Lenders continued to ease loan standards across all types of mortgage products in the fourth quarter and they expect the trend to continue, according to Fannie Mae.

KeyCorp will keep and expand First Niagara Financial Group's Buffalo, N.Y.-based mortgage operations to spur along its return to being a player in residential lending.

There could be more willingness among lenders to roll back self-imposed requirements for agency loans in 2016, but secondary-market conditions will be mixed for mortgage sellers while rates and costs are poised to rise.

Real estate finance services provider Chronos Solutions in Frisco, Texas, has acquired San Diego-based mortgage technology company Cogent Road.

Credit scores on closed loans have declined for six consecutive months, according to the latest Ellie Mae Origination Insight report.

Default rates on various types of consumer loans improved in November, according to Standard & Poor's and Experian.

Fannie Mae is offering yet another carrot to lenders that have lobbied extensively for relief from loan repurchases.

The new mortgage disclosures are not expected to have a large impact on origination volume, but could have a sizable effect on lenders' processes.

Securitizations that involve commercial mortgages are increasingly dropping loans from their pools before the final transactions close, according to Fitch Ratings.

Mortgage applications for new homes declined in November, although not as sharp a drop as is typical for this time of year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Mortgage lenders said their per-loan profits declined 19% in the third quarter compared with the previous quarter, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The consumer lending market, including mortgages, will fully recover from the financial crisis by the end of 2016, according to a forecast by TransUnion.