Underwriting

The Federal Housing Administration's Neighborhood Watch website is back online after crashing about three weeks ago.

By effectively using technology to gather and verify big data, lenders can underwrite with greater precision, improve loan-level decision making and maximize the integrity of their mortgage portfolios.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a regulatory mandate to shrink. But that's easier said than done, given the GSEs' outsized presence in the mortgage industry, as their latest quarterly results show.

As the Small Business Administration's flagship 7(a) loan program breaks records, its other loan program stagnates. Advocates for so-called 504 loans hope a drive to permit CRE refinancing will inject new life.

Neighborhood Watch, the Federal Housing Administration's "early warning system" for monitoring mortgage defaults and lender performance, crashed more than two weeks ago and it's unclear when the service will be restored.

Just 8% of U.S. mortgage origination volume in the second quarter went to borrowers with subprime credit scores, according to new research by the New York Fed. The findings suggest that mortgage standards have loosened only slightly, if at all.

Jones Lang LaSalle in Chicago has agreed to acquire Oak Grove Commercial Mortgage, to expand its debt-finance offerings.

Refinance application volume for the week ended Aug. 7 reached its highest level since the end of May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Home shoppers in San Francisco needed incomes of $267,780 to become owners of a typical house in the second quarter as prices soared to a record.

Homeowners and appraisers are getting farther apart on their perceptions of housing values, according to Quicken Loans.

PHH Corp. reported losses of $62 million for the second quarter, driven by major increases in operating expenses and a $46 million loss in the servicing segment.

M&T Bank's disclosure that it is in settlement talks with the Justice Department for not complying with underwriting guidelines on FHA loans has renewed fears that more lenders will be targeted.

Essent Guaranty did $7.23 billion of new insurance written in the second quarter, the second highest volume in the company's brief existence.

Consumers have soured on the housing market as more people hold a negative perspective regarding their personal finances and the overall economy, Fannie Mae reported in its July 2015 National Housing Survey.

Competition among lenders has been good for homebuyers.

Mortgage credit availability rose in July, as lenders pushed higher-balance loan products, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Despite being introduced to the market with great fanfare, Fannie Mae's 3% down payment mortgage offering has yet to gain much traction with lenders and consumers.

Carrington Mortgage Services said it has helped more than 10,000 consumers, in its campaign to serve underbanked borrowers, originating more than $1.8 billion of loans.

Freddie Mac's second-quarter single-family funding was the strongest it's been in a year, positioning the company to supplant the coming drop in refinancing with purchase mortgages.

United Guaranty Corp.'s second-quarter pretax operating income fell 25% from a year ago due to a less favorable adjustment to its loan loss reserves.