Documenting and verifying a borrower’s income is one of the most basic tasks for an underwriter. While this appears to be relatively simple, validating income has become increasingly complex and susceptible to borrower fraud.

You remember the HARP program, don’t you? Originally, the idea was to refinance current but high LTV Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac borrowers into new, lower-rate loans—provided they were current. Home values (and lack of equity) reeked havoc on the concept so Uncle Sam took the LTV girdle off.

Abhinav Asthana of Wipro Gallagher Solutions discusses issues and trends around mobile technology.

One of the nation’s largest real estate brokerage firms said home sales were essentially flat in April after a 25% spike in March.

In order to remain competitive, small lenders need to integrated underwriting systems and the ability to provide market, sponsor and property history reports and information at the push of a button.

Insiders agree that certain types of solutions can serve as the best antidote to the still pervasive mortgage loan repurchase challenge.It is fueling a renewed drive to design tools that infuse all aspects of the mortgage production chain into coherent systems that are more efficient and transparent throughout the life of the loan.

Here's a fact you may not be aware of: properties governed by homeowner associations are the most rapidly growing form of housing in the U.S. today. Nearly 80% of new home construction is connected with an HOA or community association, according to the Community Associations Institute, the trade association representing HOAs.

Builders broke ground on more single-family homes in April than expected and the government revised upward its estimate of construction activity in March and February.

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Loan origination system vendor Mortgage Builder announced that it will acquire GCC Servicing Systems, the mortgage technology vendor it was spun off from in 1998.

Zillow Inc. is intensifying its efforts to create an untraditional media model that expands through strategic acquisitions.

Out of all of the SARs filed from depository institutions in 2011, possible mortgage fraud was reported on 92,028 files, compared to only 70,472 the prior year.

Residential lenders funded $462 billion of home mortgages in the first quarter, the industry’s best showing since the fourth quarter of 2010.

Real estate auction veterans Michael Fine and Alan Kravets formed Hilco Real Estate Auctions, which will provide buyers and sellers with transparent sale methodologies for conducting real estate transactions.

How effective is social media as a sales tool? According to a pair of researchers at Behavioral Sciences Research Press, the old tried and true method of person-to-person contact is much more effective.

The Federal Housing Administration will begin collecting full, electronic appraisal reports for the mortgages that it insures.

The FHFA has created a financial incentive for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to ensure that deadlines for the Uniform Mortgage Data Program are met.

John Robbins has created mortgage production platforms from scratch before, most notably with American Residential Mortgage and American Mortgage Network. But his latest venture, he admitted, was in at least one way a little more difficult because of how the industry environment has changed in the past few years.

Freddie Mac CIO Robert Lux shares his thoughts about the GSEs’ Uniform Mortgage Data Program.

The discussion in a number of panel sessions at the Mortgage Bankers Association National Secondary Market Conference in New York on May 6 through 9, was if, let alone when, private capital would return to the industry. In the exhibit hall, much of the vendor focus was on technology and compliance which would ease that transition. Nary a wholesaler or correspondent aggregator was exhibiting.