Driven by large increases in multifamily and industrial production, commercial loan originations rose 13% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

After three months of home price stability, Clear Capital revealed dim news for the housing industry through the end of January. Home prices on a year-over-year basis decreased by 2.6% through January, slightly worse than the 2.1% value drop experienced in December.

Richard Cordray extended an olive branch to the banking industry last week when he said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would support legislation to protect data that institutions provide during exams.

Wells Fargo is not only the country's largest originator of home loans. It's also the largest servicer of commercial and multi-family mortgages.

Wholesale lending is back! OK, not exactly. Citigroup announced its exit from the channel this past week and some trade journals - not knowing their stuff - seemed to think it was the biggest story since the Hindenburg disaster. Wholesale only accounted for 9% of Citi's production.

Business process outsourcing and workflow platforms originally tended to be separate, but it has begun to make more sense to package them together, according to Narayan Bharadwaj, business head for Wipro Gallagher Solutions.

Another state attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Merscorp, this time in New York, where Eric Schneiderman took aim at the thousands of MERS “certifying officers” employed by mortgage servicers whom he alleges filed defective and inaccurate foreclosure documents that deceived and mislead borrowers and courts.

Even though the vast majority of its services are as an outsource solution, Bensalem, Pa.-based ISGN also provides contract employees to help meet transitory needs in the mortgage industry, including IT staff.

Genworth Financial posted earnings of $107 million in the fourth quarter - compared to a $161 million loss a year ago - but its mortgage insurance division continued to struggle.

The end of Google Advisor Mortgage is another missed opportunity by a larger technology player trying to make its mark in the mortgage industry.

Mortgage companies have added at least 3,000 full-time employees to their payrolls since September -- to keep up with refinancings -- but held off on hiring in December, according to new government figures released Friday morning.

National home prices fell for the fifth consecutive year as they were down 4.7% at the end of 2011 compared to December 2010, according to a CoreLogic report.

After significantly reducing its geographic footprint in November, Google “discontinued” its mortgage rate advertising platform Wednesday, just two years after the search engine entered the online rate search and lead generation market.

Ellie Mae created a new chief information officer position and hired David Robbins to fill the new role, the mortgage technology vendor announced.

The national vacancy rate for single-family homes fell in 2011 as foreclosures slowed and sales of empty units increased by 14% over the past four quarters, according to new government figures released Tuesday morning.

Economists at Fiserv expect rising home sales will lead to higher values in half of all U.S. metropolitan areas over the 12-month period ending September 30.

RiskFinder Distress enables users to track and analyze key distress events throughout the life cycle of a loan. This computer product provides investors and lenders the information needed to evaluate risk, determine the impact of distress sales on loss severity estimates, drive loss mitigation strategies and identify markets that are starting to recover.

Positive housing data from the end of 2011 nudged the average weekly rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage back upward by 10 basis points to 3.98% in Freddie Mac's primary market survey, reversing a three-week trend of record-setting lows.

Despite lingering challenges real estate agents and lenders currently face when selling foreclosed and bank owned properties, these homes continue to make up a high percentage of all sales nationwide through the third quarter of 2011 even though it's lower than the previous quarter.

A major hurdle for the mortgage industry in 2011 that may continue to pose a significant risk this year is ineffective quality control. Interthinx identified two defects in the outsourced quality control programs of lenders that affected residential mortgage loan files—missing documentation and inaccurate information.