Technology

Between foreclosures and paying down their loans through “cash-in” refinancings, the nation’s mortgagors are continuing to whittle down their housing debt—and that’s bad news for the nation’s servicers.

Since launching its short sale module in November 2009, the default servicing technology provider Equator said approximately 1.2 million short sales have been facilitated through its platform.

A leading indicator of future home sales jumped 7.3% in the month ofNovember to its highest level in over 19 months, according to theNational Association of Realtors.

Insight Lending Solutions, the developer of the PriceMyLoan automated underwriting system and pricing engine, has relaunched and rebranded its loan origination system.

National Bank of Kansas City used to depend on UPS to send and receive mortgage documents that required multiple wet-ink signatures and section sign-offs. Now the entire signature and disclosure process can be done electronically with an e-signature application from DocuSign. This has enabled the bank to avoid prolonged closing times, some of which used to stretch to more than 30 days, incurring hundreds of dollars in weekly fees levied by the larger banks to which National sells its loans.

How well a tool performs depends on how well it's used. Bank of York in South Carolina found that out this summer when Wolters Kluwer Financial Services conducted a review of the bank's use of the vendor's ComplianceOne loan origination and deposit systems, which Bank of York brought into production four years ago.

Zillow is projecting that home values across the country are expected to have gone down approximately $700 billion in 2011, which would be 35% less than the $1.1 trillion that was lost in 2010.

Mary Joine Dum, a leading expert on the use of computers in real estate appraisal, died on Dec. 15 in Brentwood, Calif., after suffering a series of strokes. She was 80 years old.

The parent company of United Wholesale Mortgage appointed Paul Orlando as its chief information officer and Bill Van Nort as chief technology officer.

MortgageKeeper, the anonymous referral service that helps lenders and counseling agencies connect struggling home owners with qualified sources of assistance, is ending the year with a bang.