Technology

As more brokers look to go mobile the world of mobile technology is changing dynamically, and in some unexpected ways according to new research. The dominance of Apple's iPhone in the mobile app download market will be eroded over the coming years as rivals Android, Symbian and BlackBerry make inroads, Ovum has forecast.

New technology developed as a result of the foreclosure crisis known as "intelligent granularity" could lead the way to a more stable and productive lending industry, according to a new report from Integrated Asset Services, a Denver-based valuation provider.

The automated underwriting systems of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could be worth up to $500 million, according to one veteran mortgage technology analyst.

Many housing markets could see stronger recoveries two years from now even though the latest forecast for the coming year shows only modest ones, according to one company's forecast. Although there aren't any overwhelmingly strong appreciating forecasts in the near term, the depreciating ones are milder than they were a year ago, according to Veros Real Estate Solutions, a collateral valuation provider based in Santa Ana, Calif. In its quarterly forecast update for June 2010 through June 2011, Veros said California's Inland Empire area, including Riverside, San Bernardino and Ontario, is seeing modest appreciation, joining the state's strongest metro region, San Diego. "Colorado is beginning to look good again to buyers, with three cities among the top 10," said Eric Fox, Veros' vice president of statistical and economic modeling. "A new entry among the top five positive trending areas is Louisiana's Shreveport and Bossier City area." Chico, Calif. leads the list of weakening markets, but Florida continues its depreciation trend in many areas along its East Coast. Nevada's second largest market, Reno/Sparks, stays on the list of weakest markets while Las Vegas avoided inclusion. Utah did not, however; the Salt Lake City and nearby Provo/Orem areas occupy the last two slots in Veros' bottom 10. Fox said while the Houston metro area is also demonstrating modest improvement, at this point the company can only speculate on the effects, if any, that will result in the residential real estate market from the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf. The company said none of its ZIP code level models for the impacted coastal areas have yet shown significant forecast differences from those ZIP code models that are further inland and less impacted. Real estate values in the Central Plains areas are expected to hold steady in the coming year. Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and parts of Louisiana and Arkansas are holding steady, underscoring a weak but consistent mild recovery.

Digital Realty Trust has completed an amendment to its revolving credit facility that gives it the ability to add eligible unencumbered international assets. The company said the international technology-related real estate assets include properties in Canada, England, Wales, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Singapore and Australia. International assets may comprise up to 25% of the borrowing base, with assets in Spain and Singapore limited to up to 10% of the borrowing base. The amendment aims to provide the company's unsecured lenders with the additional benefit of geographic and tenant concentration diversification and pursue an unsecured financing strategy in Europe and Asia similar to the one it uses in the U.S., according to A. William Stein, chief financial officer and chief investment officer at Digital Realty Trust.

The PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. has promoted Chris Hovey to senior vice president of servicing operations and loss management. In his new role, Hovey is responsible for three groups: claims and loss management; homeownership preservation initiatives and loss mitigation; and policy servicing and business intelligence. He will report to executive vice president, chief business officer, Joanne Berkowitz. Prior to his promotion, Hovey served as vice president of policy servicing and business intelligence. He began his career with PMI in 2002, and has held various positions in portfolio analytics and IT operations for PMI's U.S. mortgage insurance business. Prior to joining PMI, Hovey spent over a decade in the software industry where his experience included founding an eCommerce company, which he sold in 1999.

LendingTree has launched its first Blackberry app, called the Mortgage RateFinder. The free application allows users to obtain on-the-spot loan offers anonymously. "In today's low-rate mortgage environment, it's important for consumers to shop around to ensure they're receiving the best possible rate," said Doug Lebda, founder and CEO of LendingTree. "In fact, since the introduction of our iPhone Mortgage RateFinder app in January, consumers have received more than 51,000 loan offers from participating lenders." In using the app, consumers have to enter information about the loan they would like and the app will instantly provide users with up to 30 different, customized loan offers from network lenders. Once a great offer is found, users can click to be contacted by that lender and move forward with the loan request.

Web-based LOS Avista Solutions has integrated with verification service company Kroll Factual Data. This integration was done at the request of joint clients to allow Avista Solutions' customers to pull credit through Kroll without leaving the Avista Agile LOS. The Avista Agile platform lets users create loan applications online through the system or import applications from external loan origination software. The consumer website portal allows lenders to provide their customers online loan application, status updates, loan officer webpages and online disclosure. Now Avista users will have access to Kroll's credit service, which provides reports in both PDF and text file formats.

CoreLogic Credco has launched Instant Merge LQ and ENCORE LQ to help lenders be compliant with Fannie Mae Loan Quality Initiative requirements. Instant Merge LQ and ENCORE LQ were created to help lenders satisfy requirements under the new Fannie Mae LQI, an initiative designed to help lenders avoid loan buybacks. LQI, which went into effect June 1, 2010, requires lenders to proactively verify identity and disclose the status of all borrower debts immediately prior to pre-funding of the loan, including open and closed tradelines, public records filings or any new inquiries on the credit file. Credco's Instant Merge LQ is a solution for lenders to satisfy prefunding credit refreshes, while ENCORE LQ enables lenders to check credit, identity verification, property data, occupancy status and exclusionary list screening. Both generate a reporting solution for underwriter review.

Origination technology provider Calyx Software has launched MyCalyx.com, a self-service Web portal for users. MyCalyx was designed to simplify Calyx account management with Web access and greater administrative control over Calyx accounts. With MyCalyx customers can install upgrades to Calyx online. Each user is assigned a login and password to download new products and updates. Customers also now have greater control over seat assignments and can make changes online instead of uninstalling and reinstalling CD applications.