Author: PROGRESS In Lending

CoreLogic®, a global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider, released its monthly Loan Performance Insights Report for March 2023. Here are the takeaways:

MISMO, the real estate finance industry’s standards organization, is calling for industry professionals to join a new development workgroup (DWG) focused on creating a MISMO-published Title Pricing Application Programming Interface (API) specification.

Homebuyer affordability declined further in April, with the national median payment applied for by purchase applicants increasing 0.9 percent to $2,112 from $2,093 in March. This is according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Purchase Applications Payment Index (PAPI), which measures how new monthly mortgage payments vary across time – relative to income – using data from MBA’s Weekly Applications Survey (WAS). 

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions released the results of its annual Cybercrime Report, an analysis of data from 79.8 billion transactions processed through its LexisNexis® Digital Identity Network® throughout 2022. The report, Trust and Collaboration as Foundations to Fight Fraud, shows that the global digital attack rate increased 20% year over year (YOY) compared to 2021, continuing the trend of digital fraud rising as economies re-open following the pandemic.

Doma Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: DOMA) (“Doma”), and Williston Financial Group (“WFG”), a Portland, Oregon-based, full-service provider of title insurance, underwriting and escrow services for residential and commercial real estate transactions nationwide, have jointly announced the signing and closing of an agreement for WFG to acquire certain branches of Doma’s West Coast local retail title operations. The sale includes multiple retail title locations and operations centers in the Northern and Central California regions.

Buying a new home — especially for your first time clients — is a rollercoaster of emotions. The highs of touring available houses and vividly picturing the new lives they may soon lead is followed by the white-knuckle ride to submit a winning offer. Finally, anxiety builds during the seemingly endless wait for loan approval. That’s why Guaranteed Rate introduced the revolutionary concept of Same Day Mortgage.

Foundation Mortgage Corporation announced today that the OptifiNow TPO CRM platform has helped them rapidly grow their wholesale mortgage division within two months of launching their TPO channel. “We saw an opportunity to grow a wholesale team and OptifiNow TPO was key to our success,” said Marc Halpern, CEO of Foundation Mortgage.

Planet Home Lending, a mortgage loan primary and special servicer, announced that S&P Global Ratings has affirmed its overall “average” rankings for residential Primary (prime) and Special Servicing. Additionally, S&P Global Ratings revised Planet’s outlook to “positive” from “stable” for both rankings. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a new circular affirming that a bank may violate federal law if it unilaterally reopens a deposit account to process transactions after a consumer has already closed it. The CFPB has observed in complaints that even after a consumer completes all the required steps to close an account, their bank has “reopened” the closed account and assessed overdraft and nonsufficient funds fees. Consumers have reported to the CFPB that financial institutions have also charged account maintenance fees upon reopening, even if the consumer was not required to pay account maintenance fees prior to account closure.

Veros Real Estate Solutions released its 2023 Q1 VeroFORECAST that anticipates home prices will be flat overall for the next twelve months. This is a slight improvement from the 0.5% annual depreciation forecast just one quarter ago. VeroFORECAST evaluates home prices in over 300 of the nation’s largest housing markets. Veros is committed to the data science of predicting home value based on rigorous analysis of the fundamentals and interrelationships of numerous economic, housing, and geographic variables pertaining to home value.

Independent mortgage banks (IMBs) and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net loss of $1,972 on each loan they originated in the first quarter of 2023, an improvement from the reported loss of $2,812 per loan in the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) newly released Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report.