Origination

Legal actions on mortgage fraud cases fell to a post-crisis low in 2013's third quarter, Mortgage Daily reported in its quarterly Mortgage Fraud Index. The index, which tracks motions and decisions on cases in which lenders are given false information for the loan decision process, was 655 in Q3, the lowest value since the fourth quarter of 2007. Despite the overall decline, certain states remain hot spots for fraud; According to the site, California had the highest third-quarter index value, and Nevada's index climbed again.

Mueller Reports, a provider of property data collection services operating out of New York state, announced its intentions to expand into the valuation space in 2014.

The level of commercial/multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased $25.2 billion in Q3, with all four major investor groups increasing their holdings, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported. The quarterly increase (representing about a 1.0 percent gain) was the largest since 2008, MBA reported. As of the end of the third quarter, total commercial and multifamily debt outstanding was $2.47 trillion. Just on the multifamily side, outstanding debt increased $10.8 billion (1.2 percent) to $887 billion.

HUD has issued a newly revised definition of a qualified mortgage (QM) that will affect all Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-insured loans moving forward. The new rules go into effect on January 10, 2014, and will apply to mortgages that are insured, guaranteed, or administered by HUD. The agency defined two categories of QM, with the main difference being the relation between a loan's annual percentage rate and its average prime offer rate.

Fixed mortgage rates moved down slightly this week, reflecting a lack of much solid news for markets to latch on to. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaging 4.42 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending December 12, a decrease from 4.46 percent last week. The same time last year, the 30-year FRM averaged 3.32 percent. Bankrate.com reported even smaller changes in its weekly survey. According to the finance site, the 30-year fixed averaged 3.55 percent this week, unchanged from the last report.

Applications for new home purchases plummeted from October to November, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) estimates in its latest Builder Application Survey (BAS).

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) published on Wednesday new guidelines for lenders to use when manually underwriting loan applications for borrowers applying for FHA-insured mortgages. Chief among the changes is a set of "compensating factors" for lenders to use when considering borrowers whose debt-to-income percentages exceed established ratios (31 percent for housing costs and 43 percent for total discretionary debt).

Tom Lewis, founder and CEO of Arizona-based homebuilder T.W. Lewis Company, is the first-ever inductee in Professional Builder magazine's National Housing Quality (NHQ) Award Hall of Fame, the company announced.

Mortgage applications recovered slightly during the first week of December, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported. MBA's Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey showed a 1.0 percent increase in loan application volume (seasonally adjusted) for the week ending December 6. The previous survey's results had included an adjustment for the Thanksgiving holiday. Unadjusted, the index increased 43 percent. As applications rose, so did mortgage rates.

In 1998, the top ten mortgage loan originators held around 40 percent of the market. By 2010, their share increased to nearly 80 percent; since then, it's dropped down to around 60 percent. Why the decrease? Because only five of the top 20 single-family mortgage originators in 2006 remain active today. So what's driving the big guys out--market cycles or market restructuring? And will the current trend of favoring smaller lenders last forever? Fannie Mae's Gerry Flood and Patrick Fischetti explored the topic in a recent commentary.