Origination

With decisions by state regulators to close mortgage insurance practices for PMI Group, pending the company's ability to meet capital requirements, mortgage insurers continue to fall under scrutiny as a troubled industry.

Despite all-time highs for home affordability, homebuilders are seeing less demand for home construction and more for multifamily rentals, with the Federal Housing Administration recently releasing a report that signals new highs for rental properties across the country. The FHA said that it has endorsed some $10.5 billion in multifamily rental housing loans ├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┼ô seven times the number of loans made three years ago and the only second time that the FHA has lent so much.

Marking a third consecutive month, new home sales fell over July, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. The drop in new home sales reflects still-weakening consumer confidence as new fears about a global economic slowdown continued to rattle stocks and markets worldwide. New single-family house sales dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 298,000 over July, reflecting a downward shift in estimates that fixed these numbers at a 0.7 percent decline from 300,000 homes sold over June.

A new mortgage lender debuts with the company announcement that First Valuation officially launches operations Tuesday. The launch signals a change from a previous name, BrokerPriceOpinion.com, under which the company ran operations for much of the last decade.

California-based Landmark Mortgage Group marked another success Tuesday as it announced its expansion to a new branch, its fourth in less than two years, according to a statement. As part of the expansion, Landmark Mortgage will also hire new manager Linda LaGrasso, a Brentwood native, and mortgage advisor Kathy Mertens.

After threatening to shut down mortgage insurance operations at The PMI Group, Inc., the Arizona Department of Insurance made good by issuing an order that forced the company to cease writing new mortgage policies, effective Friday. PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., the division responsible for mortgage insurance, shut down two of its units in response. A June 30 financial statement signaling a $329-million net loss, coupled with $574 million in incurred losses, alerted the department to approximately $320 million in policy holder deficits.

To stave off the financial crisis, the Fed supplied the biggest Wall Street firms with $1.2 trillion in funds, an amount that overshadows the more public transfer of funds from TARP, Bloomberg News reported.

Four banks walked the line to failure over the weekend, raising the bank collapse figure to 68 on the heels of increased public scrutiny by lawmakers over bank failures. Illinois-based First Choice Bank, Georgia-based First Southern National Bank, Florida-based Lydian Private Bank, and Pennsylvania-based Public Savings Bank all left the table, leaving the FDIC to foot the whopping $374.8-million bill. The FDIC found itself playing the familiar role of receiver in all four loss-share transactions by other banks.

Accenture is planning to acquire Zenta as part of the company├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós ongoing efforts to bolster its mortgage lending and servicing operations. The terms of the transaction have not been released, but Accenture has confirmed its intention to debut a new division targeting consulting, technology, and BPO offerings.

While the economy at large and market skewer, loan volume origination may ride a wave of refinance applications and low mortgage rates into 2011, according to a forecast by the Mortgage Bankers Association.