Technology

Lender Processing Services released a statement announcing today that the Real Estate Board of New York chose its MLS Portal to operate as the platform for its new Web site, which allows New Yorkers to search for homes.

The numbers are in, and New York tops the list of states boasting the highest mortgage closing costs nationwide. The results of the Bankrate, Inc. survey demonstrate New York├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós dubious dominance in closing fees for the second straight year. Other high-cost areas rounding out the top five? Texas, Utah, San Francisco, and Idaho. Nationally, the total cost of origination and title fees has risen since last year by 8.8 percent, to an average cost of $4,070 on a $200,000 mortgage.

In a statement released Thursday, Global DMS announced that the Uniform Collateral Data Portal would now offer its appraisal process management software to lenders and appraisal companies.

In a statement released Thursday, mortgage software provider Ellie Mae announced new technology and service upgrades to help mortgage lenders to manage their trade and improve eFolder capabilities.

On Thursday LCS Financial Services Corporation released a statement signaling that it hired Mike Sullivan to take over as SVP, representing a leap in the right direction for the former senior executive. Mike├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós contributions to previous organizations and the industry are very impressive.

As it gears up for a formal operations launch in July, the controversial Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continues to accept comments from the public on the Know Before You Owe mortgage disclosure program, which it opened to commentary in May. But there is something else unusual about the commentary period. The CFPB wants the public to participate in the finalizations for Know Before You Owe by logging into their social media accounts and literally comment about the rule online. This is in addition to other commentary.

Under a new agreement between American Bankers Association subsidiary Business Solutions and Mortgagebot, banks signed up with the former will have the ability to access solutions for their online mortgage applications.

Adding to an innovative new remediation platform it launched in May, the National Association of Field Mortgage Services announced key additions that propose to enhance the speed and ease in field services.

Tech leaders a la mode and CoreLogic are teaming up. CoreLogic├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós ValuEdge platform will now connect with a la mode├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔÇ×┬ós Mercury Network to facilitate ValuEdge's Native XML appraisal data. CoreLogic's ValuEdge software targets streamlined appraisal process compliance, and the integrated plugin with a la mode will provide CoreLogic with additional quality control elements and advanced bundling for all reports.

The real estate information marketplace Zillow has expanded its database of homes, leveraging user-submitted data to add more than 25 million new home valuations generated from the company's proprietary Zestimate algorithms, which are Zillow's own market value estimates based on various details available about individual properties. The company says it now has data, Zestimates, and Rent Zestimates on more than three-quarters of all homes in the United States.