Origination

The Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) of San Francisco has elected Pacific Premier Bancorp CEO Steven R. Gardner to its board of directors.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's" (MBA) Mortgage Credit Availability Index (MCAI) slipped 1.2 percent to settle at 110.2 in November, wiping out the 0.7 percent gain recorded a month prior.

LoanSifter, a Wisconsin-based company specializing in technology for loan originators and secondary departments, is hosting two industry panels this week to address concerns and strategies revolving around the soon-to-be-implemented qualified mortgage (QM) rule.

Crowdsourcing caught fire as a vehicle for financing documentaries and small businesses. Now, the concept of pooled resources is being used as an investment vehicle offering equities in homeownership to investors and loan assistance to selected prospective homeowners. One of the first companies to offer such a program is PRIMARQ, a capital market company headed up by founder and CEO Steve Cinelli, who says equity deficiencies have become a major barrier for prospective homeowners.

PNC and Freddie Mac announced an agreement to resolve substantially all indemnification and repurchase obligations related to loans sold to Freddie Mac between 2000 and 2008.

Growing amounts of housing permits, improving home prices, and positive job numbers are leading to a stabilized housing market according to analysts. Recent studies revealed that markets in 54 out of the approximately 350 metro areas nationwide returned to or exceeded their last normal levels of economic and housing activity, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/First American Leading Markets Index (LMI). However, policymakers still need to watch their footing.

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) is bringing down loan limits on single-family mortgages next year, HUD announced Friday. According to the announcement, FHA's revised ceiling for single-family loan limits will come down to $625,000 from $729,750. "As the housing market continues its recovery, it is important for FHA to evaluate the role we need to play," said FHA Commissioner Carol Galante. "Implementing lower loan limits is an important and appropriate step as private capital returns to portions of the market."

The national unemployment rate sank from 7.3 percent to 7.0 percent in November, with 203,000 new jobs added to employer payrolls, the U.S. Department of Labor reported Friday.

Private mortgage insurers reported issuing more policies in October than in the month prior--but dollar volume decreased over the month, according to monthly numbers released by Mortgage Insurance Companies of America (MICA). Member companies represented in the trade group's statistics reported issuing 38,908 insurance certificates for borrowers seeking to buy or refinance a home in October. At the same time, dollar volume on insurance written throughout the month totaled $8.7 billion, the lowest amount since May 2012.

Zillow expects conditions next year to be a bit friendlier to homebuyers--but that doesn't mean we'll necessarily see more owner-occupied housing, experts at the real estate marketplace say. Looking at ongoing trends, Zillow made four major predictions about the course of housing over 2014: a 3 percent increase in home values, a rise in mortgage rates to 5 percent, a clearer road to credit for borrowers, and a decline in homeownership to normal levels.