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Last week saw another drop in mortgage application volume, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported in its Weekly Applications Survey. MBA's Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, fell a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent the week ending November 22, the group reported. It was the fourth straight week of decreases in loan application activity. On an unadjusted basis, the index declined 9 percent week-over-week.

Having risen for the previous four months, mortgage interest rates stumbled in October, according to data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

Appraisal Logistics, a Maryland-based provider of compliant appraisal management solutions for the mortgage industry, announced it has received the ISO 9001:2008 Certification for Quality Management Systems Standards by LQRA, passing a formal evaluation created to examine quality management standards in the financial services industry.

Stewart Title of California announced the promotion of current group SVP Bob Oakland to the position of president.

According to Change Sciences' findings, mortgage sites as a whole are "less usable" than sites providing traditional e-commerce offerings, such as Amazon and Walmart. Compared to other financial sites, mortgage domains rank about average; they fall short when put against personal finance sites. "Many mortgage sites are missing an opportunity to establish a meaningful rapport with mortgage shoppers," Change Sciences said in its report.

With the federal government shutdown and debt ceiling negotiations still fresh in the nation's collective mind, Fannie Mae expects "continued market volatility" heading into the start of 2014.

Lenders Compliance Group Inc. (LCG) announced the appointment of Michael J. Wallace Esq. to the position of director of marketing compliance.

Though tightened underwriting standards have been partly to blame for why housing isn't recovering faster, CoreLogic's Sam Khater says the silver lining is that loan performance has improved greatly. "While there has been much consternation about underwriting being too tight in the context of forthcoming mortgage regulations, one underappreciated outcome has been the very good performance of mortgages during the last few years," Khater said in an article in CoreLogic's most recent Marketpulse report.

According to Ellie Mae's data, which draws from a sampling of the loan applications flowing through the company's network, purchase loan share was 61 percent in October.

LRES, a California-based company specializing in commercial and residential valuations and asset management, announced it has received a Certificate of Authority to conduct business in the U.S. Virgin Islands.