Origination

Home sales and prices both improved year-over-year for the 19th straight month in August, according to multiple listing service (MLS) data from RE/MAX.

Mortgage Returns, a St. Louis-based provider of marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for the mortgage industry, announced the launch of its Business Analysis Reports, an in-depth report offering information on production statistics, marketing return on investment (ROI), customer retention, and loan officer performance.

In a blog for the company, Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko posits his own theory for why new construction is moving so slowly.

360 Mortgage Group, a privately owned mortgage banker headquartered in Austin, Texas, announced the hiring of Scott Brackett as regional manager for the western region of the United States.

Second-quarter origination volume (in dollars) increased 9.6 percent over the same time last year as purchase loans started to make meaningful contributions to the housing recovery, Experian reported in its quarterly analysis of real estate trends. According to Experian's report, origination volume climbed to $478 billion, $42 billion more than Q2 last year. What was more notable to Experian, however, was how origination activity was split: As refinance volume tumbled, purchase volume stepped in to make up some of the difference.

MortgageDashboard released version 5 of its flagship mortgage software, revealing a new interface designed to be simpler and more intuitive for lenders.

Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey has the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaging 4.50 percent (0.7 point) for the week ending September 19.

Existing-home sales rose an unexpected 6.5 percent to an annual sales rate of 5.48 million, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported Thursday. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected existing home sales to drop to 5.255 million from July's originally reported July's 5.39 million sales pace which was unchanged in today's report. The increase in sales came as the median price of an existing single family home in August dipped slightly from July, down $300 to $212,100.

Following a sharp drop in first-time claims for unemployment insurance a week earlier, initial filings rose 15,000 for the week ending September 14 to 309,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Economists had expected the number of claims to jump up 49,000 to 341,000, from the 292,000 originally reported for the week ending September 7. The number of filings for that week was revised up to 294,000.

A new tool released Wednesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) provides heat maps and illustrative graphs that detail local mortgage market trends.