Origination

Purchase loans took up more space among originations in August as credit requirements eased, according to data presented in Ellie Mae's monthly Origination Insight Report.

While noting improvement in economic activity and labor market conditions, the Federal Open Market Committee voted Wednesday to continue its policy of near-zero interest rates and its $85-billion-per-month bond-buying program. At the same time, the Federal Reserve's own economic projections suggested the economy might not grow this year as fast as it expected just three months ago.

September marks the one-year anniversary of the opening of Mortgage Contracting Services' (MCS) operation center in Ruston, Louisiana--and the company already has plenty to celebrate for the occasion.

A slight decline in interest rates helped boost mortgage application volume last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported Wednesday in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The survey's Market Composite Index, a measure of loan application volume, increased 11.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending September 13. The weekly improvement was aided in part by a rebound in refinance activity, which increased 18 percent from the previous week.

Led by the strongest gain for single-family construction this, year, the pace of housing starts edged up 0.9 percent in August, the Census Bureau and HUD reported Wednesday. Builders broke ground in August on new homes at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 891,000--up from a revised 883,000 in July--and filed for permits at the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 918,000, down from 954,000 in July. The gain in both single-family permits and starts came amid signs of improving builder confidence.

President Obama spoke to the nation Monday--one day after the five-year anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse that kicked off the financial crisis--to tout the progress the country has made and to urge Republicans to action as a potential government shutdown looms. The president wasn't the only one to speak--other current and former government officials and analysts offered their own commentary on the country's circumstances, and not all of it was charitable.

New research from finance information website MoneyRates.com suggests borrowers may not be benefitting from low mortgage interest rates as much as other analysts say. The first figures from the site's new Consumers Lost Interest Percentage (CLIP) Index show the difference between what consumers earn on one-month certificate of deposit (CD) rates and what they spend on 30-year mortgage rates is now 4.4 percent, nearly 55 percent higher than the 40-year average of 2.83 percent.

The National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Housing Market Index (HMI) stalled at 58 in September, unchanged from August's downwardly revised reading, the group reported.

Carrington Mortgage Services' lending division announced the appointment of Kathy Keller as branch manager for its Springfield, Virginia, office.

Redfin reported another slip in homebuyer demand in August, with both home tours and offers declining.