Origination

The American Civil Liberties Union announced it has filed a suit against Morgan Stanley on the grounds of encouraging loan discrimination.

Trulia is teaming with mortgage technology provider Mortech, Inc., to provide mortgage products and rate information to Trulia visitors.

A Manhattan real estate attorney was sentenced to 51 months in prison for his role in a $9 million mortgage fraud scheme, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara announced Friday. According to the indictment and statements made in court proceedings, Eric Finger and his co-conspirators used "straw buyers" to fraudulently obtain mortgages from lenders.

MISMO, the non-profit standards development subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), announced Monday it is seeking nominations to serve on its Residential and Commercial Governance Committees. The committees are responsible for providing strategic and tactical guidance to MISMO's workgroup and standards development activities.

A significant increase in home prices helped push Deloitte's Consumer Spending Index up in September, the company reported.

Higher mortgage revenues helped Citigroup see retail banking revenues increase 35 percent to $1.7 billion from the third quarter of 2011.

Citing "positive developments occurring in the housing market," A.M. Best is maintaining a stable ratings outlook for title insurance.

Home prices in September were up 5 percent year-over-year while home sales posted a 4 percent annual increase, even as housing metrics began their typical seasonal declines, according to Redfin's analysis of activity across 19 major U.S. markets. Between August and September, these 19 markets saw prices decline just 0.8 percent, which Redfin says is a smaller decline than is customary at this time of year. Over the same period, home sales dropped 17 percent├â┬ó├óÔÇÜ┬¼├óÔé¼┬Øa figure the company says represents "a typical seasonal decline."

Increased mortgage-related revenue pushed both Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase to record quarterly profits in 3Q 2012, the banks reported.

Even with the record-low mortgage rates seen today, refinancing numbers are still not as high as expected. In CoreLogic's most recent MarketPulse report, Sam Khater and Molly Boesel noted, "the overall level of refinancing is still low given current mortgage rates, and there are still many homeowners nationwide with above market rates." Despite the new expansions from HARP 2.0, including the removal of its 125 percent LTV ceiling, other restrictions are still preventing homeowners from refinancing.