News

Following in the footsteps of other industries, mortgage firms are starting to adopt new technologies like Application Programming Interfaces (API) in order to reduce errors and costs and speed up transactions. Lenders utilizing APIs said they do so primarily to integrate appraisal and verification information with their Loan Origination System. According to lenders, loan production holds the greatest potential for APIs and Chatbots alike.

Tyneia (Tye) Merritt, a managing partner at Marinosci Law Group, P.C., in California, has joined the board of the Council for Inclusion in Financial Services.

Fifty-six percent of homebuyers deem that “forever homes” are outdated. With changing lifestyles and shorter tenure in homes, buyers are looking to new home construction rather than a resale in order to get the exact floor plan they want. Higher interest rates are not a turn off for the present-day buyer who prefers convenience to price.

Though previously labeled as entitled, millennials have high expectations when it comes to being independent. A study revealed that millennials think people should be financially self sufficient at a younger age than older generations do. This hints to a promising future in the housing market.

Household debt has surpassed recession levels, according to the New York Federal Reserve. Mortgage debt proved to be the highest increasing debt factor, going up went up by $147 billion quarterly and $258 billion annually. Total mortgage debt as of Q1 2017 was $8.63 trillion.

Purchase loans are up and refis are down according to a recent report. Refis are down significantly over the past six months, while purchase loans are on the rise. Time to close is also narrowing for the month on both purchase and refi loans, averaging just 41 to 42 days per loan.

Today’s mortgage servicers are suffering from overly disparate technology solutions, and those disconnected systems are holding businesses back, according to a new report. In response to increased compliance follow the housing crisis, most available mortgage technology has become product-specific, and that’s created a disconnect that requires fractured, inefficient processes that are costly and unwieldy. The report proposes an overlay system to bridge the gaps and provide more consistency.

MERSCORP Holdings, Inc., announced this week it will support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s updated Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements by facilitating legal entity identifier (LEI) registrations and renewals for users of MERS System and other industry participants.

Adolfo Marzol has been appointed to the position of Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Following his appointment, he resigned from the Board of Directors of Essent Group Ltd.

New data shows that the West—specifically the Northwest—had the top-performing market for Q1 2017. Seattle and Portland had two of the strongest showings in terms of price growth, while the region as a whole saw prices rise 8 percent over the year. The worst market for the quarter was Memphis, Tennessee.