Tag Archives: Mortgage Applications

Credit unions found reason to celebrate recently, with the National Credit Union Administration revealing that unions saw their biggest quarterly push in lending since fall 2008. According to the report, released on Friday, credit unions signed off on $581.7 billion in outstanding total loans over the second quarter. The uptick marks the fifth straight quarterly increase for total loans and helped credit unions originate 1.7 percent more home loans from the quarter before.

While fraud in the financial services sector declined year-over-year from April through June, mortgage fraud increased, according to the latest report from Experian, a global information services company based in London. Thirty-nine out of every 10,000 mortgage applications were fraudulent during the April to June period, up from 32 out of 10,000 in the same period last year, according to Experian. Twenty-four percent of all attempted mortgage fraud cases were the result of individuals misrepresenting their credit by hiding certain information.

New York-based GFI Mortgage Bankers Inc., reached a $3.5 million settlement with the Department of Justice regarding discriminatory lending practices Tuesday.

Just how important is disclosure to American borrowers? Very important, if the figures from a recent Harris Interactive survey mean anything. MortgageMarvel.com commissioned a survey of 2,214 American adults 18 years or older to learn that one full-quarter of Americans take disclosure into account when considering their next home loan. After disclosure, 20 percent of survey respondents ranked anonymity as their second most-valued quality in the lending process.

Outpacing industry forecasts, mortgage originations ticked up 5.2 percent in the second quarter, totaling $405 billion during the three-month period, according to a report released this week from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. On an annual basis, originations are up 44.6 percent, according to the study. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods suggests much of the increase came from refinance activity driven by low interest rates.

Mortgage applications decreased 4.5 percent over the week last week with most of the decrease occurring among refinance applications, according to the latest survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association. (MBA). Refinance activity fell 5 percent compared to the previous week, while purchase activity declined 2 percent.

Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), laid out the agency's aims to reform mortgage lending standards before a Congressional subcommittee Tuesday. Speaking before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on TARP, Financial Services, and Bailouts of Public and Private Programs, Cordray acknowledged that although the Dodd-Frank Act has had a hand in improving most consumer lending markets, tight mortgage lending standards have kept creditworthy borrowers out of homes.

Wells Fargo wrote a check for $175 million on Thursday to settle claims that independent brokers drove a disproportionate number of otherwise creditworthy minority borrowers to higher-priced variable mortgages in the lead-up to the financial crisis. The payout will tie off a suit filed by federal authorities earlier Thursday that claimed discriminatory practices from 2004 to 2009 had negatively impacted more than 34,000 black and Hispanic borrowers. Wells Fargo denied any of the claims and took action Thursday to stop originating loans with independent mortgage brokers by Friday.

Optimism is good for the recovery, but too much optimism can lead us back on the path to the next housing bubble, said Trulia Chief Economist Jed Kolko during a conference call Wednesday. Although home prices are rising, renters might be overconfident, with 58 percent of respondents expecting home prices to return to peak in the next 10 years. In this case, Kolko said optimism is outpacing reality, and it is very unlikely that prices in those hardest hit markets will return to the peaks in the next 10 years. As for the rental market, Kolko said there is no danger of a bubble and if anything, we are in danger of the rental market becoming extremely tight in some markets.

On July 1, borrowers wanting to take out an FHA-insured loan would have potentially experienced a closing delay of 3 months or more if they had debt totaling or exceeding $1,000. Now, the FHA ""credit-dispute"" rule has been withdrawn, according to an agency letter released Friday. A HUD spokesperson said in an email that the decision to rescind the earlier proposal was based on input received. A new guidance on the issue will also be published very soon, the spokeperson stated.