Mortgage credit availability decreased in September, remaining at a six-year low, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning.
Category: News and Trends

Quote
“The housing market overall is on strong footing, but the data show that lenders are being cautious, given the spike in mortgage delinquency rates in the second quarter, as well as the ongoing economic uncertainty.”
–Joel Kan, MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting.

Record-Low Interest Rates Spark Refi Surge in MBA Weekly Survey
We apparently haven’t seen a bottom in mortgage interest rates—and it got a lot of borrowers off their couches, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported this morning in its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending October 2.

Placing Capital in Uncertain Times: A Conversation with CBRE’s Val Achtemeier
MBA NewsLink interviewed Valerie Achtemeier, Executive Vice President at CBRE Capital Markets in the Debt & Structured Finance Group. Based in Los Angeles, Achtemeier leads a team in placing debt and equity on commercial real estate throughout the U.S.

State Financial Regulators Seek Comment on ‘Prudential Standards’ for Nonbank Mortgage Servicers
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors seeks public input on proposed regulatory prudential standards for nonbank mortgage servicers, as the state-regulated industry covers an increasing share of this market.

Along Came COVID: Emerging Tech Trends in Commercial Real Estate Finance
Emerging technologies and start-up firms proliferated in commercial real estate over the last several years. With the conventional wisdom being that while the single-family real estate finance industry has embraced new technologies and innovation, CRE was a laggard and therein lies a massive opportunity.

Jessica Longman: Education is Key–Reduce Homeowner Frustration Regarding Property Taxes
Some of the most common questions that servicers receive from customers revolve around property taxes. An important aspect to providing an excellent experience for your customers includes educating them on the critical pieces they need to know about their loan; in turn this will reduce call volume relating to property tax questions and reduce overall homeowner frustration about taxes and payments.

Sponsored Content from ServiceLink: Keeping Up with Surging Demand Requires Smart Technology
With record-low interest rates and an ongoing rush of refinance demand, mortgage lenders are racing to process as much business as they can. How can their settlement service providers help?

Tom Millon, CMB, and Tony Pistilli: Valuations and the Pandemic–The ‘New Normal’ for Appraisal
Temporary, alternative inspections methods help to demonstrate the reliability and benefits of bifurcation and may very well assist in the evolution of home appraisals.

Fitch: Remote Working to Affect Housing Demand—But Not U.S. RMBS Ratings
Fitch Ratings, New York, said while remote working in the U.S. accelerated as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, and is reducing the importance of proximity to offices and causing migration from urban to suburban and exurban areas, it does not expect any material effect on the credit quality of its rated U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities pools.