Buoyed by low interest rates, strong property markets and rising property values, commercial and multifamily mortgage banking firms anticipate a solid year in 2020, according to MBA’s 2020 Commercial Real Estate Finance (CREF) Outlook Survey.
Category: News and Trends

MBA Advocacy Update
On December 23, MBA sent a letter to Ginnie Mae offering recommendations on how the agency can improve its upcoming Digital Collateral Guide. Last week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the New York Department of Financial Services both issued warnings alerting companies to potential cybersecurity risks. And on December 20, the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance finalized rules regarding mortgage loan originator temporary authority.

Mark P. Dangelo: 2020—Where Are OUR Attack Points?
In this third and final article on 2020 potential challenges, we find ourselves staring into the glassy lake. The answers on what is important reside not with prescriptive solutions offered, but beneath the surface to ensure that what is undertaken aligns with strategy and the ability of innovations to be found.

Jay Coomes: Advance Your Efficiency
Smoother internal processes can lead to happier consumers, increased profitability and reduced costs. Somewhere in your internal processes, you also have efficiencies to gain.

FHFA: Nearly 4.4 Million Homeowners Helped Since Conservatorship
The Federal Housing Finance Agency released its quarterly Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report, showing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed 26,475 foreclosure prevention actions in the third quarter, bringing the total number of foreclosure prevention actions to 4.38 million since September 2008.

Veros: U.S. Real Estate Appreciation to Continue Throughout 2020
Veros Real Estate Solutions, Santa Ana, Calif., said its fourth quarter VeroFORECAST data project home prices in the nation’s 100 largest markets to increase by nearly 4 percent through December.

‘Silicon Prairie’ Communities Top List of Up-and-Coming Tech Markets
Looking for a place to launch—or provide a mortgage to—a startup? Oklahoma City, Kansas City and Jacksonville provide best potential for growth, while affordability and labor-competition challenges see Silicon Valley desirability fade, according to a new report from Zillow Inc., Seattle.

SRR Settles SAFE MLO Test Questions Lawsuit
The Conference of State Bank Supervisors subsidiary that operates the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System announced it settled a lawsuit against four defendants who were alleged to have misused and reproduced copyrighted questions from the national exam that state-licensed mortgage loan originators must pass to obtain a license.

CREF Outlook Survey: Majority of Firms Expect Originations to Increase in 2020
Following an anticipated record year of lending in 2019, commercial and multifamily mortgage originators expect 2020 to be another strong year in activity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2020 Commercial Real Estate Finance Outlook Survey.

API Standards: The Mortgage Industry’s Next Big Challenge
While relatively new to the mortgage industry, Interest in application programming interfaces and microservices is soaring. These system-to-system technologies have the potential to tremendously enhance communications between lenders, technology vendors and service providers, much better than the traditional, large-scale integrations to exchange data between monolithic systems that are in use today.