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2 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
William Pulte The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), regulator of government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has established a tip line “where anyone and everyone can submit tips on anyone fraudulently filling out mortgage apps,” Bill Pulte, director of the agency, announced recently on X. “We have been getting some amazing tips,” Pulte says in a follow-up post yesterday. “Thank you everyone, keep them coming.
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3 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Mike Iorio Cornerstone Capital Bank, a national provider of residential mortgage finance and loan servicing solutions and consumer, commercial and institutional banking services, has launched two joint venture companies with homebuilders in Texas and North Carolina. With the addition of Twin Tree Mortgage (Texas) and Liberty Ridge Lending (North Carolina), Cornerstone has now formed and managed joint venture mortgage companies for 15 homebuilders nationwide.
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3 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Cost, resistance to change and integration challenges continue to be the primary reasons that mortgage lenders fail to upgrade their technology stack, a report from STRATMOR Group finds. At the same time, lenders are making significant strides in adopting robotic process automation (RPA). Roughly 48% of mortgage lenders now use automation to streamline tasks like ordering appraisals and credit scores, the advisory firm says.
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3 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Robert Karraa First American Data & Analytics has launched VeriTitle, a new solution designed to help accelerate the borrowing experience by leveraging proprietary data to provide lenders with an assessment of title conditions earlier in the transaction, as soon as borrowers begin their loan applications.
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3 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Paul Gigliotti Paul Gigliotti has been promoted to chief growth officer at Prudent AI, which aims to accelerate AI adoption across the mortgage industry. Gigliotti has more than two decades of experience spanning mortgage lending, fintech, operations and strategic growth. He has built a reputation for driving transformation through technology.
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4 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
J.R. Huber Mortgage industry veterans J.R. Huber and Debbie Gadberry have launched Next Level Education, a new training provider dedicated to empowering mortgage professionals through cutting-edge education and industry-leading expertise. The new firm leverages an advanced learning management system from Adobe, along with the full suite of Adobe tools, to deliver a more engaging and personalized learning experience, helping both new and experienced professionals enhance their skills.
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4 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Mortgage bankers made an average profit of $443 on each loan they originated in 2024, up from an average loss of $1,056 per loan in 2023, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Annual Mortgage Bankers Performance Report. “After two preceding years of net losses, net production income was back in the black in 2024,” says Marina Walsh, CMB, vice president of industry analysis for the MBA, in the report.
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4 days ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Applications for mortgages for new home purchases increased by 14% in March compared with February and were up 5.5% compared with March 2024, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Builder Application Survey (BAS). The increase fit seasonal patterns and was spurred by lower mortgage rates that came during February and March.
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1 week ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Mortgage rates increased this week, as market volatility continued, with the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) at 6.83%, up from 6.62% last week, according to Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. A year ago at this time, the average rate for a 30-year was 7.1%. Looking at the bright side, Sam Khater, chief economist for Freddie Mac, notes that the 30-year has been below 7% for 13 consecutive weeks.
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1 week ago | 
mortgageorb.com | Patrick Barnard
Housing starts stalled in March on tariff and trade-war concerns, dropping 11.4% compared with February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.324 million, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. However, housing starts were up 1.9% compared with March 2024. Starts of detached, single-family homes were at a rate of 940,000, down 14.2% compared with February.
