Reali to close and hopes to sell its mortgage origination business; Sun West Mortgage launches cash-offer product with NFT component; delinquencies increase in July; Blend offers home-equity lending product; Fitch confident home prices won’t crash like in 2008; Staircase offers new origination tech.
Industry experts are calling on mortgage lenders to boost spending on cybersecurity given the increased risk of cyberattacks due to work-from-home arrangements.
The House passed the SECURE Notarization Act, which would allow for remote online notarization and set minimum standards. It would also allow for interstate notarizations.
Ohio recently became one of 20 states to have some form of legislation or regulation providing remote work opportunities for licensed mortgage loan originators.
Usage of Freddie Mac’s Loan Prospector is largely confined to mortgages that will be delivered to the GSEs while usage of Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter is more widespread in the mortgage market.
Higher interest rates didn’t have much of an impact on home price appreciation in March; Freddie Mac launched new automated underwriting capabilities; Fitch shifts its outlook for ratings of Finance of America Companies to negative; MISMO remains busy.
A Fannie Mae survey of lenders found almost all hope the appraisal process will enter the 21st Century, but most would first invest in digital loan application systems or e-mortgages.
The metaverse financing space is heating up, with major platforms handling hundreds of millions of dollars in “land” transactions last year. Whether mortgage companies should stick a toe in the water is an open question with plenty of risks and potential rewards.