National Mortgage News

In October's news roundup in the mortgage industry, learn more about Fairway's legal battles over redlining and overtime, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's updates to rules on appraisals and waiver access and more. #mortgage

ICYMI: “What will happen very shortly is that with the advent of true virtual and voice AI assistance, we'll be able to really start to have the AI answer calls and have actual human conversations,” said Jason Bressler, chief technology officer at United Wholesale Mortgage.

Research from the National Association of Home Builders found 64.8% of all single family properties constructed last year were in a community or homeowners association, up from 62.6% in 2022.

“Both before and after our new per-score royalty, the royalties collected by FICO are fair and reasonable, and continue to be the lowest of all individual mortgage closing costs,” Jim Wehmann, executive vice president of scores, wrote.

How's Better getting better? Tune in, on demand, to our recent leaders forum for a discussion with its new COO and mortgage veteran Chad Smith about tech and LO strategies for thriving in a higher rate environment. - https://bit.ly/3YtuM9w

ICYMI: A good origination boss is in constant contact with the sales floor; otherwise they’re just an elected delegate, not serving their LO constituents or corporation well, said Adam Spiegelman of Planet Home Lending, LLC.

"In the last year, the U.S. saw several historic-level weather disaster events and the highest level of catastrophic claims across all perils we've seen in the past seven years, which contributes to rising premiums that consumers across the country face right now," said Cole Winans, vice president, home insurance, LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

Atherton, CA; Sagaponack NY; Water Mill, NY; Sagaponack, NY; and Santa Barbara, CA, are among the most expensive ZIP codes in the U.S, according to data from PropertyShark. Read more about the median home prices in these ZIP codes.

During Mr. Cooper’s second-quarter earnings call, Group President Michael Weinbach stated that future acquisitions aren’t off the table, but the company is in a gestation period as it prepares to finalize the deal with Flagstar sometime in early 2025. Jay Bray, chairman and chief executive of Mr. Cooper, echoed the sentiment at a Barclays investor conference this summer, but highlighted “aggressive buyers” as a driving factor behind the decision to step out of the spotlight for the time being. "The first part of the year was, well, we looked at a lot of deals. It was very active. There was a lot of supply. I'd say the summer was even pretty active, but there were a couple of aggressive buyers out there. So we kind of sat on the sidelines and let them bid aggressively," Bray said. #mortgage #mortgageindustry

“By not adopting this, we are putting ourselves at risk because it is not only the good actors who have access to this technology, there are also bad actors that have access to this technology,” said Olivia Peterson of Amazon Web Services (AWS).