Mortgage technology

Industry watchers make their wildest guesses (more or less) about developments in real estate finance that could rock the industry in the upcoming months.

Electronic notes did come in handy this year given the mortgage industry's need to operate remotely, but they also increase the government-sponsored enterprises' responsibility for monitoring the risk of multiple counterparties.

The government-sponsored enterprise’s seller/servicer guide is now integrated into the online portal. Freddie also improved the readability of loan-level reporting it provides, and has further changes in the works.

Only 18% of refinance borrowers returned to the same lender in the second quarter, the second lowest rate since 2005.

Though overall forbearance share is down, the number of extensions is rising as coronavirus hardship filings surpass the 90-day mark that delineates the end of traditional forbearance plans.

Issuers approved for the program will receive written authority to use "digital collateral" for a limited number of securitizations.

The court struck down a 2015 update to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which permitted robocalls to cellphones for government-related debt collection.

The language most frequently spoken by LEP consumers is Spanish, followed by Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog. The Federal Housing Finance Agency's online clearinghouse translates CARES Act forbearance information into these languages.

The other parts of the Day 1 Certainty program regarding income and asset verifications remain in effect.

Not so long after Treasury bond yields experienced an unprecedented drop, the average 30-year mortgage rate rose, reflecting volatility related to the coronavirus as well as capacity issues on multiple levels.