Origination

Responding to higher mortgage rates, the National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI) slipped 0.4 percent in June to 110.9, the group reported Monday.

Wells Fargo Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co., will exit from its eight mortgage joint ventures in mortgage lending due to "the current regulatory and market environment," the company announced Thursday.

Prospective buyers have had to step up their game as the market continues to grow more competitive.

In California, Prospect Mortgage, LLC named veteran mortgage finance professional Amy Brandt as COO.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac together recorded 418,004 refinances in May, a drop from 463,587 in April but still well above May 2012's 341,185.

Linda B. Bammann will be resigning from Freddie Mac's board of directors at the end of July, the company announced.

The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) revised its economic forecast down and its mortgage originations and mortgage rate forecasts up in its most recent outlook released Thursday. Having previously announced a 2.4 percent economic growth forecast for the second half of this year, MBA now believes economic growth will be closer to 2.2 percent. At the same time, the association's forecast for originations has risen to about $606 billion, an improvement over the original prediction of $527 billion.

In a company release, Tommy Duncan, CEO of Quality Mortgage Services (QMS) and Certified Mortgage Technologist, exposed and explained the top three compliance issues concerning problematic mortgage origination applications.

In Colorado, Alliant National Title Insurance Company announced the hiring of Noemi Lopez as senior claims counsel.

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that advance initial unemployment figures for the week ending July 20 totaled 343,000, an increase of 7,000 over the previous week's revised tally. The four-week moving average for first-time claims was 345,250, a decline of 1,250 from the prior week.