Headlines

The merger is expected to enhance the size of the largest publicly-traded single-family rental company, California-based American Homes 4 Rent, which prior to the merger owned approximately 38,000 rental properties.

ValuAmerica, Inc., a national title agency, appraisal management company and technology provider, recently announced that the company has teamed up with Black Knight Financial Services, Inc., a provider of integrated technology, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, to provide a fully integrated loan closing solution for lenders.

Earlier this year, the nation's third-largest mortgage lender and the Department of Justice went back and forth in a legal battle accusing the lender of improperly originating and underwriting Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages. This battle could very well be the lender's motivation to leave the government program alone for good.

The future of housing in America can seem so close, yet so far away, but government officials and housing experts are already hot on the case making their evaluations of the present state of the market and prediction on the future.

"The trend in the market indicates consumers appear more confident in the economy and are moving forward with their lives and borrowing money again." -Assad Lazarus, SVP, Product and Customer Experience at Equifax Personal Information Solutions.

As 2016 lies just under one month away, the mortgage industry is already on top of what to expect in the coming year with predictions on what the housing sector may or may not bring.

Fannie Mae’s gross mortgage portfolio continued its rapid contraction in October by expanding for the seventh consecutive month in October and the eighth time in 10 months year-to-date in 2015, according to Fannie Mae's October 2015 Monthly Volume Summary.

"Many markets have experienced a low inventory of homes for sale along with strong buyer demand, which is sustaining upward pressure on home prices. These conditions are likely to persist as we enter 2016,” said Dr. Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic.

Domestic-based, end-to-end mortgage services provider LenderLive has announced the hiring of Scott Banks as the new SVP of Finance, Mortgage Services.

OpenClose and Lending & Banking Automation Software announced that they have teamed up to provide an automated loan compensation process, which will no longer require companies to manually track commission and payouts. OpenClose is an enterprise-class, multi-channel, end-to-end loan origination system provider and LBA Ware provides commission automation software.