TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/792861
TH E M R EP O RT | 41 O R I G I NAT I O N S E R V I C I N G DATA G O V E R N M E N T S E C O N DA R Y M A R K E T ORIGINATION THE LATEST Home Prices Just Shy of New National High Home prices are up 33.7 percent from their cyclical low reached in early 2012. T he Data and Analytics department of Black Knight Financial Servic- es Inc. recently released its Home Price Index (HPI) report for November, which examines real estate transactions which oc - curred during the month. According to the report, U.S. home prices experienced a 0.2 percent increase on a national level and a 5.7 per - cent year-over-year increase. November marks the 55th consecutive month of increasing annual home prices. The report noted that U.S. home prices are just 0.3 percent shy of hitting a new national high. The Black Knight HPI examines re - peat sales data from the largest public records data set in the United States. The report also uses Black Knight's own loan-level mortgage performance data. Both of these sets of data are combined to produce one of the most comprehensive and accurate assessments of home pricing data available. The report covers 90 percent of U.S. residential properties in both disclosure and nondisclosure states to provide critical valuation data regarding transactions that occurred throughout the month. Nondisclosure states do not provide data to the public con - cerning property sales price infor- mation, but Black Knight is able to obtain this data by combining and matching data retrieved from its own records. The report noted that, although data sets are available to represent seasonally adjusted figures, all the information provided in the report has not undergone any seasonal adjustment. New York saw the largest increase in monthly home price appreciation with a 1.4 percent monthly increase and a 6.5 percent year-over-year increase. November was the fifth con - secutive month where the region led the nation in home price increases. Of the largest 40 metros, St. Louis, Missouri, was the only region which experienced a contraction in year-to-date home prices through November. The November HPI value of $267,000 represents a 33.7 percent increase from the market low encountered in January 2012. Of the largest 40 metros, St. Louis, Missouri was the only region, which experienced a contraction in year- to-date home prices through November. Wanted: More Experienced Independent Lenders Recruiting and retaining loan originators is becoming a challenge, especially for independent lenders. I ndependent lenders are struggling to hire and retain loan originators, ac- cording to a new report. In late January, mortgage industry consultant STRATMOR Group issued its STRATMOR Insights Report, which featured survey data concerning lender com - panies' sales forces. The report included examinations into how lenders were recruiting and at- tempting to retain loan origina- tors. STRATMOR Group Senior Partner Dr. Matt Lind explains in the report that there is increased competition for seasoned origi - nators, which is especially true among independent lenders. "Due to a multitude of factors, the mortgage industry today is smaller than in recent decades, and both short- and longer-term growth prospects are smaller as well," Lind stated. These factors are contribut - ing to an increased demand for experienced originators in the lending field. "In this kind of environment, a key strategy for growing origina - tion volume and market share is to recruit seasoned originators while, at the same time, retaining the productive originators a lender has on staff," Lind continued. The data in the report showed that 60 percent of originators have been with their company for two years or less, which demonstrated the challenge companies have in retaining valuable employees in this market. The average amount of time loan originators stayed at their company was 3.1 years. As Lind aptly noted: "This simply underscores what any in - dustry veteran knows: Originators like to change companies." Most of the demand for seasoned originators was being driven by national and regional independent lenders rather than banks or credit unions. The cause for this was most likely the independent lenders' focus on recruiting "highly-prized 'Hunter' loan originators versus the focus of banks on 'Gatherers' who can work as well off of bank refer - rals," Lind noted. Both banks and regional and national independent lenders concurred in the survey that the most effective way to hire and retain experienced originators was to offer increased commis - sions and nonrefundable signing bonuses.