TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
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TH E M R EP O RT | 5 MTECH the platform, DU will be able to use CoreLogic data to validate the information entered. The service verifies key loan data up front and offers more certainty on income calculation and asset verification. "We are extremely pleased to be participating in Fannie Mae's DU verification service. It represents the new standard for excellence, speeding up the workflow process and providing borrower convenience and lender reassurance," said Eric Connors, Executive of Mortgage and Credit Analytics at CoreLogic. Mortgage lenders will be able to access these verification prod- ucts as part of the DU validation service, providing automated access and rapid representations and warranties relief for validated loan components. "Given our position as a mar- ket leader in providing income verification products, we embrace the opportunity to continue to lead the market in turn times and quality control," Connors added. Some of the other DU verifica- tion service benefits include stream- lined loan processing, dynamic underwriting, process efficiencies, lower fraud risk, and freedom from representations and warranties. Independent Settlement Services, HouseCanary Offer New Value Report CHOCK-FULL OF HELPFUL FEATURES, THE BIRD'S-EYE- VIEW RESOURCE INCLUDES INSTANT AVMS, RISK ASSESSMENTS, AND REAL ESTATE MARKET DATA, AMONG OTHERS. I ndependent Settlement Servic- es, a Pittsburgh-based appraisal and title management services firm serving the real estate fi- nance industry, announced in August it will enhance its valua- tion products with Value Report, an automated property valuation with an instant automated valua- tion model (AVM) that combines the data and algorithms of Inde- pendent Settlement Services and HouseCanary. HouseCanary is a real estate valuation provider that leverages decades of data and proprietary algorithms for its valuations. The Value Report offers instant AVMs, risk assessments, and real estate market data for individual single-family homes and condos, as well as portfolios. The Value Report ranks proper- ties against their 10 closest compa- rables, delivers a three-year value forecast, and offers a "suitability score" based on sales history. "Our algorithms analyze over 1 billion residential transactions over the last 40 years against mac- roeconomic drivers of demand, incorporating schools, crime, and other current drivers at the block level to achieve this level of ac- curacy," said Martin Morzynski, CMO at HouseCanary. "The re- sult is a modern AVM that helps lenders originate and close loans with confidence." Christopher Seymour, SVP, Director of Sales at Independent Settlement Services, said the Value Report helps lenders "make better, more confident real estate decisions." "HouseCanary is delivering a much more informative and transparent automated property valuation to the real estate lending industry," Seymour said. The collaboration is a result of an increased demand for accurate property valuations, according to Independent Settlement Services. "Working with Independent, HouseCanary is excited to offer valuation models with unprec- edented accuracy and coverage, which is what ultimately appeals to lenders," Morzynski said. Black Knight Expands Home Price Index ITS FRESHLY ROLLED-OUT INDEX SUITE YIELDS A SLEW OF INNOVATIVE INTEL INTO THE HOUSING AND MORTGAGE MARKETS. B lack Knight Financial Services announced the launch of its Black Knight Index Suite, a series of indices expanding on its existing Home Price Index (HPI). The series was created to provide insights into the housing and mortgage markets with comprehensive depth, coverage, and currency. Making up the new indices are the Mortgage Market Index, Housing Market Index, and Home Listing Index, which are based on the company's property and mortgage datasets, and employs refined modeling and analyt- ics techniques. This collection of indices also provides useful tools for economic forecasting, decision-making, risk manage- ment, research, and modeling. "Developing the index suite was a natural, logical progres- sion for Black Knight," said Julian Grey, Mortgage Market Leader for Black Knight's Data and Analytics division. "HPIs have long served as valid analytic proxies for gauging the value of real prop- erty in a given geography, and today, they're widely used as an acceptable alternative to automat- ed valuation models (AVMs) for marking portfolios to market. The beauty of an HPI is that it takes vast amounts of data and presents it in a very simple, easy- to-digest-and-process form. The company sought to take a page from that proven HPI model and put it to work in other data-heavy aspects of the industry, Grey said. In addition, the improved series now includes support for three- digit ZIP codes for easier match- ing with Credit Risk Transfer data, as well as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae single-family mortgage performance data. It also provides historical monthly home price movements, HPI forecast scenar- ios, and time coverage extending back to 1975. The forthcoming HLI will provide previously un- available insights into the supply side of the housing market. The Black Knight Index Suite can also be used in helping senior management, constructing and validating mortgage performance models, and assisting with finan- cial planning and reporting. ClosingCorp Partners With Springboard Home Loans THE NONPROFIT MORTGAGE LENDER NOW EMPLOYS CLOSINGCORP'S SMARTFEES TECHNOLOGY. C losingCorp recently an- nounced that Springboard Home Loans, a not-for- profit mortgage lender working to expand homeownership, has begun using its SmartFees solu- "Our algorithms analyze over 1 billion residential transactions over the last 40 years against macroeconomic drivers of demand, incorporating schools, crime, and other current drivers at the block level to achieve this level of accuracy." — Martin Morzynski, CMO, HouseCanary