In my new white paper, “ONLINE CLOSINGS — A Guide for Mortgage Lenders & Title Agents” I discuss the current status of the law related to online notarization and some areas where the industry can work together to bring state laws into the modern age of technology for a fully paperless eClosing.
For those who live near the East or Gulf Coasts in the U.S. long enough, a hurricane or tropical depression will likely enter your life at some stage. Since I moved to Houston in 1997, the city has experienced three major storms in the Gulf of Mexico: Tropical Depression Allison, Hurricane Ike and the now-infamous …Read more
Online notarization technologies are unfamiliar to most of us and live under a patchwork of new state laws and regulations. In 2017, online notarization gained traction as a number of state legislatures introduced online notary bills.
Across Texas, the past 10 days have truly demonstrated the power of community, service to others and resilience. No one could have anticipated the impact of Hurricane Harvey over the Gulf Coast.
After disaster strikes, many turn to their insurance policies to start the road back to recovery. Refer to these steps when preparing to file a claim with your insurance companies.
This may be the most timely report you read this quarter regarding Commercial Real Estate — Dr. Glenn Mueller’s Real Estate Cycles Q2 2017 report from Black Creek Group – Black Creek Research. The report contains a critical mass of valuable data spanning major commercial real estate markets across the country. Dr. Mueller’s analysis of …Read more
Each month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases employment data at the Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and Division level in both Seasonally Adjusted Annualized Rates (SAAR) and non-seasonally adjusted formats. As I have written in the past: Jobs are everything to an economy. Period. Over what interval the jobs are counted, however, can change …Read more
As stated last month: As we economists say, “forecasting is difficult, especially the future.” Fortunately, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the MBA update their quarterly and annual forecasts monthly for residential lending volumes – both refinance and purchase transactions. The forecasts typically span a three-year period, currently from 2016 to 2018. The lagging year (2016 …Read more
Retirees are one of the top growth markets in the U.S. with 10,000 people turning 65 every day morphing away from the workspace. Savings and investments will greatly influence their ultimate lifestyle in conjunction with where they live. Cost of living plays a big part. Perhaps the ultimate measure of the cost of living is …Read more
New home sales unexpectedly fell 8.9 percent on a year-over-year basis in July 2017, now at an estimated 571,000 unit sales pace on a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (SAAR). Sales dropped 9.4 percent sequentially from June’s 630,000 pace (SAAR). Median new-home price was $313,700, up 6.3 percent versus the same month a year ago while …Read more