Market Share Report – September 2014

Takeaways from the 2014 Third Quarter numbers:

Life without refinances is tough. Mortgage lending is down considerably from previous years. (chart pages 7, 11 & 12) It?s all missing refinance business as the purchase market is fairly steady. Earlier in the year refinancing was only 15% of our new title orders, the lowest rate that I can remember. During the third quarter refinance orders comprised 25% of our new orders. The increasing trend is continuing thanks to recently lower interest rates.

The upper end of the purchase market is doing better. Sales disclosures for owner occupied homes under $200,000 are holding steady and the number between $200,000 and $500,000 is up considerably over recent years. (chart page 14) Sales disclosures of non-owner occupied properties continue to be soft. (Chart page 15)

New Foreclosures continue to decline: New filings for foreclosures are at their lowest point since I began tracking them in 2007. (chart page 16) Sheriff?s Deeds are more recently declining but not yet reflecting the decline in new filings. This is mostly a timing situation as the foreclosure process is considerably lengthened from prior to 2009.

The date to remember is August 1, 2015. That?s when the CFPB changes to the closing process are set to become mandatory. That?s nine months from now. If you?ve not talked with your mortgage origination and processing software vendor about the changes, do not hesitate any longer. These are much bigger changes than what we went through in 2009 with the last RESPA rewrite. There is a number of process and notice related decisions that we will probably have to make together.

Earlier this year John Bethell Title upgraded its closing production software and network infrastructure in anticipation of the changes. We feel quite confident with our vendor and hope to see how the new forms look in our system early next year. In addition to being able to prepare the forms, our system will offer a number of opportunities to share closing data with you in a secure format that will improve the closing and disclosure processes.

Let us know when you?re ready to discuss the changes.

~John Bethell