HouseCanary has made its valuation solutions available on MortgageHippo's digital mortgage platform through an integration between the two companies.

"While proptech might be a new buzzword and one of the largest investment sectors in real estate today, no one should be without high quality data when dealing in such a strong purchase money environment, especially when the market has cooled off a bit," said Joe Dahleen, executive vice president and chief strategy officer at MortgageHippo.

For lenders, the integration will equip loan officers with the capability to provide better quality data about properties to realtors and to borrowers. Loan officers will have access to a more sophisticated, comprehensive collateral data set--including subject property photos and photos of other active listings.

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Also, the data can be used to pre-fill fields in the 1003 loan application. Borrowers will benefit from an improved and faster underwriting process, with property valuation taking far less time than is currently the norm.

[caption id="attachment_11254" align="alignleft" width="300"] 'Loan officers are trying to be different and amaze prospects.'[/caption]

This new property technology integration with HouseCanary allows loan officers to pull live data inside of a home value report from within MortgageHippo's Lender Portal. Loan officers will have the option to edit the property data.

Also, loan officers will be able to order HouseCanary's Agile Evaluations from within the MortgageHippo platform. Agile Evaluation is an automated valuation tool that uses an onsite physical inspection designed to meet the Interagency Appraisal and Valuation Guidelines' definition of an evaluation that can replace an appraisal in certain applications.

Agile Evaluation leverages HouseCanary's proprietary computer image recognition and machine learning technologies to derive an automated value based on a property's present physical condition.

"Lenders are seeking fast access to updated property data and loan officers are trying to be different and amaze prospects while building high quality relationships," said Dahleen. “Having the ability to edit the property and condition data to get updated reports and a three-year future value forecast at the moment of truth is invaluable."

The First American Real House Price Index reported a 1.9 percent decrease in real house prices between December 2018 and January 2019.

“While 2018 was characterized by declining affordability, ending the year with a five percent yearly decline in house-buying power, this trend reversed sharply in early 2019,” said Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American Financial Corp. “Moderating home prices, in conjunction with gains in household income and declining mortgage rates, boosted affordability for potential home buyers.”

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Mortgage rates in January fell 0.18 percentage points compared with the previous month and household income increased 0.3 percent. The result was that house-buying power increased 2.3 percent in January. Also, nominal house price appreciation in January sank to the slowest pace of growth since February 2015, according to DataTree by First American’s House Price Index. The result was that real house prices fell 1.9 percent, the second largest monthly decline since April 2017.

Other takeaways from the report are the following:

• Real house prices increased 7.0 percent year over year.
• Consumer house-buying power, how much one can buy based on changes in income and interest rates, increased 2.3 percent between December 2018 and January 2019, and declined 1.6 percent year over year.
• Average household income has increased 3.6 percent since January 2018 and 55 percent since January 2000.
• Real house prices are 14 percent less expensive than in January 2000.
• While unadjusted house prices are now 1.6 percent above the housing boom peak in 2006, real, house-buying power-adjusted house prices remain 38.8 percent below their 2006 housing boom peak.

January 2019 Real House Price State Highlights

• The five states with the greatest year-over-year increase in the RHPI are: Rhode Island (15.2 percent), New Hampshire (12.0 percent), Wisconsin (11.8 percent), Georgia (11.0 percent), and Alaska (10.8 percent).
• The only state with year-over-year decline in the RHPI is: Wyoming (down 1.9 percent).
• Among the Core Based Statistical Areas tracked by First American, the five markets with the greatest year-over-year increase in the RHPI are: Providence, R.I. (17.3 percent), Columbus, Ohio (14.3 percent), Salt Lake City (13.6 percent), Orlando (13.5 percent), and Atlanta (12.5 percent).
• No CBSA had a year-over-year decrease in the RHPI in January.

By George Baker

The mortgage industry’s consumer loan information disclosure model is antiquated, flawed, inflexible and outdated.

Regulators love to regulate static outdated models like ours. Without realizing it, mortgage lenders have fostered and amplified compliance, legal and regulatory problems because we continue to do business the same, old way.

As other industries provide speedy, on-demand and accessible information and transparency, the mortgage industry transmit information to consumers through an arduous, opaque disclosure—either a paper or digital process.

[caption id="attachment_11207" align="alignleft" width="300"] Baker: The focus needs to be on the transmission of data and on reducing the number of disclosures.[/caption]

The industry is complicit in this practice, because it’s well-known that loan applicants don’t fully understand what they are signing and lenders have an unmonitored sales structure that, by default, entrusts originators to be the primary educator of consumers.

Mortgage lenders, who are fully liable for their loan originators’ actions, have no reliable method, no system of checks and balances, to monitor what loan originators say--or fail to say--to loan applicants. To be sure, this practice is acceptable in other industries, but in regulated markets, it is problematic.

Make no mistake, consumer ignorance of confusing and legalese-ridden forms they receive in mass (over 200 from application to settlement) exposes lenders to unnecessary legal, regulatory and enforcement actions or fines.

That’s because they generate unnecessary consumer complaints associated with poor communications and misunderstandings. The industry has become so reactive to regulatory requirements, and complacent in our old ways, that we have forgotten that we have the ability to control our future.

And our future lies, not with information that resides within the confines of a form but in multimedia, interactive multilingual loan-information technology that is engaging and educates borrowers.

If the mortgage industry was to work with federal and state regulators, the government sponsored enterprise’s and others to reduce the number of disclosures provided to loan applicants--and focus on the transmission of information to loan applicants--our industry would correct many of its systematic deficiencies.

Providing consumers with transparency through faster, easier and smarter dissemination of loan information and knowledge reduces costs, enhances the consumer experience, and minimizes miscommunications and leads to more consumer control, comfort and trust.

A database of loan information is translatable into different languages, can be easily searched for answers to questions--and unlike loan forms, is easily portable to mobile devises.

Through the use of multimedia multilingual loan information technology, lenders gain a solution for limited English proficiency along with an enterprise fair-lending solution and self-policing mechanism to mitigate consumer regulations. Every consumer, at the time of loan origination, would receive standardized, consistent and verifiable information, delineated by language, level of financial experience and learning preferences.

Lenders who embrace loan-information technology can expand business development and sales opportunities by satisfying diverse expectations. Loan-information technology appeals to cultural and money management differences among minority homebuyers, the largest source of future home formation, and millennials.

Regulators for the first time would have a well-placed belief that consumers actually understand the features, benefits and risks of their loan, related costs, and requirements. Loan information technology simply provides the highest form of compliance. And, according to Freddie Mac and HUD studies, a correlation exists between loan education and lower delinquency rates, especially among first-time home buyers.

Multimedia, multilingual loan information technology can provide pseudo home counseling for all first-time homebuyers and reduce delinquency rates by as much as 30 percent.

The mortgage industry needs to provide consumers with what they expect and receive from most other industries: On-demand information, true transparency, and ease of use. It’s time to modernize and upgrade decade’s old, rusty and tired business practices.

It’s time for us to stop being our own worst enemy.

About the Author: George Baker is the founder and chief executive officer of Talk’uments, the mortgage industry’s first interactive multimedia, multilingual consumer education, compliance, and quality assurance platform. Email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..