Reinventing Home Lending for the Internet Age: Industry Races to Automate Some Steps -- and Eliminate Others.(mortgage industry aims for faster loan approval)

Armed with Internet technology and computerized analytical capability, the mortgage industry is pushing toward an elusive goal: the one-week mortgage.

Industry executives say the most sophisticated providers can approve loans within minutes and close them in a couple of weeks. Countrywide Home Loans refunds $250 to the consumer if the process takes longer than 10 days.

But some envision an even quicker process, in which only a week elapses between the customer's first inquiry to the sale of his or her loan in the secondary market.

"Every step in the origination process -- appraisals, credit reports, titles, bid/asks on mortgage pricing -- is going to be electronic," said John Hummer, president and chief operating officer of IMX Exchange, an electronic exchange for pricing mortgages in San Ramon, Calif. "It's definitely within the realm of possibility to have this go down to a week within five years.

"If you take the issue of 'going electronic' to its logical conclusion," he said, "it's reasonable to assume that within five years the consumer will deal directly with a Wall Street buyer who is purchasing …