By Rick Grant
 
As we near the end of another year, it’s time for journalists around the mortgage lending space to start measuring our progress toward one of the industry’s most consistent goals, and predicting how much longer it will be until the paper is finally removed from the process of getting a loan to finance a home. Will 2012 be the “Year of the eMortgage,” or will it join the ranks of all of the almost-there years since about 2000, when the first such year was predicted?
 
According to the seventh annual “Path to Paperless” survey conducted by Xerox Mortgage Services, Atlanta, we won’t make it next year, or even the year after that. According to the survey, 78% of respondents said they felt it would take three to seven years for the mortgage industry to process more than 50% of all loans as an eMortgage. But that leaves a lot of room for eMortgage success between now and then.
 
If even a quarter of all mortgages could