Purpose of the loan is to reduce the rate and remove one of the existing borrowers from the note and mortgage.

I say yes...reportable as a refinance?

Will the title be changing? We report these as purchases to HMDA, which I know is a big debate in the HMDA world.

Yes...a quit claim deed was done, making the new borrower the only owner.

If the title changed hands prior to the new loan, loan this would not be a purchase.

If you are paying off the old note with a new note, it would be a refi since you will have a borrower continuing on the new note and both loans secured by residential real estate. Some banks might only treat as a refi if all borrowers stay the same but many do in this cases where a borrower is being removed.

The new note and mortage were executed on the same day.

Reportable as a refinance then?

Then it is (can be) a purchase (if that is how your bank treats those loans...some treat as a refi either way). The difference is that if the title changed hands prior to closing you are definitely not financing a purchase. In your case, decide how you want your bank to report those types of transactions. Some here report as purchase, some as refi.

Generally the note and mortgage securing the note are executed on the same day.

What you need to look at is if the note, mortgage and quit claim deed were executed on the same day. If the quit claim deed was executed prior to the note and mortgage then you have a refinancing and not a purchase.

Well...after looking further...they did a change in terms agreement dated 2/24/11, but it looks like the borrower didn't actually sign until 3/25/11 - per the notarization on the Compliance Agreement. They did a modification of mortage dated 2/24/11, but again - it wasn't signed until 3/25/11. The quit claim deed (oddly enough) doesn't even have a date on it, but it was notarized on 3/24/11.

If this was done via a change in terms agreement and not a new note, it would not be reportable.

I agree...I responded on my way out the door and missed that the deed wasn't included in that list of docs executed the same day. That is key, which was my first point earlier.