Many independent mortgage companies that are relatively new to the mortgage servicing market are actively managing their portfolios in a constantly shifting environment, according to panelists at the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association. The surprisingly cheap cost of retaining mortgage servicing rights during the 2012 bonanza led a number of nonbank lenders to start amassing MSR portfolios. It has become a valuable tool in managing cash flow and earnings in the volatile mortgage production market of recent years. Guild Mortgage is...

There is widespread agreement that any substantive legislative remedy for the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won’t begin to happen until after the 2016 elections – if then – but lawmakers on Capitol Hill may manage to push through some minor adjustments in this Congress. The most likely legislation to pass would have an impact on just two individuals, the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie, who received sizable pay hikes early this year. In the Senate, S. 2036, the Equity in Government Compensation Act of 2015 would require the Federal Housing Finance Agency to suspend those compensation packages and roll them back to $600,000, their previous level. The bill was co-sponsored...

The younger generation appears ready to take the plunge into the housing market, but finding an affordable home and gaining access to credit remain the top challenges, especially when it comes to African-Americans and Latinos, according to some experts. Mark Fleming, chief economist with First American, sponsor of a housing forum on Capitol Hill this week, said the way mortgage credit is formulated today doesn’t necessarily fit the type of ethnically diverse, millennial borrower of the future. “Ethnically diverse communities tend...

There was some good news from Ocwen: the company earned $44.2 million from servicing sales...

Of the 21,100 complaints submitted by consumers in the region, 27 percent have been related to mortgages.

The sale of mortgage servicing rights to Nationstar should transfer by Nov. 1.

Although the FHFA received more than 1,300 comments on proposed changes to its membership rules, it has yet to issue a final regulation.

“The flow market remains consistent with pricing, while the bulk market ebbs and flows with the 10-year and mortgage spreads,” said Tom Piercy of Interactive Mortgage Advisors.

In addition to alternative credit scoring models and low downpayment products, panelists suggested more public/private partnerships are needed to create affordable housing communities.

The privately held Guild Mortgage, San Diego, said it funded $10.7 billion in home mortgages through the first nine months of 2015...