For the past year or so, the Millennial generation has been everyone’s favorite punching bag for why the housing market isn’t stronger. Depending on which study you read, this demographic group of 80 million strong just can’t manage to save enough money for a downpayment on a mortgage. Instead, they’ve been living in their parents’ basements or – gasp – renting in “group” homes. This in turn has stifled the housing recovery, or so the experts claim ...

Have you heard about “fair servicing” and “disparate maintenance?” Well, you’re going to. With servicing-related issues making up the lion’s share of consumer complaints about their mortgages, a new supervisory trend that has emerged in recent months is a move toward what could be called a “fair servicing” expectation, according to a pair of experts at the American Bankers Association’s 2014 regulatory compliance conference in New Orleans this week ...

Inventories and disposition times for commercial mortgage assets in special servicing as of year-end 2013 rose modestly compared to year-end 2012 as highly rated servicers moved real estate-owned inventories efficiently, according to a new Fitch Ratings analysis of the commercial mortgage-backed securities market. Analysts with Fitch’s CMBS Group found that REO assets as a percentage of specially serviced portfolios have grown for three of the largest ...

Specifically, the mortgages will be above the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limit of $625,500. But before Redwood can buy its first jumbo loan, the Federal Housing Finance Agency must sign off on the effort.

“DOJ may not have the evidence to try this as a fraud case,” Judge Max Cogburn said.

It was also the lowest three-month volume since the fourth quarter of 2008, not long after dramatically higher “emergency” loan limits were put in place by the agencies.

Correspondent sellers fret that some of the largest players might shut the door on them for a different reason: they can’t deliver enough volume in an origination-challenged market.

It’s far too early to draw definitive conclusions about the success of the QM rule and its overall effect upon the market.

The “legacy” bulk market for MSRs has been spooked, to some degree, by regulatory scrutiny, though offerings of newly originated product have been plentiful.

Production of “agency jumbo” mortgages fell sharply in the first quarter of 2014 and is likely to drop even more as new FHA loan limits show up in endorsement data. According to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA saw $10.5 billion in single-family business with loan amounts exceeding the traditional agency limit of $417,000 during the first quarter of 2014. That was down 30.6 percent from the fourth quarter. It was also the lowest three-month volume since the fourth quarter of 2008, not long after dramatically higher “emergency” loan limits were put in place by the agencies. In comparison, originations of non-agency jumbo loans fell...[Includes three data charts]