It appears that well known economist Mark Zandi is indeed a candidate to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. But will the White House actually nominate him?

Although the nation's largest lender, Wells Fargo, saw residential fundings slip in the first quarter, Citigroup had a gain.

The market for residential servicing rights is picking up a full head of steam with several packages out for bid.

Now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are earning a ton of money, who will have a say over what happens to that cash?

RAIT Financial Trust, Philadelphia, is funding roughly $60 million to $70 million a quarter in multifamily and low-balance commercial loans, product that is winding up in MBS issued by Barclays Capital and Citigroup Securities. According to Jason Stewart, an analyst with Compass Point Research & Trading LLC, the company also has a line of credit from Credit Suisse, and is working on a $100 million to $150 million deal that could be ready by the third quarter. A publicly traded real estate investment trust, RAIT is...

Credit quality for global structured finance securities fell for the sixth consecutive year in 2012, again led by U.S. residential MBS, according to Standard & Poor’s. Looking at downgrade and default trends from 1978 through 2012, S&P found that downgrades were less pervasive last year than in previous years. Nonetheless, the mild but slow global economic recovery continues to hurt the performance of MBS and other structured finance securities for the sixth straight year. Its lagging effect means that credit quality may continue to see moderate deterioration, the rating agency said. While poor credit quality appears...

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase continue to post strong residential finance profits, but there is a growing worry that the "mortgage party" may be drawing to a close.

The unrelenting campaign by liberal Democrats and progressive activists to depose the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s acting director could backfire by making him politically untouchable, while the badgering directed at the Obama administration threatens to alienate the very man they seek to convince to act in their favor, according to industry observers. According to a memo released late this week that was prepared by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s legal team, President Obama has the power to replace FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco without congressional approval. “We conclude that the president has the authority to remove the acting director at will, and there is a strong argument that he has the authority to designate a new acting director, although the answer to that question is less certain,” noted Schneiderman’s memo.

Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s recent, unambiguous return to profitability will diminish an already waning urgency among Capitol Hill lawmakers to proceed with legislative GSE reform as the companies’ profits flow into the U.S. Treasury by the billions, industry experts warn. Fannie announced last week that the GSE expects to remain profitable “for the foreseeable future” after posting record-shattering quarterly and yearly earnings for the period ending Dec. 31, 2012. In the wake of Fannie’s announcement, the White House this week said that from January 2013 to the end of 2023 the two GSEs could send $183.3 billion to the Treasury.

Freddie Mac this week hired former Chase Home Finance CEO David Lowman to head its single-family division, where he will help shape the GSE’s policies and programs that affect seller/servicers. Lowman will officially take the post May 20, the company said. Lowman is joining Freddie at a time of rapidly improving earnings. But he also must deal with several key issues facing seller/servicers, namely tight underwriting standards, changing delivery requirements and continued griping over buybacks. One current colleague of Lowman’s amusingly quipped: “I wonder what he thinks about buybacks now?”