At the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have simplified policies on short sales and deed-in-lieu of foreclosures. The new policies are intended to mitigate losses for the government-sponsored enterprises and servicers by spelling out when servicers can consider borrowers for these actions and what documentation is necessary.

It’s now possible for homebuyers to use sweat equity to pay their entire downpayment and all closing costs as Freddie Mac has expanded the parameters of its Home Possible mortgage.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac extended disaster relief provisions to areas in California that have been ravaged by wildfires and declared major disaster areas by President Trump.

The vast majority of commercial banks and savings institutions that have mortgage banking operations post positive results from those activities, but overall profitability fell significantly in the third quarter of 2018. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data reveals the banking industry earned $4.025 billion from mortgage banking during the three-month period ending in September. That was down 14.5 percent from the second quarter, when ... [Includes one data chart]

Retail-originated loans securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the third quarter generally had stronger credit scores than similar loans produced by third-party lenders, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level data. The average credit score for a retail purchase loan pooled in an agency mortgage-backed security during the period was 735.47, compared with 720.20 for correspondent purchase ... [Includes two data charts]

Rising interest rates aren’t a major inhibitor of demand for purchase mortgages but they have reduced housing inventory, according to Mark Fleming, chief economist at First American. “Rising mortgage rates create a financial disincentive for existing homeowners with low mortgage rates from selling their homes,” he said in an analysis this week. “This phenomenon impacts both sides of the supply-and-demand dynamic – those who don’t sell, don’t buy either.” First American, a title insurance ...

It’s that time of the year again: Declining originations mixed with seasonality are causing consternation among residential originators, with lay-off notices proliferating at shops both large and small. However, a greater sense of panic is beginning to seep in this time around. Rates are the highest they’ve been in several years and the purchase-money sector is beginning to look long in the tooth. The nation’s largest home lender, Wells Fargo, recently announced plans to chop 900 ...

A Chicago-based specialty mortgage servicer is combining crowdsource funding and loss mitigation to help homeowners facing foreclosure keep their homes while at the same time encouraging investors to be socially responsible. AHP Servicing recently announced a $50 million offering under Regulation A of the federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, to help distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure. Reg A is one of several exemptions under the JOBS Act that excludes firms from ...

The rise in home prices is boosting the payouts mortgage holders will see from loans that included principal forbearance as part of a modification. According to an analysis by Fitch Ratings, the current overall recovery rate for outstanding forbearance amounts on loans in non-agency mortgage-backed securities is estimated at 19.0 percent. Principal forbearance, or principal deferral, has been one of the most common loan modification tactics in the years after the financial crisis. It allows a ...

Mortgage lenders that rely on cutting-edge financial technology – or fintech – may be just as guilty as traditional face-to-face lenders of pricing discrimination, according to a new study by economists at the University of California at Berkeley. The researchers found that both traditional and online lenders charge Latino and African-American borrowers 6 to 9 basis points higher interest rates than their white counterparts for purchase-mortgage loans, and 1 to 3 bps more for refinancing ...