During the first quarter of 2014, private mortgage insurance companies may have seen a somewhat bigger decline in new business than their government competitors, but the industry recorded arare achievement in terms of profitability, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. For the first time since early 2007, all four of the private MIs that survived the mortgage apocalypse reported a profitable quarter. Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Radian, United Guaranty and Genworth all finished in the black, with a combined $296 million in income on their domestic MI activities. Different combinations of these four had reported profitable quarters at various times, and the industry as a whole has been profitable since the second quarter of last year. Including Essent Guaranty and National MI, the industry earned...[Includes three data charts]

Industry trade group officials and lobbyists anticipate that no meaningful progress will be made on housing and GSE reform legislation until 2017 after a new president and Congress are elected.

Under new management, the agency in charge of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is tacking their conservatorship in a different direction: focusing on preserving the two government-sponsored enterprises rather than driving them into shallow water. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt this week emphasized a focus on “the present” as he explained how he seeks to “reformulate” the agency’s past conservatorship goals to suit the housing finance market in the here and now. “I am...

In trading, Walter was down almost 5 percent on the day. The stock fell to just under $28. Its 52-week low is $24, its high $45.12.

One Stonegate Mortgage watcher we know called the company an “absolute no-brainer short,” noting that when the lender went public “it was overvalued."

Recently, House appropriators approved the FY 2015 budget for HUD but without an allocation for the HAWK pilot program. Still, FHA is hopeful...

Five Oaks will allow for cash-out refis for loans with balances of up to $1 million. The maximum allowable loan-to-value ratio is 65 percent, but the company may eventually go to 70 percent.

All seven active mortgage insurance companies reported a total of $31.34 billion of new primary insurance written during the first quarter, according to calculations from Inside Mortgage Finance.

“I think Nationstar is going through the pain and agony of the production decline,” said one advisor familiar with the company.

In case you didn’t notice, the price of Fannie and Freddie common rose about 5 percent Tuesday, after Watt spoke. In trading Wednesday, they were up again...