The House Financial Services Committee this week approved legislation that would dissolve the government-sponsored enterprises and leave the private market to pick up the slack, with all the panel’s Democrats and two Republicans voting against it. Obama administration officials suggest that bipartisan support will be necessary to enact GSE reform and significantly increase non-agency involvement in housing finance. The Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act of 2013, H.R. 2767, was sponsored by ...

At the end of April, the re-default rate on HAMP loan modifications topped 46 percent for restructurings completed in 2009.

Among the top 20 lenders in the nation, PennyMac and Nationstar had the highest growth rates, according to new figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Loan applicants did whatever they could to protect their rate lock-ins, according to the MBA.

FHA chief Carol Galante expressed concern about the absence of any provision in the bill that would ensure servicer accountability for their performance.

The MSR market continues to percolate with two new deals from Interactive Mortgage Advisors.

Ocwen will have plenty of "high touch" loans to work on when it finally takes control of the OneWest portfolio. Meanwhile, the second lien market is heating up.

Mortgage production volume remained fairly steady in the second quarter as a growing purchase-mortgage market helped offset a weakening in refinance lending, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $495.0 billion of home loans during the second quarter of 2013, down just 1.0 percent from the first three months of the year. That pushed year-to-date production volume to just shy of $1 trillion, and put the market 14.4 percent ahead of the pace set during the first six months of 2012. It figures...[Includes two data charts]

Some of the nation’s largest banks – including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo – have begun cutting mortgage production workers as refi applications decline. But it remains to be seen just how many of the 215,000 full-time mortgage-related positions – excluding loan brokers – will see pink slips over the rest of the year. “What we’re seeing is a natural outcome of contraction as the market slips and changes to a purchase business,” said Dave Stevens, president of the Mortgage Bankers Association. He declined to give any job cut estimates, but predicted that residential lenders of all different charters and types will move to “right-size their organizations.” Some bearish industry officials believe...

Voting largely along party lines, the Republican-held Housing Financial Services Committee this week approved H.R. 2767, the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act, by a 30-27 margin, advancing the measure to the House floor for consideration a mere two weeks after it was filed. The focal point of the committee’s debate was the conspicuous absence of a government mortgage guaranty to replace the backing provided for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities over the years. Democrats such as Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch painted the GOP measure as an “ideologically extreme and dangerous bill” that would destroy the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage if signed into law as is. The bill by Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, would end conservatorship of the GSEs within five years and put them into receivership, eliminate their government charter and liquidate any remaining assets...