The forlorn home-equity lending market remained at record lows in new production despite growing signs of improvement in the housing market, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking reveals.Mortgage lenders originated a record low of just $44.0 billion in home-equity loans last year, down 12.0 percent from 2011. Although total home-equity lending was down, credit unions reported a 5.4 percent increase in their annual originations compared to 2011. (Includes two data charts)

The Obama administration is employing multiple defenses to try to stave off an expected legal determination that the president’s controversial recess appointment of Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional.Last week, the National Labor Relations Board announced it will not seek en banc rehearing in Noel Canning v. NLRB, in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit af-firmed that the Jan. 4, 2012, recess appointments of three members to the board were unconstitutional.

Can Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac capture $93 billion in deferred tax assets - money that ultimately will flow through to the U.S. Treasury?

Stable interest rates are making refinancing less attractive to the newest mortgage borrowers, which should keep prepayment rates very low.

The share of cash purchases of homes increased for five consecutive months, hitting 32.3 percent in February, based on the three-month moving average.

Is the refinancing boom finally over? Some mortgage bankers are beginning to get nervous.

Genworth is losing a top MI executive to a mortgage servicer. And more woes for Chimera...

At the end of the year, banks and thrifts serviced $5.323 trillion of home mortgages for other investors, giving these MSRs an asset value of $41.43 billion.

It would appear that Kondaur Capital of Orange, CA, is once again actively seeking out portfolios of nonperforming loans.

Walter Investment Management lost money in the fourth quarter and for the full year but that's because it's been gobbling up billions of dollars in mortgage servicing rights.