Over the past year speculators have placed some heavy bets against certain publicly traded mortgage companies by shorting their stocks, a “trade” that could be petering out as investors take their money off the table. According to investors and analysts who track companies such as Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Financial and Walter Investment Management, the share price of all three has fallen so dramatically that the days of easy profits are over. Ocwen, for example, presently trades...[Includes one data table]

Refinance lending fueled the growth in mortgage originations during the first quarter of 2015, although new data suggest that the purchase-mortgage sector is taking hold. Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $221.0 billion of refi loans during the first quarter, an increase of 51.4 percent from a revised fourth-quarter production estimate of $146.0 billion. Inside Mortgage Finance refi and purchase-mortgage estimates for all four quarters of 2014 were revised to reflect just first-lien mortgage originations. Refi loans accounted...[Includes three data tables]

Meanwhile, the pipeline of issuer applications has dropped dramatically at Ginnie Mae...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau indicated this week that it will be somewhat accommodating to mortgage lenders when it comes to enforcing the pending integrated disclosure rule under the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act. The agency confirmed in a blog post that it delivered a letter to members of Congress stating that its oversight of the TRID rule “will be sensitive to the progress made by those entities that have been squarely focused on making good-faith efforts to come into compliance with the rule on time.” The agency also said...

Some lenders have predicted delays ranging from a few days to more than a month.

In fact, 2014 was the first year since 2006 that purchase mortgages accounted for more than half of total residential originations.

Over the past year, RPM has been in the hunt to buy other mortgage companies, investment banking sources told IMFnews.

According to Moody’s rating scale of long-term corporate obligations, obligations rated Caa are judged to be of “poor standing” and are subject to “very high" credit risk...

Not only is the FHFA scrutinizing lender-paid mortgage insurance products, but the agency might require higher capital standards...

The findings were based on results supplied by 359 residential originators.