The common securitization platform project being overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency has picked the Maryland suburb of Bethesda as its home, according to industry officials briefed on the situation.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency this week issued a final rule requiring annual stress tests for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Home Loan Banks, as mandated under the Dodd-Frank Act.

Fannie Mae’s inadequate internal controls on outsourced servicer reimbursements – and late-to-the-party oversight by the Federal Housing Finance Agency – cost the GSE $89 million in overpayments last year, according to a recent report by the FHFA Office of Inspector General.

Will the White House ask Freddie to fork over its deferred tax assets? Holders of "junior preferred" and common class GSE stock hope to increase the value of their holdings. Fannie Mae kills its inactivity fee. And Fannie hires a manager for its part of the Common Securitization Platform.

If the U.S. defaults on its debt payments, will mortgage rates go sky high? Meanwhile, will JPM rescure FHA?

Despite recovering house values in most markets, insufficient collateral remained the biggest obstacle for consumers trying to get mortgage financing in 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. In virtually every category of the market, loan applicants were more successful in getting approved for a mortgage last year than they were back in 2011, the HMDA data show. Some 15.5 percent of loan applicants were turned down last year ... [Includes one data chart]

Bank of America and its acquired headache, Countrywide, accounted for the biggest chunk of mortgage repurchases from the government-sponsored enterprises during the first half of the year, but the focus shifted to different lenders during the second quarter. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of repurchase disclosures made by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shows that BofA repurchased $8.73 billion in mortgages – most of them originated by Countrywide – during the first six months of 2013 ... [Includes one data chart]

Rising home prices and interest-rate trends continue to decrease purchase-mortgage affordability for potential homebuyers. However, industry analysts note that mortgage affordability is still historically high and could soon improve. The 20-city S&P/Case-Shiller home price index increased by 1.8 percent in July compared with the previous month, according to the latest data released this week. On a year-over-year basis, the index was up by 12.4 percent. The home-price gains indicate a ...

With roughly three months left before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rules on loan-originator compensation and ability-to-repay standards kick in, mortgage originators are scrambling to find the best way to survive and thrive under the new regime. In recent weeks, some in the mortgage broker community have suggested that operating as a mini-correspondent could help brokers bypass points-and-fees complications with the qualified mortgage definition under the ATR rule ...

Borrowers or loan officers misreporting income on loan applications at the height of the housing boom may have pushed up the default rate of high-income borrowers, according to a new Federal Reserve analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Data that was matched with non-HMDA credit data. Researchers Neil Bhutta and Glenn Canner of the Fed’s Division of Research and Statistics found that many borrowers classified as high-income may actually have had lower incomes than what they stated on applications, and ...