Purchase money lending will increase in 2014 but overall originations could swoon, according to a revised forecast from Fannie Mae.

Some of the nation's largest home lenders are beginning to cut mortgage workers as refinancing applications swoon.

In general, mortgage-related earnings were strong at the nation's banks in the second quarter, but clearly earnings "leakage" is underway. And yes, gain-on-sale is starting to slip.

The higher MSR values are not surprising, but the level of these increases have some mortgage professionals scratching their heads.

Negative home equity is not an important barrier for a homeowner to decide to move elsewhere for a better job, although underwater homeowners are probably more likely to move than borrowers with equity in their homes, according to researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The study presents evidence debunking the theory that homes with underwater mortgages deter unemployed people from moving to get new jobs. The “lock-in” theory holds that unemployed people with negative equity could ...

While new regulations have been costly for servicers to implement, they have helped improve borrower satisfaction, according to J.D. Power’s latest primary servicer satisfaction study. “The fact that satisfaction continues to increase seems to indicate that changes being made in response to these new regulations are having a positive impact on the experience of customers,” said Craig Martin, director of investment services at J.D. Power. He cited regulations from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ...

With interest rates increasing, some new borrowers have turned to adjustable-rate mortgages. Industry analysts expect the ARM share of originations will increase, but limited product offerings and tight underwriting standards will likely prevent the ARM originations from reaching levels seen during the previous mortgage boom. The record low interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages in recent years have given borrowers few reasons to take ARMs. Interest rates on mortgages have increased significantly recently ...

You would think that a bank with a small presence in mortgages would jump at the opportunity to keep the fast-growing residential arm of a merger partner. But that’s not the case with MF Financial, a mid-sized bank that earlier in the week announced that it would buy Taylor Capital, parent of Cole Taylor Bank, in a stock deal valued at $680 million. Although MF Financial took a close look at the subsidiary, Cole Taylor Mortgage, it decided that the unit is not essential to the deal. In fact, it’s so non-essential ...

Consumer complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about their residential mortgages fell to 12,531 during the second quarter, down 9.2 percent from the first three months of the year, according to an analysis of the bureau’s complaint database by Inside the CFPB, an affiliated publication. That rate of decline is better than the overall 8.2 percent drop in complaints seen across all financial services product lines in aggregate, but not as good as the declines related to ...

Most banks that have reported second-quarter earnings said their mortgage banking income declined from the first three months of 2013, but profitability remained strong, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of corporate disclosures. A group of 15 banks that includes most of the top depository institutions in the mortgage business reported a combined $6.72 billion in mortgage banking income during the second quarter of 2013. That was up 5.0 percent from the earnings ... [Includes one data chart]