Now that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are earning a ton of money, who will have a say over what happens to that cash?

Loan repurchases by seller/servicers fell last year, a sign that the worst of this problem may be over for the industry. Or is that wishful thinking?

Rep. Maxine Waters, the ranking minority member of the House Financial Services Committee, believes that now is "precisely the time to think about how we can reshape the secondary mortgage market."

It appears that well known economist Mark Zandi is indeed a candidate to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency. But will the White House actually nominate him?

Although the nation's largest lender, Wells Fargo, saw residential fundings slip in the first quarter, Citigroup had a gain.

It’s been a longstanding and usually treacherous tradition in the mortgage industry that when origination volume starts to sag, lenders begin to expand the credit box. One quarter does not a trend make, but the pattern in credit characteristics of loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suggest that some easing may be underway as the market works to sustain production volume. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of first-quarter sales to the government-sponsored enterprises ... [Includes one data chart]

Anticipation of a boom in the purchase-mortgage market has prompted some conventional conforming lenders to roll out products with no mortgage insurance, and the response has been overwhelming. The 360 Mortgage Group in Austin, TX, recently launched its exclusively wholesale “NOMI” (no-MI) product and demand has been very strong, executives said. “One week after launch, we have been getting calls from mortgage brokers, correspondents, real estate agents and consumers who are very ...

Servicers and lenders are missing out on revenue from oil and gas leases, according to Wingspan Portfolio Advisors. However, industry analysts also warn of challenges posed by the leases. Oil companies have leases across vast areas of land that permit drilling for natural gas and oil deposits. Steven Horne, president and CEO of Wingspan, said if the lease on a specific property is lost due to foreclosure and a subordination agreement is not worked out, production lasting up to 30 years can be lost along with ...

Citadel Loan Servicing Corp. of Irvine, a new subprime lender launched by industry veteran Dan Perl, funded its first loan last week, and is getting a barrage of telephone calls from potential borrowers to its headquarters in Southern California. “We’re getting 25 to 30 inquiries a day,” Perl told Inside Mortgage Trends. The firm is in the process of evaluating between $1.5 million and $2 million in residential loans. The first mortgage it funded was for $315,000 on a home in Orange County, CA. The ...

Modified mortgage loans continue to pose credit risks for banks despite improved housing-market conditions and modest declines in foreclosure activity, according to a new analysis by Fitch Ratings. Despite better modification results (partly due to reduced payments under the Home Affordable Modification Program) through the third quarter of 2012, the high delinquency and foreclosure rates for recently modified mortgages indicate persistent asset quality problems, said ...