Whether a potential homebuyer has a bachelor’s degree plays a significant role in the applicant’s ability to obtain a mortgage, according to research funded by Fannie Mae. The analysis suggests that the higher-education variable wasn’t much of a factor before the financial crisis, but a borrower’s level of education is a factor in post-crisis originations. Researchers at the University of Southern California probed data from a survey of households conducted by the Survey Research Center at ...

The amount of equity U.S. homeowners could access rose by almost $570 billion in 2016, reaching $4.7 trillion last year, thanks to an extended streak of home price appreciation. This was the highest level of “tappable” equity seen since 2006, according to a new report from Black Knight Financial Services. Perhaps just as impressive, an eye-popping 44 percent of refinanced mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2016 were cash-out refis, the highest level in eight years ...

As its footprint in the residential credit market expands, counterparties are looking to Annaly as a source of liquidity…

GSE originators have long complained that the rep-and-warrant policies need to be more transparent.

How much slack can the purchase market pick up? We’re about to find out…

Despite what the experts anticipated, small banks are staying out of the MSR market...

Rep. Sherman of California noted: “Studies have shown that in some geographic areas, it is possible to determine the identity of nearly 100 percent of the borrowers using the data that lenders are required to collect and report by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.”

Deephaven is headed by former Goldman Sachs managing director Matt Nichols, who earlier this year predicted strong growth for the correspondent buyer of non-QM loans…

“Our ability to maintain or grow our servicing business may depend, in part, on our ability to acquire servicing rights from, and/or enter into subservicing contracts with, third parties,” the company said in an SEC filing.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw substantial declines in new single-family business during the first quarter of 2017, but the purchase-mortgage side showed some life in March, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises guaranteed $218.22 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first three months of the year. That was down 27.1 percent from the fourth quarter total of $299.25 billion – the biggest quarterly flow in GSE business since the second quarter of 2013. The refinance market was...[Includes three data tables]