FHFA 2017 Multifamily Lending Caps Unchanged: The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that the 2017 multifamily lending caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain at the same level they were for 2016. Each will be subject to a cap of $36.5 billion of multifamily purchase volume. The FHFA expects the multifamily finance market to be roughly the same as it was in 2016. Fannie Bans Plywood in Foreclosures. Fannie Mae recently banned the use of plywood to secure vacant homes. Beginning early this month Fannie property foreclosures must be secured by a plywood alternative, such as clear boarding.

Commercial banks and savings institutions racked up $5.18 billion in mortgage-banking income during the third quarter of 2016, a huge 44.6 percent increase over the three-month period ending in June, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data.

After much speculation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency raised the 2017 conforming loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages to $424,100. This is the first time the loan limit climbed above $417,000 in 10 years.

In a development of keen interest to mortgage loan officers, a federal judge in Texas this week granted states’ motion to block the Department of Labor’s controversial overtime pay final rule set to take effect on Dec. 1, 2016.

Fairholme Funds officials this week continued to press their case for restoring shareholder rights for private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expressing hope that the incoming Trump administration will be friendlier to their cause.

Some of the public comments submitted to the CFPB regarding its TRID 2.0 clarifying rulemaking highlight tensions and rivalries that have emerged between different factions in the homebuying and mortgage-making industry since the original integrated disclosure rule took effect.

Mortgage applications rose 5.5 percent for the week ending Nov. 18, 2016, versus the prior week, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey. The Refinance Index declined 3 percent from the previous week to its lowest level since January 2016. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 19 percent from one week earlier. …

Third-party originator channels posted relatively large gains in production volume during the third quarter of 2016, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. An estimated $244.0 billion of first-lien mortgages were originated by correspondent sellers and mortgage brokers during the third quarter, up 16.2 percent from the previous period. The bigger gain was in the correspondent channel, where production jumped 16.4 percent during the third quarter, several points higher than the 13.7 percent increase in total first-lien originations. Retail remained...[Includes four data tables]

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau late last week filed its much-anticipated petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit to reconsider some of the key holdings made by a three-judge panel of the court against the agency in PHH Corp. v. CFPB back in mid-October. One such holding was the panel’s determination that the CFPB’s leadership structure is unconstitutional because it is run by a sole director who can only be removed by the president for cause. While an appeal by the bureau was widely expected, the issue took on a new urgency after Republican real estate developer Donald Trump won the presidential election. In its petition, the CFPB asserted...

A federal district court judge in Washington, DC, ordered the transfer of a False Claims Act complaint filed by the Department of Justice against Quicken Loans alleging violation of FHA rules to the nonbank lender’s home court. Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied the DOJ’s arguments to keep the case in the nation’s capital and instead granted Quicken’s motion to transfer it to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in downtown Detroit. Among other things, the government accused...