Streamlined mortgage refinancing with FHA and VA guarantees continued its strong growth in the first quarter of 2016, thanks mainly to low interest rates and program features, according to an analysis of agency quarterly and monthly reports. Agency-backed streamlined refinancing refers to the refinance of an existing FHA or VA loan requiring limited borrower credit documentation and underwriting and no appraisal. Streamlining applies only to the amount of documentation and underwriting the lender must perform and not to the costs in the transaction. VA IRRRL (interest rate reduction refinance loans) production rose...

The slow foreclosure timelines in states with a judicial foreclosure process appear to have a silver lining: home-price bubbles are more prevalent in other states, according to Fitch Ratings. In a report released this week, analysts at the rating service said home prices nationally appear to be on solid footing, although some regional pockets of price risk are growing, primarily in states in the West and Southwest. Fitch said...

The housing market has been fairly stable in 2016, but industry insiders say decreased affordability and credit access could impede the multiyear housing recovery. With interest rates lower than expected, the Mortgage Bankers Association raised its 2016 origination forecast to $1.60 trillion in May from its January projection of $1.38 trillion. It expects purchase originations to increase in 2017 and 2018, thanks to economic growth and a strong job market. But many first-time homebuyers may be...

Earlier this month, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau asked to intervene in a federal whistleblower case brought against Ocwen Loan Servicing in order to protect the confidentiality of its supervisory information. “The bureau seeks to intervene for the limited purpose of invoking the bank examination privilege and the bureau’s regulations to protect confidential and privileged bureau supervisory records and information related to the bureau’s supervision of Ocwen,” the CFPB said in its motion filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division. Counsel for the relators in the case, Michael Fisher and Brian Bullock, and the defendants, Ocwen Loan Servicing and Ocwen Financial Corp., told...

There is a fighting chance that agency high-cost limits could go up in 2017.

CRT Capital’s backers include Aquiline Capital Partners, which 18 months ago bought a large stake in subservicer/service provider LenderLive.

Financial regulators tell Congress: Do something now on GSE reform before it's too late...

The mortgage industry and others want LLPAs eliminated now...

The market is beginning to see more MSR auctions, much of it tied to GSE product...

Roughly 100 guests were invited to the Ginnie Mae "liquidity summit," including regulators from the Federal Reserve.