More elderly consumers are carrying mortgage debt into retirement, posing greater risk to their financial security, according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For an estimated 4.4 million retirees with mortgage debt, making mortgage payments on top of other monthly expenses can be a hardship, the CFPB observed. Consequently, they accrue less home equity than their peers did a decade ago. Less home equity means less accumulated net wealth for ...

Correspondent mortgage originators accounted for a little over a third of the single-family mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae during the first quarter of 2014, but they are an unusually rich source of the industry’s most prized commodity, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Some 68.7 percent of correspondent-originated loans were purchase-money mortgages, the highest such ratio for ... [Includes one data chart]

All seven active mortgage insurance companies reported a total of $31.34 billion of new primary insurance written during the first quarter, according to calculations from Inside Mortgage Finance.

Recently, House appropriators approved the FY 2015 budget for HUD but without an allocation for the HAWK pilot program. Still, FHA is hopeful...

Five Oaks will allow for cash-out refis for loans with balances of up to $1 million. The maximum allowable loan-to-value ratio is 65 percent, but the company may eventually go to 70 percent.

In trading, Walter was down almost 5 percent on the day. The stock fell to just under $28. Its 52-week low is $24, its high $45.12.

One Stonegate Mortgage watcher we know called the company an “absolute no-brainer short,” noting that when the lender went public “it was overvalued."

Under new management, the agency in charge of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is tacking their conservatorship in a different direction: focusing on preserving the two government-sponsored enterprises rather than driving them into shallow water. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt this week emphasized a focus on “the present” as he explained how he seeks to “reformulate” the agency’s past conservatorship goals to suit the housing finance market in the here and now. “I am...

The new Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policy on loan-seller representations and warranties will likely burn off some of the fog that’s made mortgage lenders skittish about the product they deliver to the two government-sponsored enterprises, but it won’t eliminate industry buyback concerns. The new policy tinkers at the edges of the buyback safe harbor for loans with acceptable payment history. Loans with two 30-day late payments in the first three years can get a buyback waiver if they are current at the 36-month mark; until now such loans would only get a waiver if they performed for five years. More significant is...

During the first quarter of 2014, private mortgage insurance companies may have seen a somewhat bigger decline in new business than their government competitors, but the industry recorded arare achievement in terms of profitability, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. For the first time since early 2007, all four of the private MIs that survived the mortgage apocalypse reported a profitable quarter. Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., Radian, United Guaranty and Genworth all finished in the black, with a combined $296 million in income on their domestic MI activities. Different combinations of these four had reported profitable quarters at various times, and the industry as a whole has been profitable since the second quarter of last year. Including Essent Guaranty and National MI, the industry earned...[Includes three data charts]