A new final rule from the Department of Housing and Urban Development may make it harder for lenders to defend against allegations of racially discriminatory policies and even more difficult to structure an effective compliance program under the Fair Housing Act, according to legal experts. Issued last week, the rule provides that HUD or a private plaintiff can establish a so-called disparate-impact liability under the FHAct, even if there is no intent to discriminate. The agency said the rule establishes no new law – since HUD and appellate courts have upheld the disparate impact theory in fair housing cases for decades – and aims to standardize the minor variations for determining liability under the statute. The rule establishes...

President Obama, during his State of the Union address, urged Congress to get the HARP 3.0 refinancing program off the ground.

Officially, the GSE net-worth minimum is set at $2.5 million, but some in the industry think it will double eventually.

The CFPB said mortgage lenders can ask the agency "important" interpretation questions on the many rules that it finalized this year.

Fortress Investment Group has raised $1.6 billion to buy mortgage assets, including servicing rights.

FHA single-family production rose 22.3 percent in 2012, but another increase in the mortgage insurance premiums will likely accelerate the program’s three-year decline in market share.

JPMorgan Chase is working on a jumbo MBS deal but it may place the bond in the the private market.

Is PennyMac Financial Services, which just filed for an IPO, really part of PNC?

HUD has released its long-awaited “disparate impact” final rule, sending notification to the industry that housing policies and practices can be determined to be discriminatory not simply through their intent, but also by their effect.

Is BlackRock up to something regarding its investment in Redwood Trust?