JPMorgan is reviewing its strategy in the mortgage industry. The reason: owning real-estate loans has become hugely unprofitable for banks due to onerous and unnecessary requirements. HomeStreet Bank said it has found buyers for its MSR and home-loan centers.

Over the past month, residential lenders have been cheering the bond market rally, racking up new applications and signaling better days in the here and now.

California lawmakers are considering creating a state-level watchdog agency akin to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to enhance enforcement of consumer laws and fill the void left by the federal agency.

Joseph Otting, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, set the rumor mills in motion last week when he told an audience at George Mason University Law School that the agency would finish work this summer on final capital rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Castle & Cooke Mortgage, a $1 billion-plus-a- year lender, is set to break ties with Eli Global, an insurance conglomerate whose chairman, Greg Lindberg, was indicted in North Carolina this week.

Industry stakeholders warned that doing away with key enforcement tools under the Fair Housing Act will make it harder to protect consumers from discriminatory housing policies and racial segregation.

Mortgage originators licensed by state regulators produced fewer loans in 2018 than they had in the previous year but still took more market share away from depositories. A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of call-report data from banks, credit unions and the National Multistate Licensing System found that state-licensed nonbanks accounted for 54.8% of mortgage originations last year. That was up 1.8 percentage points from 2017. [Includes two data charts.]

Home mortgages that fail one of the basic tests to be classified as a qualified mortgage have become an increasingly large part of the agency market over the past few years, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. [Includes one data chart.]

Several nonbanks are increasing their originations of non-qualified mortgages, a bright spot in an otherwise declining volume environment.

Home-equity lending weakened in late 2018 but remained a relatively bright spot in the mortgage business, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis. [Includes three data charts.]