Purchase-mortgage activity in the GSE market surged 21.5 percent higher in the third quarter – and Fannie recorded a whopping 35.9 percent jump in such business…

Early last year Whalen predicted the nation’s four largest commercial banks might exit the business of residential lending and servicing…

Houlihan as been a major player in mortgage-related deals ever since it purchased Milestone Partners earlier in the decade…

The conventional secondary market caught up with the seasonal surge in home-buying activity during the third quarter, leading to a hefty 17.9 percent jump in the production of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities. The two government-sponsored enterprises issued $223.61 billion of single-family MBS during the recently completed third quarter, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. Although that was the strongest ... [Includes three data charts]

Mortgage lenders haven’t yet experienced any operating headaches from the Equifax data breach this summer – but the ramifications might come slowly and not be immediately discernable. One nonbank CEO told Inside Mortgage Finance that he’s angry about the breach for two rea-sons: his personal information was stolen and it could cause business problems because warehouse banks, state licensing agencies, investors and housing authorities pull Equifax reports to check on him ...

Mortgage originations for black and Hispanic borrowers rose significantly faster in 2016 than among whites, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of recently-released Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. The HMDA report reveals that a total of $1.956 trillion of home loans were originated last year, an 18.5 percent increase over the 2015 total. Most observers believe that HMDA undercounts total mortgage originations by about 5 percent ... [Includes one data chart]

The Congressional Budget Office recently issued a white paper analyzing options to reduce taxpayer exposure to FHA risk while allowing the program to continue providing affordable credit to first-time homebuyers and low-income borrowers. Although FHA continues to write high-quality, newer books of business, the CBO sees more mortgage borrowers with good credit scores, large downpayments or low debt-to-income ratios shifting to the private mortgage market ...

“Those on the left side of the political spectrum are more likely to know what the CFPB is and have a positive opinion of it,” said Cato’s Emily Ekins.

First Republic Bank originated $1.90 billion of IOs in the second quarter of 2017, ranking first nationwide.

Ocwen suggests that other mortgage firms are being investigated by the SEC for their use of collection agents...