When the CFPB assumed RESPA enforcement from HUD in July 2011, it pledged to apply its predecessor’s official commentary, guidance and policy statements until further notice, the brief argues.

Although some lenders love having a desk in a high-volume Realtor’s office, others loathe the practice. “I lost so much business to those places over the years,” he said. “I refused to pay $5,000 for a desk…”

The good news is that mortgage industry forecasters now see a much stronger originations market in 2016 than they did just a few months ago. But loan production is still expected to drop from 2015 levels. The consensus projection from economists at Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association is that single-family mortgage originations will total $1.376 trillion next year. Back in May, the average forecast was $1.208 trillion. Estimates have ... [Includes one data chart]

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae securitized $119.7 billion of correspondent-originated loans during the third quarter of 2015, a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals. That was up 8.6 percent from the second quarter. Meanwhile, broker production fell 10.6 percent during the third quarter. Brokered loans accounted for just 11.5 percent of agency mortgage-backed securities issued during the third quarter, down from 12.9 percent in ... [Includes one data chart]

The start of fall marked a reversal of trends in the housing market, according to results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. In September, investors gained market share from current homeowners and first-time homebuyers, and the distressed property share of home sales increased. The gains in market share were part of a seasonal pattern. And while the trends aren’t necessarily positive for mortgage-industry participants ...

Purchase mortgages accounted for 60.2 percent of originations in 2014, but California remained a hotbed of refinance activity, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for last year. Some 52.8 percent of mortgage originations in the Golden State last year were refi loans, the highest such concentration anywhere in the U.S. House prices and loan amounts are significantly higher in many California markets ... [Includes one data chart]

Finally, the jumbo MBS drought is over, or will be by the end of next week.

The share price of Walter Investment Management Corp. tumbled just over 7 percent in trading midweek on no news...

Members of the Ziroli family, which owned the lender/servicer, could not be reached for comment.

Mortgage lenders face a growing risk from cyberattacks from an increasingly sophisticated hacker universe, as well as more regulatory scrutiny over the issue, according to experts at this week’s annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “There is an arms bazaar of malware for sale in the market, with about 300 new programs – that we know about – being released every day,” said Roger Cressey, a partner at Liberty Group Ventures. The market has been turned into a business, with malware sellers forging service level agreements with their customers through which the buyer doesn’t have to pay if the product doesn’t result in a successful intrusion, he said. Because many hackers are more interested in stealing the target’s client information than crashing its system, the mortgage industry – which sits on mountains of personally identifiable information – is...