The FHFA is spending much of its time studying both the liquidity of servicing rights and the operational capacity of GSE servicers.

Global strategist Peter Schiff, who predicted the housing bust of 2007, sees danger ahead in the U.S. housing market.

Issued late this week, the latest guidance provides a new option for reverse mortgage lenders...

Wells Fargo was the largest Fannie/Freddie servicer at yearend with $791.0 billion, followed by Chase Home Finance ($429.1 billion) and Bank of America ($260.4 billion).

On loans with LTVs ranging from 90 percent to 95 percent, for example, GSE pricing was better for all borrowers with credit scores over 620. But things are different now.

2014 wasn’t a great year for mortgage origination volume, but the market rallied from a dismal start to finish on a more positive note, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance market analysis and ranking of top loan producers. Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $1.24 trillion in new home loans during 2014. That figure, which includes home-equity lending, was the industry’s lowest annual output since year 2000, when total originations barely topped the $1 trillion mark. Mortgage production fell a hefty 34.4 percent from 2013 levels, including a modest 1.4 percent drop in the fourth quarter of 2014. The soft fourth-quarter volume was...[Includes two data charts]

Stonegate Mortgage saw its share price fall to a new 52-week low of $9.76 Thursday morning on no major news.

“There’s real business out there,” said Brian Chappelle, a mortgage industry consultant.

The top five lenders in the industry accounted for 33.8 percent of total production last year, down from a combined 40.8 percent market share back in 2013.

In other words, the bureau is asserting the primacy of its regulatory authority over the legality of certain private contracts.