Donovan is leaving HUD at a time when housing and mortgage industry advocates are pushing for reductions in FHA premiums.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is on the lookout for lenders that facilitate occupancy fraud as a way to avoid the agency's ability-to-repay rule.

The jumbo MBS market has been extremely weak this year, but a change may be afoot.

So, what’s the biggest impediment to mortgage volumes taking off this spring? According to a new poll from Inside Mortgage Finance, it’s a lack of housing inventory.

The new survey of more than 2,000 real estate agents found that respondents recommend specific mortgage providers for 59 percent of their homebuyer transactions.

S&P rated seven of the 11 non-agency MBS issued in the first three months of 2014, or 78 percent based on dollar volume, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

“FHFA hasn’t dropped the ball on the issue,” said one MI consultant who has met with the agency over the topic. “They now know that the [GSE reform bill] is dead and they want to make sure they get it right.”

Neither Fannie Mae nor Freddie Mac is changing its quality-control review policies for now.

Sources contend that three other top executives also have left Nationstar Mortgage. At press time, Nationstar’s media department had not returned telephone calls and emails on the matter.

Even though the wholesale/broker channel is a shadow of its former self in terms of market share, that isn’t stopping LoanDepot of Irvine, CA, from sticking its toe in the water. In fact, the company acknowledged the problems the sector faces when it announced to the world two weeks ago that it was entering the space. “There is no segment in the mortgage industry facing greater challenges today than mortgage brokers,” said Jeff Walsh, president of LDWholesale, the unit LoanDepot ...