FHFA Director Mel Watt may have something to say soon on the topic of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan level price adjustments, commonly known as LLPAs. As for the GSE 'Scorecard'...

The EXPIRE Act also includes a provision to extend the mortgage insurance premium tax deduction. In a letter supporting the tax extensions to the committee, the Mortgage Bankers Association estimated that for a $200,000 home, homeowners would be able to deduct between $600 and $1,000 from their taxes.

But Wells also offers up disappointing news on its mortgage gain-on-sale results. Its GOS fell to 161 basis points in the first quarter compared to 177 bps in 4Q and 256 bps in 1Q13.

In 2013, nine firms issued jumbo MBS. In the past two quarters, the only issuers of jumbo MBS were Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase and Redwood Trust.

Mortgage lenders are still smarting from a recent cyber-attack on their loan origination software provider, Ellie Mae, but a larger question now looms: If a company of Ellie’s stature was hacked, can it happen to other vendors as well? Tony Garritano, a consultant who manages a mortgage technology advocacy group called Progress in Lending, said, to the best of his knowledge, the attack on Ellie Mae is a first for the industry – and likely not the last. “As more lenders and their vendors migrate to the Internet this will happen again and again,” he said. He notes...

Early indicators suggest that mortgage originations slumped by about 23 percent in the first quarter of 2014, a harbinger of tough times to come for companies that are running on fumes. According to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac first-quarter securitizations, primary market originations for the first three months of the year totaled about $235 billion. Unless the pace picks up, 2014 could fail to reach $1 trillion for the first time since 1998. Lender surveys, which are the major factor in Inside Mortgage Finance originations estimates, are underway. Weak origination volume is...

PHH Mortgage has been on the auction block for at least two months. One called the sale “mission impossible.”

Did the FHFA late last summer/early fall raise concerns regarding a certain nonbank servicer’s capital in regard to a huge portfolio of mortgage servicing rights that it had bought earlier in the year from a megabank?

FHA chief Carol Galante reminded lenders that mortgage premium increases – five hikes from 2008 to 2013 – were necessary to protect the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund and properly price for the risk the government insurer was taking on.

Roughly 2 percent of depositories said they will cease offering mortgages altogether because of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s ability to repay rule and QM standards.