HUD may be forced to cut some of its vendors due to the federal sequester. Meanwhile, Two Harbors raises $673 million.

Mortgage banking units owned by banks and thrifts generated $1.55 trillion in loan sales during 2012, a 36.9 percent jump from the previous year.

Citibank continues to finance PennyMac and its affiliates. The bank recently increased a repo line it had with the publicly traded REIT.

Nine Attorneys General, unhappy with the pace of loan modifications, are calling for the immediate dismissal of acting FHFA director Edward DeMarco.

Mortgage Master, a Walpole, MA-based super-regional lender and one of the largest privately held mortgage companies in the United States, is actively expanding into some key markets in the country, while out-racing behemoth competitor Wells Fargo to the top of the ranking of mortgage lenders in its home state. And the keys to success nationally and locally are the same: strong recruitment of top-notch originators and consistent exceptional service. “I think we’re out-running them [Wells Fargo]. They have ...

The latest credit scoring model from VantageScore Solutions includes credit scores for up to 30 million consumers who haven’t been scored by other providers, according to the company. In an attempt to ease adoption of the score among lenders, the company also changed its scoring range to conform with the range of scores offered by FICO. Sarah Davies, a senior vice president of analytics and product management at the company, said VantageScore 3.0 can score 15 million more potential borrowers than ...

On Tuesday the Senate Banking Committee will hold a vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the CFPB. Does this mean the GOP is warming up to him or is something else afoot?

Improving loan quality is sparking a major shake-out in the due diligence sector. Can jumbo production and MBS save the day? Meanwhile, the supply of MBS expanded slightly in the fourth quarter.

Banks and thrifts reported a sharp increase in the volume of home loans sold in their mortgage banking operations last year, hitting the highest level since 2009, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of bank call report data. Mortgage banking units generated $1.553 trillion in loan sales during 2012, a 36.9 percent jump from the previous year. Activity peaked at $417.1 billion in the fourth quarter, a 3.9 percent increase over the third quarter. Some double counting ... [Includes one data chart]

Contrary to what critics claim or what other studies purport to say, the majority of appraisals support the home-sale contract price, thanks to appraisers’ due diligence in developing a market-value opinion on the underlying collateral, according to the American Enterprise Institute. Citing data from a 2012 study by FNC, Inc., on how appraisal valuations respond to stressful local market conditions, the AEI said that a separate real-estate industry study claiming that low appraisal values are ...