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 ...

Not only was the jumbo market on a roll last year but the GSEs were major players, according to new figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

Among other things, the bill removes from the calculation of fees and points Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan level price adjustments.

Proposed legislation would ban the use of guaranty-fees to pay for non-housing federal expenditures.

A top production executive from CitiMortgage has departed the megabank for the pastures of Texas and Nationstar Mortgage.

Freddie Mac is still owed $1.2 billion from Lehman Brothers, which went bust five years ago. Also, Wells Fargo sells NPLs to Citigroup.

Few multistate lenders subject to reviews by state regulators submitted sufficient mortgage call report data last year, according to the Multistate Mortgage Committee. The regulators also cited lenders for origination issues and said they are working toward settlements with smaller servicers. The 2012 annual report released late last week by the MMC detailed two separate widespread data-related violations of state regulations, one involving limited scope electronic exams and the other involving a risk profiling program. The LSE exams were introduced...

Redwood Trust is coming to the jumbo well once again. Its new MBS is roughly $577 million in size.

Activity in the jumbo MBS market is hopping.Shellpoint Partners is targeting mid-year for its first deal.

Roughly 9,000 HUD/FHA workers could lose pay under federal sequestration.