Mortgage originations defied expectations in the fourth quarter and held virtually even with the previous period, despite a measurable increase in mortgage interest rates. According to exclusive new Inside Mortgage Finance estimates, some $580.0 billion of first-lien mortgages were originated during the fourth quarter of 2016, a slight 0.9 percent drop from the third quarter. That lifted total production for the year to an estimated $2.065 trillion, up 19.0 percent from the 2015 total. Industry forecasters were...[Includes two data tables]

According to one media report, two men were shot execution-style inside a mortgage business on Staten Island Tuesday night...

With interest rates on mortgages expected to go up this year, some lenders are putting an emphasis on loan originators who can close purchase mortgages. Economists at the Mortgage Bankers Association predict that the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage will climb from 3.70 percent last year to 4.50 percent in 2017. The higher rates will help prompt a 47.7 percent decline in refi volume in 2017 compared with the estimated $901.0 billion in refi originations last year, according to the MBA. Dave Stevens, president and CEO of the MBA, said...

The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York has announced a $53 million settlement agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank to resolve alleged discriminatory lending through its wholesale broker channel in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Fair Housing Act. Filed last week in Manhattan federal court, the U.S. Attorney’s complaint accused Chase of improperly steering African-American and Hispanic borrowers into certain loan products and charging them higher interest rates and fees than comparable white borrowers between 2006 and 2009. During the period, approximately 360,000 brokered mortgage loans were delivered...

The states argue that the current ruling in the PHH case, if permitted to stand, will undermine the power of the Attorneys General to effectively protect consumers…

Thus far, only a $225.75 million nonprime MBS issued by an affiliate of Lone Star Funds in December has received AAA ratings.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods has an “underperform” rating on Walter’s stock…

Some $157.6 million of interest-only loans were included in prime non-agency MBS issued in the fourth quarter, the highest IO volume since the third quarter of 2015.

Through the first nine months of 2016 – which represents the latest available data – Invitation Homes posted a net loss of $51.6 million, compared to a $121.7 million loss in the same period a year earlier.

In a poll conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance, just 14 percent of respondents said they were against a cut in FHA premiums.