FHA to Extend Short Refi Program. The FHA has announced its intent to extend its Short Refinance Program for borrowers in negative equity positions. A mortgagee letter will be issued soon to announce the extension. Feedback Period extended for Draft Servicing Section of Proposed Single Family Handbook. The FHA is extending the comment period for the draft servicing section of the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook through Nov. 14, 2014 to allow stakeholders additional time to study and comment on the proposed section. The original deadline date was Oct. 17. CFPB Updates Reverse Mortgage Guide. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently updated its reverse mortgage guide on its website to account for recent changes made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. The updated guide highlights new limits to ...

Back in 2004, credit unions accounted for just 3.2 percent of total mortgage originations. Not anymore.

Back in the first quarter of 2013, only 31.3 percent of Fannie/Freddie purchase mortgages had private mortgage insurance.

No reason for panic yet: Only two jumbo (MBS) borrowers are currently more than 60 days delinquent and the foreclosure process has yet to start for either.

Credit unions have been slowly expanding their share of new mortgage originations for the past decade, but in 2014 the industry crossed a symbolic threshold, according to a new Inside MortgageFinance analysis of call-report data. For the first time, the credit union industry owns a double-digit share of new originations. The industry originated $30.0 billion of home mortgages during the second quarter – or 10.2 percent of the $295.0 billion in total mortgage originations for the period. Back in 2004, credit unions accounted...[Includes one data chart]

The U.S. Supreme Court gets another crack at deciding whether plaintiffs can bring a disparate-impact lawsuit under the Fair Housing Act (and by extension, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act), a question that has divided courts, lenders and consumer advocacy groups for years. The court’s partial grant of the petition in the Texas case would be its third opportunity in two years to rule on the controversial question. Two prior cases raising that issue, Township of Mount Holly v. Mt. Holly Gardens Citizen Action, Inc. and Magner v. Gallagher, were both settled before oral argument could be presented before the court. SCOTUS has agreed...

Another refi boomlet? One Long Island-based mortgage executive told us this: “Locks doubled from the day before and are up 30 percent over the previous 10 days”…

Bonds backed by nonperforming residential mortgages could reach $6 billion this year. But all of the deals are "private."

New York Law School professor Richard Epstein took issue with Judge Lamberth’s ruling that HERA doesn’t take away any “cognizable property rights.”

In the past, when mortgage wholesalers cut fees it marked an attempt to increase production volume.