Mortgage originations late last year sank to the lowest production level since the bottom fell out of financial markets in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Lenders generated an estimated $305 billion in new originations during the fourth quarter of last year, a 33.7 percent decline from the third quarter. The mortgage market hasn’t been that slow since the fourth quarter of 2008, when production totaled just $260 billion. Production volume was...[Includes two data charts]

Storm clouds quickly gathered as Rep. Steve Pearce, R-NM, complained that the bureau’s QM rule and restrictions on high-cost loans would pretty much exclude manufactured housing – and then accused Cordray of deliberately trying to squash lower-income families.

Inside Mortgage Finance makes it official: residential originations tanked in the fourth quarter, but certain nonbanks gained at the expense of the largest players.

Industry consultant Joe Garrett is telling clients that, “We’ve heard of at least one company that uses a fake rate sheet when recruiting loan officers. As you can guess, it shows really great rates, all fake, of course.”

In supplemental materials to his speech, President Obama referenced the GSEs' “failed business model,” adding that taxpayers should never again be “on the hook for bad loans and bailouts.”

Bank of the West executive Paul Wible said the lender believes, "A well-underwritten, interest-only mortgage can be a good choice for our customers" and are safe for the depository to hold in portfolio.

Back in September SLS – a subsidiary of the publicly traded Stewart Information Services – bought key assets of Allon’s Allonhill LLC for an undisclosed sum.

Athas’ originations include stringent downpayment requirements: at the end of 2013, the weighted average loan-to-value ratio on loans held by RCP was 48 percent.

Mortgage topics don’t always make the President’s State of the Union speech, but President Obama Tuesday night may touch on the issue of credit availability and whether the government has “gone too far.”

Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, R-WV, said many credit unions and community banks “feel that they’re not going to be able to have the flexibility to give the farmer, the medical student, the single mother, the ability to get the home because they’re not going to fit into the QM box.”