While activity plummeted in the second half of the year, jumbo MBS production in 2013 was nearly four times the level from the previous year.

Will well-known mortgage trainer Barry Habib stick with Residential Finance Corp., a company whose assets are in the process of being sold? It’s hard to say since RFC isn’t answering questions on about the firm’s future.

Most of the underlying mortgages have terms of six to nine months, but with a warehouse line in place the terms could range from three to five years.

Freedom has big expansion plans for the new year. Company CEO and founder Stan Middleman recently told IMFnews Daily that he plans to hire between 200 and 500 residential loan officers in 2014.

While banks have put an emphasis on originating jumbo mortgages for portfolio, the uptick in total mortgages outstanding was largely driven by originations of agency mortgages.

The new requirements become effective for FHA case numbers assigned on or after March 11, 2014. Comments are due by Feb. 10, 2014.

What's ahead for residential lenders and servicers in 2014? You might be surprised at some of our predictions. Hint: The servicing market looks good, at least.

Ginnie Mae chief Ted Tozer noted: “We want aggressive outreach to find out what the issues are. If they aren’t issuing, we want to know why."

“The recent decline in large-lender share of the primary market is temporary, and principally a result of cyclical factors that caused larger lenders to pull back from the market,” said Fannie Mae's Gerry Flood.

The GSEs’ common industry dataset that supports the CFPB’s new disclosure form is called the Uniform Closing Dataset, and is one component of the Uniform Mortgage Data Program, an ongoing effort being directed by the FHFA.