Rising prices for mortgage servicing rights in the second quarter of 2013 helped lure sellers to a market that continues to see a decline in available product and improving fundamentals. The Federal Reserve this week reported that the long, steady decline in home mortgage debt outstanding – a streak that has now run six and a half years – continued through the midway point in 2013. As of the end of June, home mortgage debt outstanding was down to $9.833 trillion, a 0.4 percent drop from March and a hefty 12.9 percent decline from the all-time high ($11.287 trillion) set back in March 2008. A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals...[Includes two data charts]

Here's an odd turn of events: Freddie Mac might bail out Uncle Sam. Meanwhile, the mortgage insurance industry continues to mend.

Although Nationstar Mortgage has delayed loan closings in certain production channels due to what it calls a “switch” in document custodians, it continues to tap the capital markets for debt and servicing advances. This week alone, the nation’s sixth largest residential servicer priced $225 million in senior notes, and inked a deal for a new $1 billion servicing advance facility with Wells Fargo serving as trustee and Barclays Bank as the administrative agent. The lender is actually Barclays. A spokesman for the nonbank told...

David Akre of Five Oaks projects that in a few years, issuance of non-agency jumbo MBS could reach $300 billion annually.

Fannie Mae seller/servicers also can dodge the maintenance fee if they have $25 million in Fannie servicing or paid $5,000 in technology fees.

Besides Citi, a handful of large depositories are in the midst of wrapping up sizable MSR auctions this week, including offerings from Wells Fargo and Flagstar Bancorp.

A new audit of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is due in October and speculation about its cash reserves is not good.

Citadel Servicing CEO Dan Perl said "the phones are ringing like a son-of-a-gun" at his nonprime lending shop.

The bloodletting in Citigroup's mortgage division may just be starting.

Over the past two years, upwards of $1 billion has been raised by private-equity funds seeking to buy servicing rights in the secondary market.