A strong spring home-buying season and continued low rates are feeding optimism among selected lenders, fueling hopes that healthy production in May will lead to an even better June, according to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance. “May was bigger than April by 10 to 15 percent at both Skyline and New Leaf,” said Bill Dallas, CEO of Skyline Lending, Calabasas, CA. (New Leaf is the wholesale affiliate.) Not too long ago, Dallas wasn’t feeling all that optimistic about 2016. But that was then. “The year started out...

Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase recently launched programs to deliver low-downpayment mortgages to Fannie Mae that differ from the government-sponsored enterprises’ recent expansion into high loan-to-value financing. Both banks introduced new 97 percent LTV programs they believe are easier to use than the GSE initiatives and, for certain borrowers, a better choice than FHA financing. Wells Fargo’s “yourFirstMortgage” requires a minimum of 3 percent downpayment for fixed-rate mortgages. The company will consider FICO scores significantly lower than other similar high-LTV programs, to as low as 620, along with debt-to-income ratios up to 45 percent. Factoring in nontraditional uses of credit such as rent, utility bill payments and tuition is...

Two of the deals offer a range of $50 million to $100 million per month in GSE servicing rights and have a bid deadline of early next week.

Ten trade organizations and community groups this week sent a letter to FHFA Director Mel Watt imploring him to suspend the quarterly GSE dividend paid to the Treasury Department...

Many cite compliance spending, in particular the hiring of attorneys, for the increase in costs.

Fannie Mae’s Robert Schaefer said there is a “high probability” the mortgage giant will be part of an MI transaction later this year that addresses the “pain points” the GSE sees in the deeper MI concept.

Are "fintech" firms spending enough money on mortgage compliance?

There are about 75 correspondent buyers in the market today, but that figure will winnow down to about 60 as margins stay tight...

The pace of GSE reform has been too slow, said Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David Stevens, who’s calling for faster implementation of the Common Securitization Platform and Single-Security. He’s worried that if the CSP platform has not made enough progress, it could face changes in planning down the line. He said the real estate finance industry should continue to push for faster implementation to make sure that any advances made cannot be reversed. “Additionally, the platform should be open to non-agency mortgage-backed securities so that long-term efforts for both private capital and GSE reform can take advantage of the benefits of its efficiency, data and consistency” Stevens added, while speaking...

One of those high-ranking officials is Jim Parrott, former White House housing finance executive...