With loan quality and real estate values continuing their rapid improvement over the past two years, the market value of “high-touch” servicers continues to head south and a handful of such firms are pondering sales. According to advisors that ply their trade in the mergers and acquisitions circuit, at the top of the “for sale” list is the IBM-owned Seterus, which at one point had at least $40 billion in problem Fannie Mae-related loans on its system. But will IBM – which also has its hands in the origination technology arena – finally pull...

A streamlined version of the “Jumpstart GSE Reform Act,” recently reintroduced in Congress, then placed on hold and reintroduced again, could be considered before the end of the year. The bill, sponsored by Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, Mark Warner, D-VA, and Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, would bar the Treasury from selling its stock in the two government-sponsored enterprises and prevent increases in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranty fees to pay for other government spending. An earlier version of the bill that Corker tried to fast-track through the Senate did not include...

Industry groups stepped up their pressure on Congress to block a proposed rule that would alter membership requirements in the Federal Home Loan Bank system. The latest letter came this week and was signed by the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, Independent Community Bankers of America and Habitat for Humanity International. The Federal Housing Finance Agency proposed...

The congressman said the decision to sell thousands of loans at a time at sharp discounts to the highest bidder “continues to enrich Wall Street at the expense of neighborhoods and community-based organizations.”

Or as Marc Savitt of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals put it: “Nothing will pass as long as Obama still has a pen…”

Data detailing the volume of GSE mortgages by state.

The CHLA suggests, among other things, that the U.S. Treasury stop sweeping all GSE profits and instead put that money in a capitalization reserve account...

Standard & Poor’s has removed Ocwen Financial form its “CreditWatch” list.

With mortgage debt outstanding climbing by 0.4 percent during 2Q, the share of securitized loans fell to 64 percent at June 30, the lowest level since 2012.

In August, first-time buyers accounted for 56.9 percent of agency purchase mortgages, up from 54.5 percent a year ago.