A Manhattan federal judge earlier this month dismissed a class-action lawsuit against Standard & Poor’s Financial Services after finding no evidence that the rating agency defrauded investors when it gave a favorable rating to Fannie Mae stock prior to the financial crisis.The suit, filed in December 2012 on behalf of potentially hundreds of thousands of investors who bought stock in an offering by Fannie in May 2008, four months before the GSE was taken over by the government, alleged that S&P knowingly misrated Fannie’s stock. Valued at about $25 per share when it was issued, the stock dropped to about $3 per share after Fannie’s government conservatorship began in September 2008.

First-time homebuyers accounted for 33 percent of all GSE-securitized purchase mortgages in the first half, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.

Jumbo originations increased at First Republic Bank, but its mortgage gain-on-sale margin took a hit.

Flagstar hopes to unload $30 billion in residential servicing rights, but is contemplating selling even more in the way of MSRs.

The purchase-mortgage market in the first half of 2013 has shown solid gains over the same per-iod last year, especially in a handful of booming state markets, but different lenders are having widely varying success getting on top of the wave. A new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan-level data shows that 20.2 percent of single-family mortgages securitized by the two government-sponsored enterprises in the first half of the year were purchase-mortgage loans, and total volume was up 31.1 percent from the same time last year. First-time homebuyers accounted...[Includes two data charts]

The recent sharp increase in mortgage interest rates has priced some borrowers out of the market and motivated others to complete home purchases, according to industry participants. If interest rates stay near current levels, home affordability is expected to remain strong, encouraging home purchases. The market for non-distressed properties is still healthy, according to results from the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Average time on market for non-distressed properties is declining, the average number of offers is increasing and sales-to-list price ratios are at elevated levels. The trends have been driven...

Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, say their mortgage reform measure strikes the right chord between Democrat and Republican concerns.

Nationstar Mortgage is issuing $250 million of debt, hinting that it may buy more MSRs from Bank of America.

The MBA believes that the Treasury Department – despite being the GSEs’ single biggest shareholder – has been absent on Fannie/Freddie reform since early 2011.

In 2012 single-family g-fees allowed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to collect $12.5 billion from its seller/servicers.