The Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced plans to consolidate multifamily hubs nationwide and close a number of its smaller field offices. The plan would result in an estimated $61.9 million in annual costs savings for HUD after completion and affect approximately 900 of the department’s 9,300 employees. No employee will be laid off as a result of the restructuring, according to HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. Donovan said the changes are part of a broader, long-term effort that will allow HUD to continue to deliver high-quality services by adapting modern best practices. The decision to ...

Congress Extends MI Tax Deductibility. Congress again extended legislation ensuring the tax deductibility of mortgage insurance on purchase and refinance loans through Dec. 31, 2013. Consequently, homeowners with adjusted household incomes of $109,000 or less can continue to claim the MI tax deduction on their federal tax return retroactive to Jan. 1, 2012. With a tax deduction, qualified borrowers may be able to ...

Despite the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC) to head FHFA, certain Democrats want Acting Director Edward DeMarco fired. Now.

The bulk servicing market is showing signs of heating up: IMA has two deals totaling $23 billion in the works.

PHH Mortgage saw its gain-on-sale margin decline but it marked up the value of its MSRs.

The Obama administration has sent a message to the mortgage industry that it wants to expand the Home Affordable Refinance Program by changing the eligibility date for high loan-to-value and underwater borrowers who want to refinance loans financed by the government-sponsored enterprises. According to members of the Mortgage Bankers Association who attended a recent pow-wow at the White House, the administration wants to push the eligibility date for HARP into mid-2010 or so. Currently, a mortgage eligible for the program has to have a securitization date prior to June 2009. In theory, this would increase...

Encouraged by what it describes as positive public feedback, the Federal Housing Finance Agency says it is pressing forward with its proposed contractual and disclosure framework to enhance transparency and investor protections in residential mortgage-backed securities. The progress report issued this week by the FHFA addresses work that the agency and the two government-sponsored enterprises have done so far in the development of the contract and disclosure framework, or CDF, as well as on the design of a common securitization platform, or CSP. The combination of the CDF and CSP “will enable...

Although a number of major correspondent lenders pulled back from that market in 2013, a hefty 29.1 percent of home mortgages were funded by one company and then sold, servicing released, to a larger aggregator and, typically, securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae. That means total production figures that include correspondent lending significantly overstate the concentration in the mortgage origination sphere. Including its correspondent production, for example, Wells Fargo put its fingerprint on 27.7 percent of new mortgages originated in 2012. But the company’s direct originations – loans generated through its retail channel and funded through mortgage brokers – represented...

When it comes to sales of retail-originated loans with private mortgage insurance, Quicken Loans is the new king of the market, according to exclusive figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance.

FHFA issues progress report on the "common securitization platform" but no CEO is in place yet. Meanwhile, Ally is out of MSRs totally.