Redwood started acquiring agency mortgages from correspondent lenders in mid-October. The REIT noted that the activity helps create mortgage servicing rights for it to invest in.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have almost "repaid" their debt to the U.S. Treasury. But will it change the debate on the future of the GSEs?

How many loans per month should a loan officer be closing when times are lean? According to Dave Lykken of Mortgage Banking Solutions, if an LO isn’t closing at least six loans per month, they might want to consider employment elsewhere.

Figuring out the details on how to structure, capitalize and operate new secondary-market facilities for small lenders are key challenges for the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee as it pushes to mark up mortgage reform legislation by the end of this year. This week, lawmakers pushed lender trade groups to come together and find answers. The bipartisan Senate blueprint for secondary mortgage market reform includes several key provisions designed to facilitate small-lender access when Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are no longer around, including creation of a new mutual or cooperatively-owned institution through which lenders could issue conventional mortgage-backed securities guaranteed by the government. If a new MBS mutual for small lenders is going to be competitive, it will have to be capitalized...[Includes one data chart]

A few weeks back, many servicing brokers were predicting a land rush to close deals by year-end, but there’s a new school of thought that predicts sellers might wait until early 2014 to unload some of their deals. “While we don’t expect the [mortgage servicing rights] deal flow to turn off completely for 2013 just yet, we have noticed quite a slowdown in the marketplace as compared to the summer and early fall,” said George Christo, executive vice president of The Prestwick Group. “Many of our conversations with buyers and sellers have pivoted to setting the table for the first quarter of 2014 settlements.” Moreover, the frothy prices being offered for MSRs are...

“At the end of the day, we’re still dealing with a one-sided contract with a significant termination option,” said Jonathan Jaffe, an attorney who works on GSE buyback issues.

The REIT is just starting to purchase MSRs. At the end of September it had $15.7 million of mortgage servicing rights on its balance sheet, but that figure should rapidly change in the quarters ahead.

FHA lenders originated $10.8 billion of new jumbo loans in the first half of 2013, down 2.7 percent from the same period last year.

According to Bill Dallas, his young firm hopes to table fund as much as $20 million in November, its first full month of operation

An active mortgage wholesaler in California is letting account executives go. Stay tuned for details.