NAR's oposition falls primarily in two areas: The PATH Act does not include an explicit federal guaranty and the bill dramatically restructures the FHA.

The hiring news isn't all bad in mortgage banking: Skyline Home Loans is looking for loan officers and Highlands recently hired some top executives.

On average FHA took 340 days to sell REO properties based on dispositions from January 2008 through June 2012, compared to just over 200 days for Fannie, Freddie and VA.

Statebridge, which was founded in late 2008, is looking to grow its subservicing platform. The company is licensed in all 50 states.

The rating services have raised concerns about the representations and warranties on the new JPM jumbo deal as well as geographic concentration risk.

Loan applications are strong at Citadel, a newly launched nonprime lender. HUD goes on furlough for a day.

FHFA sued UBS in 2011 over $4.5 billion in RMBS securities that the bank sponsored and $1.8 billion in third party RMBS sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In general, mortgage-related earnings were strong at the nation's banks in the second quarter, but clearly earnings "leakage" is underway. And yes, gain-on-sale is starting to slip.

The higher MSR values are not surprising, but the level of these increases have some mortgage professionals scratching their heads.

It has been a bad month for nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSROs) as plaintiffs pummeled Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Corp. and Fitch Ratings with lawsuits in state courts, seeking damages for allegedly fraudulent investment ratings of pre-crisis non-agency MBS. On July 9, liquidators of two Bear Stearns funds sued the three rating agencies and their parent companies in New York state court for more than $1.12 billion in damages, as well as punitive damages, over allegedly inflated ratings of purportedly “high grade” securities. Geoffrey Varga and Mark Longbottom, the joint official liquidators of Bear Stearns, brought...[Includes one data chart]