VA Extends Making Home Affordable Program. The Department of Veterans Affairs has extended the Making Home Affordable program to Oct. 1, 2017. The program was set to expire on Jan. 1, 2017. USDA Approves NewFed Mortgage to originate Section 52 Guaranteed Rural Housing Loans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved NewFed Mortgage Corp., a multi-state residential mortgage lender, to originate USDA loans. Based in Danvers, MA, retailer NewFed offers FHA, VA, USDA, conventional and jumbo mortgage products. Reviews Genworth Financial’s Proposed Sale to Chinese Conglomerate. Fannie Mae has approved Arch Capital’s acquisition of ...

Residential servicers started 47,955 new foreclosures in the quarter, a 1.6 percent sequential decline, and a whopping 25.3 percent fall compared to a year ago.

Ever since the nation’s financial crisis, commercial banks and other depositories have dominated the second-lien business and likely will continue to do so in the coming years, but that isn’t stopping nonbanks from testing the waters once again. According to research by Inside Mortgage Finance, several nonbanks have slipped back into the market, albeit with muted production volumes. And many of the firms that have crept back in are partnering with depositories. The reason for the strategy is...

Nonbank mortgage-banking profitability models have been much more aggressive than their mortgage bank competition when it comes to paying their loan originators. But many question how nonbanks can afford to pay 100 basis points more than banks. During a recent webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance, Paul Hindman, managing director of Grid Origination Services, suggested it has to do with “efficiency execution with every step of the mortgage origination.” And which companies are doing this? “Those companies that really can afford to offer this level of compensation and still be profitable,” he added. That being said, there are varying qualifiers that must be satisfied in order to justify paying a higher commission. Hindman spelled out the typical components of loan ...

The nation’s top three ARM producers are: JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Bank of America…

Consultant Joe Garrett notes: “It’s a very small club of mortgage bankers who’ve bought banks…”

With the purchase now complete, there are just six MI firms in the U.S.

When the housing recession was in its early years, negative equity was most pronounced in a handful of Southwestern and Southeastern markets...

With rates rising (and staying that way, for now) mortgage M&A is expected to pick up steam in the coming months...

But if you think that Wells Fargo will pull a “BofA” and quietly downshift its presence in mortgages, think again.