If a borrower went shopping for a mortgage loan in 2014, he or she would have found FHA insurance costlier than private mortgage insurance even with a 20 percent downpayment, according to a new report from WalletHub, a web-based organization that monitors a variety of financial services. FHA mortgage insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2008, when conventional loans with private MI grew scarce and FHA became the only game in town for ...

Altisource Residential and Altisource Asset Management abruptly cancelled their scheduled earnings calls this week as the firms work on modifying an asset management agreement. Both of the companies have ties to Ocwen Financial, which has faced its own operating issues in recent months. “Despite the negative headlines surrounding our primary mortgage servicer Ocwen, our performance has remained strong,” said Ashish Pandey, AR’s CEO. The real estate investment trust had ...

Ocwen Financial’s goal to eventually unload $140.5 billion of mortgage servicing rights tied to Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loans is being aided by bifurcation agreements approved by the GSEs and their regulator, according to advisors familiar with the deals.

When Realtors recommend a lender, homebuyers use one of the anointed originators 68 percent of the time.

The last time the jumbo market share was higher came in 2000 – when the Fannie/Freddie loan limit was just $252,700...

Real estate agents have significant influence when it comes to which lender a homebuyer will choose, according to new research by Campbell Surveys, based on a national survey sponsored byInside Mortgage Finance Publications. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said real estate agents recommend specific mortgage providers for 55 percent of their mortgage-financed transactions, on average. When agents recommend mortgage providers, homebuyers use one of the recommended mortgage providers 68 percent of the time, on average. “We can therefore impute...

The days of it being a seller’s market for mortgage banking franchises appears to be over, with current owners are increasingly unwilling to part with their companies at reduced prices. As one merger-and-acquisitions specialist put it, “It’s just hard getting deals done these days.” It looks like a case of supply and demand – and, of course, cash. At the very least, sellers want to receive book value for their companies plus some type of “earn-out” that could last up to 10 years. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance over the past week, the ratio of buyers to sellers has...

A major snag on getting deals completed is the "earn-out" agreement.

The CFPB seems to be spending quite a bit of time defending its "rate checker" tool, which is still in beta testing.

The increase was a rare occurrence: Since 2009 the balance of non-agency debt outstanding has been on the wane.