Significant investments in mortgage servicing rights appear to have paid off for Two Harbors Investment, a real estate investment trust. PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust is also turning profits due to MSRs, servicing and a correspondent operation. Two Harbors this week reported net income of $239.4 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, rebounding from a net loss of $192.7 million in the previous quarter, both based on generally accepted accounting principles. During the fourth quarter, Two Harbors ...

Mortgage products offered by lenders haven’t changed much since the 1930s and are in a primitive stage, according to Robert Shiller, an economist who helped develop the Case-Shiller home price index. In a new paper published by Yale University’s Cowles Foundation for research in economics, Shiller pushes for greater innovation in the mortgage industry. He is currently a professor at Yale and for years has advocated a product he developed, “continuous workout mortgages,” to no avail ...

Two pages of data showing the top 30 sellers of agency mortgages in 2013 with a break-out for each lender listing average credit scores, debt-to-income ratios, loan-to-value ratios, loan size, purchase-mortgage share and refinance share. All characteristics are shown for the origination channel (retail, correspondent and broker) at each lender.

January 2014 marked the fourth month in a row where combined agency securitization included more purchase-money mortgages than refinances, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

According to Inside Mortgage Finance, one thing is clear: the commercial banking industry is continuing to shed MSRs, at least in aggregate.

PennyMac had 229 correspondent partners at the end of 2013 and Kurland said the nonbank is looking to work with small sellers.

Mortgage executives are praying that even though eminent domain plans have been talked about and brought to a vote in a handful of cities, that it never gets used.

According to company correspondence provided to Inside Mortgage Finance, Green Tree's target date for exiting the wholesale/broker channel is mid-April.

JPMorgan Chase is the dominant holder of non-agency MBS among depositories, accounting for almost 36 percent of the bank investment market.

Total FHA delinquencies rose slightly while the percentage of seriously delinquent loans remained flat in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of FHA servicing data. Data showed delinquencies of 90 days or more remained unchanged at 8.1 percent from the previous quarter even as total FHA delinquencies increased a bit to 15.2 percent from 15.1 quarter over quarter. The share of loans that are 30-60 days behind on their payment also increased to 7.1 percent from 6.9 percent over the same period. As of Dec. 31, FHA servicers had a combined ... [1 chart]