Lender-paid mortgage insurance has garnered renewed interest lately from mortgage lenders as an alternative to FHA-insured loans, whose increased costs have shut out many cash-strapped borrowers. David Williams, vice president of RightStart Mortgage in Pasadena, CA, said his firm has been getting a lot of requests from wholesale brokers for conventional conforming loans with LPMI because the FHA product has lost its competitive edge. With borrower-paid private MI, the homeowner pays a monthly ...

Nonbanks are better than banks at controlling foreclosure timelines and servicing costs, according to industry analysts. Nonbank special servicers have significantly increased their servicing portfolios in the past year and expect to acquire even more servicing from banks in 2014. “The cost of servicing for banking institutions has increased in lockstep with the additional processes to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements,” according to Fitch Ratings. “In response, a number of large banks have employed ...

Capacity constraints and demand for same-servicer refinances helped lenders book significant profits in recent years, according to an analysis published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Lenders’ profits have declined in recent quarters with the shift toward purchase-mortgage originations due to higher interest rates. A group of researchers determined that higher prices paid by investors in agency mortgage-backed securities in recent years weren’t offset by corresponding increases in ...

Independent mortgage bankers saw increased value in their servicing assets that helped offset slumping production volume in the third quarter, according to a quarterly survey by Richey May & Co. The accounting and business advisory firm found that overall production slid 12.4 percent from the second quarter, and refinance volume was down 42.0 percent. The survey also found that average values of indies’ servicing portfolios increased by seven basis points from the second quarter to the third ...

Is the mortgage servicing sales market beginning to slow? Not in the least. Nationstar and Walter are active buyers.

Ellie Mae has annualized revenues of roughly $130 million. The company went public two years ago.

Inside Mortgage Finance is hearing rumblings about a mid-sized nonbank that was contemplating an initial public offering pulling the deal.

Bill Dallas sees NewLeaf table funding a huge amount of mortgages through brokers next year.

The top reasons for FHA condo denials include financial instability, pending litigation, insufficient insurance coverage and outdated or missing documentation.

The Alt A origination estimate is based on the volume of first-lien conventional mortgages with interest rates ranging from 150 basis points over the prime mortgage rate to 300 bps over.