One of the things that is unusual about this housing recovery is the extent to which it has been supported by investors – and not just individuals looking for rental property. Institutional investors have jumped into the rental home market in a way not seen before, and that is benefitting some industries you might not expect, or in ways you may not have anticipated. “In traditional housing recoveries, individuals and households provide the bulk of the demand the market needs to rebound,” said ...

Officials at Ocwen Financial were highly critical of the accounting methods used by other servicers that have acquired significant holdings of mortgage servicing rights recently. Ocwen might also soon have more cash than necessary for its planned acquisition opportunities, with officials considering initiating a stock buyback. William Erbey, Ocwen’s chairman, said his company is considerably less leveraged than other servicers. He noted that Ocwen carries most of its MSRs at market value rather than ...

Sixty-five percent of real estate agents would be more willing to recommend a lender if they were provided a mobile “app” to track the status of scheduled mortgage closings, according to a new survey by Campbell Surveys and Inside Mortgage Finance Publications. “Most lenders today are not keeping us advised of the status of the loan and, more frustrating, they are requiring additional documents piecemeal,” according to one real estate agent that responded to the survey. “Instead of a ...

Will Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be "even" with the U.S. Treasury by yearend? Also: PennyMac Financial Services goes public.

The game is on: MBA wants a single GSE security and will lobby aggressively on the issue.

Overall FHA loan production dropped a tad during the first quarter of 2013 even as refinancing volume remained elevated, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of agency data. FHA lenders produced a total of $63.7 billion in new FHA-insured loans during the quarter, down 0.6 percent from the previous quarter but up 27.4 percent from the same period last year. FHA streamline refinancing rose 8.4 percent to $31.0 billion in the first quarter from the prior period. That was also up a whopping 97.8 percent from the same period last year. In a new report to Congress, the ... [2 charts]

With mortgage bankers earning a ton of money the past two years, more firms are considering buying a new loan origination system.

So far a “broad cross-section” of industry participants and other stakeholders support the steps the Federal Housing Finance Agency has taken to establish a new securitization platform for residential MBS, the agency said in a progress report issued this week. “In light of the importance of this initiative to the housing finance system, and reinforced by the comments received from the public, FHFA has directed the enterprises to move forward on the development of the [common securitization platform],” the agency noted. In early March, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco said...

Fannie Mae and IBM are working together on at least one big technology project: a new data center. But is the relationship about to go even further? Meanwhile, MBS issuance stayed hot in April.

Changes at Fannie Mae in 2010 would have forced Third Federal Savings and Loan to adjust its underwriting standards if the company was to continue selling mortgages to the government-sponsored enterprise. Instead, TFSL decided to differentiate itself from other lenders and launched a non-agency ARM product. To manage interest-rate risk while serving borrowers that might have trouble qualifying for an agency loan, TFSL shifted from predominantly selling fixed-rate mortgages to Fannie before July 2010 to ...