If you’re searching for some good news on the troubled PHH Corp., look no further than the book value of the company’s common stock, which is roughly $23 a share, according to a recent calculation from Sterne Agee CRT. In trading late this week, PHH’s share price was a mere $12.60, which means there appears to be plenty of upside as long as management can right the troubled ship and find a way forward as private-label clients fall to the wayside and servicing "marks" ...

Two lenders are returning to the structured finance market in an uncommon way, participating in a $210 million mortgage warehouse securitization. The transaction involving agency originations received provisional AAA ratings from Moody’s Investors Service last week. Station Place Securitization Trust 2016-3 will be backed by a revolving pool of agency mortgages originated by Greentree Mortgage and loanDepot. The two lenders participated in a similar $225 million deal ...

A preliminary analysis of 2015 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reports suggests that loan denial rates declined slightly last year. ComplianceTech, a supplier of fair lending and HMDA technologies for lenders and others, recently released an “EarlyLook” at its online Lending Patterns database of HMDA reports. A group of 175 lenders had a combined $730.9 billion in mortgage originations last year, up 35.7 percent from its volume back in 2014. The 175 aren’t necessarily the ...

The practice of an individual investor purchasing a property, fixing it up and reselling it for a profit – an activity so prevalent before the financial crisis that it spawned television shows – is making a return, especially in certain markets, according to CoreLogic. “Flipping was at an all-time high before the housing bubble burst because of easy access to credit and speculation for higher home prices,” said Bin He, principal economist at CoreLogic, in a recent blog post ...

Altisource Residential Corp. this week reached an agreement with a group of activist investors who control about 2.5 percent of the company’s stock and were concerned about the firm’s shift toward the single-family rental market. Altisource agreed to add two new independent directors and continue a $100 million stock buyback initiative. The so-called RESI Shareholders Group led by BLR Partners, a private equity firm, agreed to withdraw its nominations for replacements of ...

Freddie Mac posted a net loss and Fannie’s profits sagged in the first quarter of the year, prompting some industry groups to renew their calls for the GSEs to rebuild capital. A surprise interest rate decline in the first quarter of 2016 resulted in sharply lower net income at Fannie and Freddie. The GSEs booked a combined $7.37 billion in net derivative losses for the first quarter that compromised most of their income from their core businesses. Since 2012, when the two GSEs became profitable again, they have booked $23.46 billion in hedging losses. Both GSE CEOs pointed to volatility in the market as having affected earnings this quarter.

United Guaranty was the largest MI in terms of total policies written in 1Q16, but Arch Mortgage Insurance and National MI were the fastest growers.

Analysts at PiperJaffray said the agreement “removes the near-term risk of Altisource being liquidated.”

In general, private mortgages are extended by the owner of the property to a borrower through a private contract. Terms can vary greatly from deal to deal.

EverBank sold jumbos with an unpaid principal balance of $981.3 million, up 60.4 percent from the previous quarter.