House lawmakers grilled Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt on everything from flood insurance to the qualified-mortgage rule and credit-risk transfers during a hearing this week, but his comments regarding the evaporating capital buffers at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suggested that he’s fed up with the lack of action from Congress. Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Watt said it would be “especially irresponsible” for the two ...

A handful of GSE watchers we spoke to believe that in time Watt will work out a compromise with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on zero capital...

First Republic Bank originated $1.90 billion of IOs in the second quarter of 2017, ranking first nationwide.

But that didn’t stop the conservative from the Lone Star state from offering up some critiques on the FHFA...

Meanwhile, FHFA Director Mel Watt called the new IG audit “seriously flawed…”

FHFA Director Mel Watt: “In fact, it is especially irresponsible for the enterprises not to have such a limited buffer..."

LoanDepot more than doubled its ARM originations in that span, and large increases were also seen at Wells Fargo, Bank of America Home Loans, First Republic Bank and MUFG…

In the interim, mortgage servicers must continue to pass on the principal and interest payments to the end bondholders.

In less than 90 days...

The biggest challenge for the vibrant single-family rental market may be the shortage of available homes to purchase, according to panelists speaking at an Urban Institute event highlighting institutional investment in SFRs this week. And one analyst pointed to mid-sized investors as being best positioned to profit from the market. Since the financial crisis, SFRs have emerged as a viable housing option and real estate investment firms are seizing the opportunity. Both mom-and-pop operators and institutional investors have been buying homes of all sizes and offering them as rental properties. Prior to the crisis, there were...