Investors of all different stripes have been increasing their stakes in several publicly traded mortgage insurance firms of late, betting that this recovering corner of the residential finance industry has more gas in the fuel tank. Among those buying into MI stocks is Paulson & Co., the legendary hedge fund that made $15 billion by shorting publicly traded subprime firms via the ABX Index in the run-up to the housing bust. Paulson & Co. recently increased...

The mortgages that most frequently experience delays in closing are those with private mortgage insurance and FHA loans, according to new findings from the Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. According to responses from real estate agents involved in 1,401 transactions in January, some 45 percent of purchase mortgages with private MI experienced a delayed closing. And 42 percent of FHA purchase mortgages experienced a delay in closing. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s lax attention to Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s handling of aged repurchase demands has resulted in uncollected late fees charged to lenders, according to a new audit by the agency’s Inspector General. The FHFA issued a “contract harmonization directive” in January 2012 calling for the two government-sponsored enterprises to develop “consistent timelines and collection standards for fees and penalties and additional types of penalties and remedies.” During contract harmonization discussions, the report noted...

Public mention of the Treasury memo was first made earlier this month by former Solicitor General Ted Olson at a GSE shareholders rights advocacy forum in Washington.

The survey, conducted through the IMF website, also found that 35 percent of participants plan to sell “some” of their MSRs, but only as needed.

Despite the slowdown, an estimated 630,000 mortgages were guaranteed by VA in FY 2013 – a record. Wells Fargo was the top VA funder with $14.82 billion. USAA was second.

Why are speculators shorting mortgage stocks? Answer: The "servicing trade" might be over, but not everyone believes that.

IMA is out with a new $1.294 billion package of bulk Ginnie Mae MSRs, plus a monthly “flow” deal that could net a buyer an additional $900 million in Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac and Ginnie rights.

Federal regulators have yet to finalize their qualified residential mortgage rulemaking, but housing finance experts are already trying to figure out how lending is going to be affected by the interplay of the QRM rule and the qualified mortgage standard as per the CFPB’s ability-to-repay rule. As the new lending environment unfolds, the liability risks associated with non-QM and QRM loans is one of the things that is particularly troublesome to some. “The worse-case scenario that I worry about is that we see a repeat of what we saw in...

Industry participants expect that volume will continue to grow as investor demand for commercial MBS remains strong despite some loosening of underwriting standards.