Streamline refinancing helped boost FHA origination volume as lenders reported substantial increases on monthly and year-over-year bases, according to Inside FHA Lending’s latest analysis of FHA data. Despite increases in mortgage insurance premium and other policy changes aimed at reducing FHA market share and strengthening the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, FHA endorsements were up 18.7 percent in January 2013 from December 2012, and a hefty 38.7 percent from January last year. However, FHA refis accounted for 54.3 percent of total production while purchase mortgages made up ... [1 chart]

Some underwriters in the private mortgage insurance space are rolling out new technology in their efforts to reacquire market share lost to the FHA even as market tidal forces continue to shift in favor of private MIs. Radian Guaranty, a subsidiary of Radian Group, has introduced its MI rate finder application, Radian Rates, for Android smart phone devices on Google Play. Designed as a mobile version of the company’s existing online rate finder, Radian Rates checks eligibility, compares options and automatically calculates the MI rate depending on the ...

Quicken is buying a large MSR portfolio from the government-owned Ally Bank and more deals may be in the works.

Members of the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle are working on legislation to reform the mortgage finance system, but partisan differences suggest that the most likely accomplishment may be steps aimed at not making the difficult task any harder.In the Senate, a handful of members from both parties recently introduced the “Jumpstart GSE Reform Act,” which would prevent guaranty fees collected by the government-sponsored enterprises from being used to offset other government spending.

Look for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue to increase their guaranty fees, but the current level of g-fees is approaching “striking distance” of the threshold expected in a competitive private market, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency told lawmakers this week.Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, FHFA Acting Director Edward De-Marco said last year’s two 10 basis point g-fee increases raised the average fee to around 50 bps, double where they were when the GSEs were put in conservatorship in September 2008.

Last week, nine Democrat state attorneys general, led by New York AG Eric Schneiderman and Massachusetts’ Martha Coakley, called for the Obama administration to nominate a permanent re-placement for Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco.Under DeMarco’s leadership, the AGs say, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remain “an obstacle to progress” primarily by the FHFA’s refusal to allow the two government-sponsored enterprises to offer principal reduction assistance to troubled borrowers.

Can Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac capture $93 billion in deferred tax assets - money that ultimately will flow through to the U.S. Treasury?

Is the refinancing boom finally over? Some mortgage bankers are beginning to get nervous.

At the end of the year, banks and thrifts serviced $5.323 trillion of home mortgages for other investors, giving these MSRs an asset value of $41.43 billion.

Mortgage banking units owned by banks and thrifts generated $1.55 trillion in loan sales during 2012, a 36.9 percent jump from the previous year.