Following a yearlong spree of nationwide outreach events and social media campaigns, the Federal Housing Finance Agency hosted its final webinar this week to encourage participation in the Home Affordable Refinance Program. HARP is set to expire on Dec. 31, but the agency is making a final push to reach out to some 325,290 borrowers it says are still eligible for refinance. While participation continues to dwindle since the program was introduced in 2009, FHFA said homeowners can still save $2,400 a year with a HARP refinance before time runs out. The agency shot down a couple of program myths and emphasized that being significantly underwater doesn’t disqualify borrowers from HARP and said...

Ditech and HLP Principal-Reduction Outreach. Ditech Financial and Hope Loan Port collaborated to find distressed homeowners eligible for the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s new principal- reduction modification program. The two parties said HLP’s platform “is designed to integrate HUD-approved non-profit housing counselors seamlessly and securely with Ditech’s mortgage servicing operations, enabling counselors to more easily help homeowners who may qualify for the program.” Freddie’s Third NPL Transaction of 2016. This week Freddie Mac announced a $783 million non-performing loan transaction featuring seven pools, including two extended timeline pools targeting smaller investors. The NPLs are currently serviced by Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC. FHFA Request for Comment. The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a request for comment this week for a host of technical...

The HLTV loans will be sold to Fannie Mae mostly, but Freddie Mac will play a role as well...

The top retail producer in 1Q was Wells Fargo, the top table-funder United Wholesale Mortgage…

Although mortgage delinquency rates are once again at pre-crash levels, servicing costs continue to rise, leading some factions of the industry to ask whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should increase the standard 25 basis point fee they pay to their servicers. The issue of higher servicing compensation was raised by an individual lender during the audience Q&A at a panel featuring the top single-family executives of the two government-sponsored enterprises at last week’s secondary market conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Both noted that servicing has changed significantly since the housing crisis, and that the Federal Housing Finance Agency has directed them to review servicing compensation. Subsequent interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Finance revealed...

Litigation settlements, of course, have played a role in the resurgence in profits at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, though the legal gravy train is just about over for those two.

FHA loans as a share of all loan originations rose 7 percent year-over-year…

Although the CSS joint venture has a projected budget and multi-year budget plan, it is working with FHFA about when to release that information…

Last summer, Chase started offering jumbos with credit scores as low as 680 and downpayments as small as 15 percent. Previously, the bank required credit scores of at least 720 and 20 percent down…

The groups stress that the conservatorships were intended to be a short-term measure to keep the GSEs solvent…