Purchase-mortgage originations in 2016 hit their highest level since before the housing market crash, including a solid uptick in first-time buyer activity, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. Revised estimates show a total of $1.021 trillion of home-purchase mortgages were originated in 2016, a 10.5 percent increase from the previous year. It marked the biggest volume of purchase-money lending since 2006 even though the purchase share of new originations declined. That’s...[Includes five data tables]

As policymakers work toward housing finance reform, industry participants are forming plans to ensure that servicing issues are addressed. The Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center recently launched the Mortgage Servicing Collaborative, which will provide data on servicing issues and analyze possible solutions. “We are...

Although sales of existing and newly constructed homes were both up in January 2017, a slump in the number of contracts signed for existing homes may be a harbinger of a rough spring market. A low supply of homes on the market, especially in the Midwest and West, caused a lull in pending home sales at the beginning of the year, according to a National Association of Realtor index based on contract signings. The Pending Home Sales Index showed that the number of homes with a contract in January was the lowest it’s been since January 2016. Existing home sale gains (up 3.3 percent in January) showed...

Annaly padded its lead as the top REIT MBS investor, thanks, in part, to its acquisition of Hatteras Financial in the third quarter of 2016…

Then again, Trump has been known to surprise people.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is apparently poised to begin an investigation of allegations of redlining on the part of CIT Group, Pasadena, CA, through its CIT Bank subsidiary, the successor to OneWest Bank, after agreeing to accept a complaint against the lender filed by the California Reinvestment Coalition. The CRC alleges the bank violated and continues to violate the Fair Housing Act by providing residential real estate-related transactions in a manner that discriminates on the basis of race, color and national origin. Specifically, the complaint alleges that since at least 2011, CIT Bank discriminated in marketing and originating housing-related products, as evidenced by the low number of mortgages it made to African-American, Asian-American and Latino borrowers in ...

The nonagency/nonprime MBS market is expected to get some attention at the SFIG show, but not much…

Average credit scores in the FHA program drifted slightly lower, while climbing 1.9 points for VA loans.

Meanwhile, selling Ginnie Mae receivables is still a difficult task…

Higher FHA delinquencies may have been caused by administrative mistakes…