Despite recovering house values in most markets, insufficient collateral remained the biggest obstacle for consumers trying to get mortgage financing in 2012, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data. In virtually every category of the market, loan applicants were more successful in getting approved for a mortgage last year than they were back in 2011, the HMDA data show. Some 15.5 percent of loan applicants were turned down last year ... [Includes one data chart]

With roughly three months left before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rules on loan-originator compensation and ability-to-repay standards kick in, mortgage originators are scrambling to find the best way to survive and thrive under the new regime. In recent weeks, some in the mortgage broker community have suggested that operating as a mini-correspondent could help brokers bypass points-and-fees complications with the qualified mortgage definition under the ATR rule ...

Borrowers or loan officers misreporting income on loan applications at the height of the housing boom may have pushed up the default rate of high-income borrowers, according to a new Federal Reserve analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Data that was matched with non-HMDA credit data. Researchers Neil Bhutta and Glenn Canner of the Fed’s Division of Research and Statistics found that many borrowers classified as high-income may actually have had lower incomes than what they stated on applications, and ...

FHA admits it will need a bailout, well sort of.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will determine new risk ratios for the mortgage insurance industry, not the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

FHA needs money, right? Some of that cash may come to the government insurer in a roundabout way from JPMorgan Chase.

Bargain hunters are beginning to eye the mortgage market, hoping to pick up franchises at a discount to prices paid in 2012 and earlier this year. But getting capital-rich companies to sell – even with refinance production dwindling – could prove to be a challenge. “We haven't seen any efforts to re-price transactions in process,” said Chuck Klein, managing partner of Mortgage Banking Solutions, Woodway, TX. “If volume and profits are falling below the budget and forecast on deals at the discussion level, then the seller must be able to present a reasonable explanation of how they are to achieve projections in their budget and growth.” Larry Charbonneau, who runs Charbonneau & Associates, another Texas-based consultancy, said...

If mortgage lenders don’t have enough to worry about with six new major mortgage rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that all take effect in January, they also face a heavier Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting burden and perhaps a greater litigation threat from some developments at the bureau. Last week, as the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council was releasing the 2012 HMDA data, the CFPB came out with a set of online HMDA tools to enable consumers to explore mortgage application and loan data at a local level. “Just as the real estate motto ‘location, location, location’ was...

Here's an odd turn of events: Freddie Mac might bail out Uncle Sam. Meanwhile, the mortgage insurance industry continues to mend.

The number of loans repurchased by lenders from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell sharply during the second quarter from the record level set during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of repurchase disclosures by the two government-sponsored enterprises. In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the two GSEs reported a total of $2.81 billion of mortgage repurchases during the second quarter, down 78.7 percent from the first quarter of 2013. GSE buybacks hit a record $13.21 billion in the first three months of 2013 as Fannie and Bank of America resolved their dispute over legacy loans sold to the GSE by Countrywide Financial. The settlement also helped wipe out...[Includes one data chart]