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]

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

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...

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...

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

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

Citadel Servicing CEO Dan Perl said "the phones are ringing like a son-of-a-gun" at his nonprime lending shop.

A new audit of the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund is due in October and speculation about its cash reserves is not good.

David Akre of Five Oaks projects that in a few years, issuance of non-agency jumbo MBS could reach $300 billion annually.

The MBS lawsuits target Barclays, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Residential Funding Securities, Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS and Wachovia.