Home purchase borrowers, including first-time homebuyers, rely more on their lender or mortgage broker than anyone else as a source of information about mortgages, according to a new government survey on consumers’ mortgage shopping experience. Conducted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the survey found that an estimated 70 percent of home-purchase borrowers chose their lender or broker before deciding on the type of loan ...

The FHFA, so far, has declined to provide a budget figure to the general public.

Almost half of the people buying a home these days do not shop around for their mortgages, according to a report issued this week by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. So to help remedy that, the bureau rolled out an online rate-checker tool – something that immediately set off a firestorm of opposition from mortgage brokers and originators. Rate Checker, part of a broader CFPB initiative called Owning a Home, is intended to help consumers understand what interest rates may be available to them, said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “It incorporates information from lenders’ internal rate sheets, information they use to calculate what interest rate is available for a particular consumer. In other words, we are giving consumers direct access to the same type of information that the lenders themselves have. “By plugging in their credit score, their location and information about the loan they are seeking, they can see...

Ocwen’s plan to sell roughly $182 billion of agency servicing rights may have gone up in smoke this week after it was revealed that the California Department of Business Oversight could pull its mortgage licenses in the state. One servicing advisor, requesting anonymity, said the nonbank’s latest run-in with regulators “effectively put an illiquid label on all of their servicing rights.” Another advisor suggested...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is expected to unveil final rules on Private Mortgage Insurer Eligibility Requirements (PMIERs) by the end of March, but there could be a surprise in the works. According to industry lobbyists and MI executives interviewed by Inside Mortgage Finance this week, the FHFA may publish the PMIER rules in tandem with new guidelines on loan-level price adjustments or LLPAs. “The MI industry is...

Falling interest rates and a pending cut in FHA insurance premiums are prompting many lenders to prepare for a boost in refinance activity. “Recent-period lows should stimulate strong refinance activity,” said Bard Blackwell, an executive vice president and portfolio business manager at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. He noted that low yields on 10-year Treasury notes have helped to decrease interest rates on mortgages in recent months. As of press time, the yield on 10-year Treasuries fell...

Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, pointed to a flaw in the beta version of Rate Checker: it doesn't show the annual percentage rate.

Stan Kurland, PennyMac’s chairman and CEO, said the FHLB application for PMT Insurance has been on hold since it was submitted.

Ocwen’s lack of cooperation regarding documents led the agency’s commissioner to issue a subpoena “duces tecum,” which is essentially a court summons.

The positive performance, a drop of 14.5 percent, is most likely due to the continued recovery in the overall economy as well as the housing market.