Quicken is controlled by Michigan businessman Dan Gilbert, who has been aggressively purchasing Detroit area real estate the past few years.

Wells Fargo, top VA seller to Ginnie Mae, showed a modest 7.6 percent increase in Ginnie MBS issuances in the first quarter...

One thing investors and analysts look for is revenue growth and Ocwen Financial did not deliver. But at least all of its lending licenses are intact...

Both Wells Fargo and JPMorgan note that they have taken significant steps to work with borrowers who have payment option ARMs and other loans that allow for negative amortization.

Freddie Mac announced this week that it has securitized more than $100 billion in multifamily mortgages through its K-Deal program, a milestone for the initiative that was launched in 2009. K-Deals were introduced during the financial crisis when the CMBS market collapsed. Freddie created the program to help revive the market, but it had to convince lenders that selling a loan via securitization was better than selling a loan that Freddie would hold in its portfolio. “In 2008, when we first started talking to investors about doing a CMBS-style securitization, some of them thought...

“I am not satisfied with only making $34 million in the quarter,” said Ocwen CEO Ron Faris. “We intend to do better.”

But a poll by JPMorgan Chase found that 30 percent of potential homebuyers said they plan to purchase a home in the next 18 months.

A total of $49.55 billion of commercial mortgages were securitized during the first quarter of 2015, virtually unchanged from the fourth quarter of last year, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. But the private CMBS market recorded a significant increase in new issuance. Non-agency CMBS production climbed 31.3 percent from the fourth quarter to hit $30.91 billion, the second-highest three-month output since the financial crisis shut down new issuance in the second quarter of 2008. Compared to the first quarter of 2014, new issuance was up 74.3 percent. The jump in private CMBS issuance helped offset...[Includes one data chart]

The jump in private CMBS issuance helped offset what looks like a sharp slowdown in agency multifamily MBS production.

The Blackstone Group is on the hunt to buy mortgage companies, including both lenders and servicers, according to industry advisors and others who have been briefed on the company’s plans. Blackstone, without disclosure, recently purchased Gateway Funding in Horsham, PA, and is in negotiations to buy PMAC Lending Services, sources contend. It also is talking to a company that goes by the name of Pinnacle, though there are several firms with that name, and at press time it was unclear which one. Observers describe...