To date, the use of eminent domain to restructure residential loans has garnered a ton of headlines in the financial press, but has posted little in the way of success.

No purchase price on the sale of Allonhill assets to Stewart was ever disclosed. According to the bankruptcy filing, the sale price cannot be revealed for at least 12 months after the sale and will require approvals from both parties.

Whatever happened to the sale of Cole Taylor Mortgage, which has been in the works for nine months or so? Good question. When we asked one source close to the deal, his response was this: “Think of the Energizer Bunny but with fairly old batteries.

In the end, it's all about yield, which is why investors are going after "esoteric" ABS. Will non-prime MBS ever stage a comeback, even a mini-comeback?

The private equity plaintiffs allege that the Treasury’s change in the dividend structure of its preferred stock leaves the GSEs with no funds to pay anything to junior shareholders.

Agreeing to speak only on background, some mortgage participants thought that ORI’s recapitalization plan raised serious concerns among potential investors.

The serious delinquency rate on servicer portfolios hasn’t improved much in the past year, from 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 to 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013.

Fannie Mae this week released its STAR servicer rankings and hopefully a copy found its way to all those pesky regulators who think nonbank servicers can’t tell the difference between a debit and a credit.

The top three HEL lenders in the market – Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Chase – originated a combined $17.8 billion in home-equity loans last year, but they still saw a $32.1 billion decline in their total holdings of HELOCs and closed-end seconds.

As former Fannie Mae executive William Maloni put it: “More money for Uncle Sam!” The Treasury Department ultimately will benefit since it gets to “sweep” almost of Fannie’s and Freddie’s earnings.