Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that the central bank is leaning toward scaling down its MBS purchases later this year, and that rapidly rising mortgage interest rates don’t pose a major threat to the fledgling housing recovery.

Wall Street is concerned that the further away a loan is from getting safe harbor protection as a qualified mortgage, the more legal uncertainty and higher costs there will be associated with it.

Freddie Mac's "low activity fee" will be mostly eliminated. However, it will still apply to originators that have not sold a loan to the GSE in 36 months.

When rates spiked this week, margin calls to MBS investors increased. Lenders are nervous but next will will be the real test, mortgage executives told Inside Mortgage Finance.

Residential debt outstanding fell slightly in the first quarter, but the GSE/FHA share of the market continued to grow.

The pool of mortgages in Shellpoint's first deal has a combined loan-to-value ratio of 65 percent, slightly lower than other recent non-agency MBS.

There is still no official word on when the Senate Banking Committee will take up the nomination of Rep. Mel Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

With rates rising and liquidity increasing, more mortgage servicing portfolios are hitting the auction market.

When rates rise, loan officers begin to bite their nails, unless they are heavily reliant on purchase-money loans.

The Corker-Warner GSE bill could see the light of day next Tuesday. Meanwhile, HLSS is selling more shares to the public.