Freedom Mortgage, which has aggressive hiring plans this year, has tapped two top production executives from PHH.

Let’s just hope that if Bernie Madoff and Lee Farkas are socializing together in prison they’re not plotting some type of massive mortgage scam.

One former regulator told us that HUD is relying too heavily on foreclosure sales, which can drive down median values.

Will departing FHFA chief Ed DeMarco go work for a hedge fund? Stranger things have happened.

A handful of firms say they are still aggressively recruiting residential loan officers who have a solid background in purchase-money lending – that is, sales professionals with deep ties to Realtors and home builders.

The FHFA MMI is in better shape? So what, says critic Ed Pinto. He believes that huge problems remain.

Ed DeMarco of FHFA pulls a 'Beyonce' with the higher LLPAs. Meanwhile, we're hearing that Met Watt may be sworn in by early January.

Loan broker Anne James, who runs Reliance Funding in Wittier, CA, told us recently that “I have wholesale lenders calling me daily to sign up.” She notes, however that “Loans are not dropping out of the sky” but adds that she’s getting quite a few calls for second mortgages.

From what we understand, some GSE employees with MBS backgrounds are eagerly volunteering their services to the CSS project, believing that the “end product,” the MBS, is where the future lies.

In certain ways, HUD’s "qualified mortgage" definition is less restrictive than the CFPB edict, including setting no limit on a borrower’s debt-to-income ratio.