Not too many life and homeowners insurance firms are foregoing rate increases and rebating money to their insured.

How many houses would be built if it cost $1 million apiece to build modest single-family homes?

Credit unions continue their bid to become a real player in the mortgage industry.

Given today’s rancorous partisan atmosphere, which has almost shut the Congress down, what measure do you think you could get a 400-0 vote on?

Over the past dozen years, one of the best things I’ve done on the road is to gather top industry officials around me and have a freeform, on-the-record roundtable of industry issues.

Neil Morse was a gifted mortgage writer, an indefatigable road warrior, a thoroughly professional public relations executive, and finally as a colleague for his work with our conference group. He died way too soon (he was 62).

One of the easiest ways to get my attention is to follow me on Twitter and shoot me a message. I'm @mortgagenewz.

I occasionally get invitations to speak at mortgage industry events (in addition to chairing our own SourceMedia conferences). My reaction is always bifurcated. On the one hand I'm always flattered people think my outlook on the business is worth listening to. On the other hand I'm always worried I will say something exquisitely stupid.

Feeling hungry for news about the servicing market? Then join me for a free breakfast at the Mortgage Servicing Conference!

If it's springtime it's time for one of the things I anticipate the most in the mortgage calendar.

The struggling housing market needs to look to every possible financing source. So, how are housing bonds doing? According to our sister publication, The Bond Buyer, housing bonds were off last year. But in a small victory, they were not off as much as the entire market.

The Federal Housing Administration is on everybody's mind recently. With new jumbo lending authority it is poised to take even more share away from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. But will FHA mortgagors refinance? Our Nov. 21 article sparked a number of replies about why it is hard to refi an FHA loan.

This week's crop has some opinions and some questions. As to the opinions, everyone is entitled to their own! For the question by Mr. Roper, I believe 62 is the minimum age for someone to be qualified for a reverse mortgage. For the question by Ms. Lange, Ocwen is publicly traded and not owned by DeutscheBank to my knowledge.

This blog, bringing President Truman’s dictum “the buck stops here” into the digital age, consists of comments and story feedback forms that come to me from readers of nationalmortgagenews.com and affiliated sites, with my own occasional comments in reply.