Brian Collins and Mark Fogarty

We're hearing the housing and mortgage industry can pat themselves on the back for their lobbying effort to block the PATH Act.

We're hearing well-to-do jumbo borrowers are securing better mortgage rates than the average Joe getting a conventional loan from a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac lender.

After dedicating 28 homes last year (the first on the reservation since 1972) the San Felipe pueblo has made considerably better time on its next development.

We're hearing the housing market is supposed to be on a tear.

We're hearing that the declining liquidity of Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities is raising concerns in Washington and on Wall Street.

We're hearing there is a growing consensus that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be wound down and replaced with a new system that relies more on private capital than government guarantees.

We're hearing there's a general expectation that purchase mortgage lending will pick up as refinancings continue to decline over the next four quarters.

We're hearing that the Senate is bracing for a fight over the confirmation of Rep. Mel Watt to be the new GSE regulator.

We're hearing that some servicers don’t believe they can modify a VA loan.

We're hearing that it’s kind of a mystery as to why the number of construction jobs has not kept pace with housing starts.

We're hearing the Corker-Warner GSE reform bill will really drive up the cost of plain-vanilla mortgages.

We're hearing more and more cities are flirting with the use of eminent domain to condemn mortgages and that is going to cause a lot of trouble for the HUD secretary.

Industry groups are growing skeptical about the prospects for a FHA reform bill as we get closer to the summer solstice.

We're hearing that lenders are only going to make qualified mortgages that meet the ability-to-repay underwriting standards mandated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

We're hearing the fight over the qualified mortgage rule will now move to Congress.

We're hearing it must be great to be a big builder—particularly one of the top 10 publicly traded home builders.

We're hearing that it is going to take a concerted industry effort to get a legislative fix for the QM rule on loan officer compensation.

We're hearing that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be issuing new guidance on loan officer compensation in June.

We're hearing that the deck is stacked against Mel Watt, and his chances of being confirmed by the Senate and sworn in as the new GSE regulator are 100-to-1 at best.

FHA needs to fix Credit Watch so every lender isn’t forced into the same narrow credit box.