Kate Berry

For at least his first year as head of the Mortgage Bankers Association, David Stevens will be barred from lobbying the federal agency that matters most to many of the trade group's members: the one he's leaving, the Federal Housing Administration.

Real estate agents are stepping up pressure on mortgage servicers to reform the short sale process.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general found "systemic problems" in lenders' compliance with underwriting requirements for Federal Housing Administration loans.

The Center for Responsible Lending late this week weighed in on the 'qualified residential mortgage' debate, saying that a 20% down payment threshold will materially shrink the overall borrower market.

As home lenders fret about a forthcoming regulatory proposal on risk retention, Freddie Mac soon will require a little more skin in the game from their borrowers.

Big banks and Washington aren't on the same page—again.

A California lender began selling jumbo loans this month to global asset manager BlackRock Inc., proof that private investors are not waiting for the securitization market to fully recover before getting back into mortgages.

Wells Fargo & Co. has dramatically lowered credit score requirements for Federal Housing Administration mortgages, the first major lender to do so following pressure from the agency and housing advocates.

Bad: When a newspaper ridicules your CEO for wrongful foreclosures.Worse: When the foreclosure was initiated by another company.

Borrowers that call a hotline to have their loan-mod case reviewed are handed off to a nonprofit group created by a large mortgage servicer and largely funded by the industry.