While Freddie Mac stabilized liquidity in mortgage markets, coronavirus-related credit losses drove the GSE's income down in the first quarter of 2020.

The first-quarter loss ended a two-quarter profitability streak the company hoped to maintain.

The broker/wholesale business was by far the smallest origination segment for the company.

Refinancing drove a 75% year-over-year increase in mortgage banking revenue during the first quarter at Flagstar Bancorp as it shored up its operations to avoid other negative repercussions from the coronavirus.

Low mortgage rates increased new orders, but fallout from the pandemic hurt investment income.

Declines in mortgage servicing rights valuations at JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo point to the resurgence of a dilemma that came up during the last downturn.

New Residential Investment, a real estate investment trust focused on housing, is selling a portfolio of debt with a face value of $6 billion.

The impending wave of loan delinquencies because of the coronavirus hurt private mortgage insurer earnings, but the companies will still have sufficient capital, a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods report said.

Title underwriters won’t be hit as hard by the coronavirus as other insurers, but related economic changes will challenge them, Fitch Ratings said, in assigning a negative outlook to the sector.

Independent mortgage bankers had their most profitable fourth quarter in seven years for originations, but the fallout from the coronavirus could upset the economics of the industry in the short term.

Impac Mortgage Holdings decided a year ago to emphasize its non-qualified mortgage lending operations and placed the company in position to succeed when the housing market returns to normal.

Companies in the mortgage business were already focused on processing a lot of loans and generating efficiencies before the latest uptick in business hit.

With the return of volume and profitability to mortgage lending, it is no surprise that commercial banks are coming back to the market.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions lost nearly the same amount of money as it did for the whole year while it continued the business transition started in 2018.

CoreLogic's fourth-quarter earnings reflect the success of the transformation to an appraisal management company business model accelerated in the prior-year period.

The cancellation by New Residential of a money-losing subservicing agreement should benefit Ocwen's financial results going forward, the company said.

Mr. Cooper Group reported fourth-quarter net income of $461 million, aided by the recovery of its deferred tax asset and a positive mark-to-market on its servicing portfolio.

Equifax has released a series of bundled services aimed at helping financial institutions use data and analytics to manage tasks associated with the process of servicing mortgage loans.

The CEO of Freedom Mortgage, Stanley Middleman, provides his take on trends affecting independent mortgage bankers as well as the residential real estate finance industry at large.

Fidelity and Essent reported higher year-over-year profits in the last three months of 2019 as refinancing increased business volume, but Black Knight took a hit on its Dun & Bradstreet investment.