Finance

Here's a look at the 12 housing markets where mortgage lenders have to compete the most for borrowers' business.

Higher interest rates on home mortgages drove the share of loans used to purchase houses rather than refinance to new heights in May.

Ginnie Mae is looking to start a pilot program to securitize digital mortgages as early as 2019, but issuers would not be able to commingle loans using traditional paper files in those deals.

The groups applauded a proposal to establish minimum GSE capital requirements, but called for more immediate steps to release the companies from conservatorship.

Despite the long, stratospheric rise of home prices in the U.S., the inflation-adjusted monthly payment on the median single-family home in 2017 was less than in 1987, when home prices were lower but interest rates were higher.

New securitizations backed by reverse mortgages are now at a low not seen in two years, signaling that higher volumes seen in recent months may be tapering off.

The Seattle company is firing 127 people, or a tenth of its mortgage staff, after enduring months of slow activity.

The Fed’s rate hike and its signal of two more increases to come this year will only add to investors’ worry that the U.S. housing market is getting too expensive.

Goldman Sachs affiliate MTGLQ Investors won another bid for Fannie Mae's nonperforming loans, persisting as a buyer for the product even as Fannie keeps working to diversify the investor base.

Bank of America Corp.'s Merrill Lynch unit will pay $15.7 million to settle a U.S. regulator's allegations that it failed to properly supervise traders who persuaded clients to overpay for mortgage bonds by misleading them about how much the firm paid for the securities.

IH 2018-SFR1 refinances three earlier transactions (one each from 2013, 2014 and 2015) and is initially sized at $1.1 billion; it may be upsized to $1.3 billion, depending on investor demand.

All five – Plaza West Covina Mall (Calif.), Franklin Park Mall (Ohio), Parkway Plaza (Calif.), Capital Mall (Wash.), and Great Northern Mall (Ohio) – were built in the 1970s and have JCPenney or Sears as a major tenant.

Declining mortgage origination volume and record-high costs drove production income for independent mortgage bankers into negative territory, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Fannie Mae is lowering down payment requirements and lender fees on manufactured housing loans to improve affordable housing access.

Ditech Holding Corp. returned to profitability in the first quarter, benefiting from accounting adjustments related to its emergence from bankruptcy protection in February.

Blame the decline in the oil and gas industry; many 2014 vintage deals have exposure to a number of multifamily and hotel properties in North Dakota and Texas, according to Fitch.

Since its inception, the qualified mortgage rule has been synonymous with loans purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac or guaranteed by government agencies. But a broader QM definition could change that by creating more competitive private-label options.

Anticipated changes to the qualified mortgage rule will give lenders more options and force them to rethink their views on risk.

Freedom Mortgage is being punished by a government-owned mortgage guarantor amid concerns that the Mount Laurel, N.J.-based company is helping to enable unnecessary refinances of veterans' loans.

Commercial mortgage bonds are getting stuffed with the lowest-quality loans since the financial crisis by one measure, according to Moody's Investors Service.