Finance

Freddie Mac bought insurance to cover as much as $285 million of losses on a pool of U.S. home loans, in its third and largest such purchase under a risk-sharing effort encouraged by its regulator.

The massive growth of nonbank mortgage servicers poses risks to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's inspector general.

Private mortgage insurers will be required to have master policies that meet new guidelines in place by Oct. 1, according to announcements this week from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Treasury Secretary Lew said he would direct senior staff to bring together MBS investors and issuers to develop guidelines to reassure both sides they won’t be saddled with unfair losses.

The apartment sector is still pretty strong. For single-family to challenge it, employment growth may need to strengthen, notwithstanding the burgeoning market for rental house securitizations and rebounding home prices.

Mortgages were more profitable to originate in the first quarter even though a lot fewer were made, according to the accounting firm Richey May. Secondary marketing gains came to the rescue.

The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will conduct a series of town-hall events to convince hundreds of thousands of U.S. borrowers with little or no equity in their homes to refinance.

The Association of Mortgage Investors made the plea to Attorney General Eric Holder following reports that Bank of America and Citigroup were attempting to negotiate multibillion dollar accords that would grant credits for loan mods.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is planning a $303.7 million sale of U.S. home-loan bonds without government backing, adding to evidence that the market for the securities is beginning to pick up steam.

Financing plays a vital role in nonperforming loan investment. One of the most compelling things investors can do to get it is show how they handled a tough situation, financiers say.

The confluence of trends is making efficient portfolio and vendor management vital.

Buyers still have a lot of money they want to put to work and assets are in short supply, advisors who help broker trades say.

The GSEs make mortgages? Banks don't? For an economics professor who has made the causes of the housing collapse a central campaign issue, David Brat sure doesn't sweat the details.

Alfred DelliBovi, the former chief executive of Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, will join the board of Flushing Financial Corp.

Julian Castro pledged to recapitalize the FHA insurance fund and work with Congress on GSE reform but equivocated when a Senator asked about cities condemning underwater mortgages.

Smaller banks face a tricky choice with jumbo loans: hold them and face rate risk, or sell them to a bigger bank and risk losing a customer. An unusual arrangement between the FHLB and a REIT could offer community banks a better route.

WinWater is the first new jumbo residential mortgage-backed securities issuer to put a deal in the pipeline since 2013. More new players could bring deals to market late this year.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are exempt from state and local taxes, including transfer taxes, a Washington appeals court ruled in the latest decision shielding the government-owned mortgage finance companies from attempts to collect levies on property transfers.

The Justice Department has asked Citigroup for more than $10 billion to settle a probe into the lender's sale of mortgage-backed bonds in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis.

The Chicago Federal Home Loan Bank reaches agreement with Redwood Trust so member institutions can sell loans to the private-label issuer.