Finance

Allstate, the largest publicly traded U.S. home and auto insurer, sued Citigroup in State Supreme Court in Manhattan in 2011, along with banks including Deutsche Bank AG, Bank of America Corp. and Morgan Stanley.

Mortgage industry executives may be forgiven for thinking that housing bonds are starting to look like pass-through mortgage-backed securities. They are.

Prior to 2012 the scale of institutional involvement in acquiring single-family homes for the purpose of “rent and hold” was small to almost nonexistent. Things have certainly changed.

The offering is unusual because jumbo pools typically are not marketed nationally.

The estimated price of whole loans backing commercial mortgage-backed securities rose 60 basis points between the end of April and the end of March.

With house prices climbing at the fastest pace in seven years and investors swamping the rental market, one hedge fund manager says it no longer makes sense to be a buyer.

For the week ended May 24, overall application volume fell 8.8% from the prior week on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency has released a presale report on a $1.4 billion commercial mortgage-backed securities deal in which some large split loans are or will be shared with other securitizations.

LPS rises above the acquisition price and Fannie Mae closes above $4 per share.

Freddie Mac plans to offer $1.3 billion in structured pass-through multifamily “K” certificates backed by fixed-rate multifamily mortgages with seven-year terms.

Loan modifications have slowed notably and short sales have increasingly become to the go-to workout remedy for bank servicers handling workouts for nonagency U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities loans over the last several months.

A participant in past attempts to reform Fannie Mae’s lender-placed insurance practices has officially supported more recent proposals by its regulator.

American Realty Capital Properties, a real estate investment trust, has agreed to buy CapLease, which is also a REIT.

Two subsidiaries of PHH Corp. have entered into individual agreements with Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Capital for two-year extensions on their committed warehouse credit facilities.

Better performance of mortgage insurers this year is a credit positive for state housing finance agency single-family whole loan programs that rely on mortgage insurers to protect against mortgage defaults.

Freddie Mac plans to impose an annual $7,500 surcharge on small seller/servicers starting Jan. 1.

What is being disputed in the courts is when the clock starts ticking on the statute of limitations.

While principal forgiveness is compelling, making it widespread is problematic.

Interactive Mortgage Advisors is offering up for bid a $1.02 billion bulk Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage servicing rights package.