GSEs

Mortgage applications dropped for the second straight week as both purchase and refinance volume declined, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Mortgage lender outlooks improved during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new sentiment survey from government sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae.

There is no guarantee that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will remain profitable in the years ahead, raising the possibility of further draws from Treasury, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's inspector general.

Right now policy makers, industry participants and advocates are no doubt discussing how to remedy the housing industry's problems. Their discussions are based on assumptions that might not be correct.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-largest servicer of U.S. mortgages, is buying the right to handle $45 billion of home loans from Ocwen Financial Corp., according to a person familiar with the transaction.

A new book by the American Enterprise Institute's Peter Wallison reveals how a government push to lower credit standards brought about the housing crisis — and why a new effort to expand homeownership could inadvertently set the stage for a fresh disaster.

Freddie Mac will offer its first external 55-day participation certificate pass-through security, the government-sponsored enterprise announced Monday.

Housing starts slumped in February by the most in four years as bad winter weather in parts of the U.S. prevented builders from initiating new projects.

The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp.'s earnings fell in the fourth quarter to $8.9 million, down from $13.4 million during the same period in 2013.

Nomura Holdings Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group helped fuel a bubble that led to the collapse of the U.S. housing market, an attorney for the Federal Housing Finance Agency said at the opening of a trial over defective mortgage-backed securities.

The sale of $16.7 billion in nonperforming loans by the Department of Housing and Urban Development Department helped the owners of about 16,700 homes avoid foreclosure, the agency said.

An expected rush of refinancings of Federal Housing Administration loans could force some mortgage servicers to take writedowns in the first and second quarters, but they have more incentive than ever to keep borrowers in the FHA program instead of letting rivals lure away their customers.

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this week would make it easier for consumers to secure financing to purchase manufactured housing.

Ed DeMarco, the former chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warned that efforts under the Obama Administration to expand access to credit could risk repeating mistakes that led up to the crisis.

Nomura Holdings Inc. will defend claims by a U.S. regulator that it sold defective mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the 2008 financial crisis, becoming the first bank to take such a case to trial.

Negative attitudes in Washington toward the mortgage industry are starting to thaw, yet devising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's exit from conservatorship or charting the future of housing finance reform still will be tough.

Mortgage rates rose to the highest levels this year as job growth gained momentum.

Proposals for stiffer capital requirements will reduce the number of mortgage servicers, which in turn will cut access to credit, mortgage-company executives said at an industry conference on Wednesday.

Fannie Mae selected a chief internal auditor with an "inherent conflict of interest" and the mortgage giant's process for filling the position was faulty, according to a watchdog report to be released Wednesday.

Consumer sentiment towards receiving a mortgage and the direction of the overall economy reached new highs in February, according to a Fannie Mae survey.