GSEs

Builders broke ground on fewer residential construction projects in January as demand for single-family homes cooled from an almost seven-year high, signaling the rebound in housing remains uneven.

Mortgage loan application volume dropped sharply for the period ending Feb. 13 as mortgage rates rose to their highest level since the beginning of the year.

Chicago's Federal Home Loan Bank has given Forward Community Investments, a Wisconsin nonprofit, a loan to support the organization's community development endeavors.

The North Texas region has been a hub for mortgage servicing for decades, dating back to the oil bust and savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Today, some key players and many smaller ones remain firmly entrenched in the area.

One of the culprits in the building and bursting of the nation's housing bubble, the low-down-payment mortgage, is back in favor and readily available at a lender near you.

Leading economic indicators are favorable for a continued improvement in both the economy as a whole and the housing industry, and many midtier lenders will find their companies operating at a disadvantage when compared to larger firms that are approved to sell their production directly to the industry's largest investors.

Lenders including Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are accelerating their sales of soured U.S. mortgages as investment firms compete to buy the debt.

Lenders are seeing higher demand for homes but are expecting only modest growth in sales this year due to the limited housing stock.

Multifamily MBS issuances by Fannie Mae in 2014 increased slightly from the year before, the government-sponsored enterprise said.

Emphasizing the good factors of TILA-RESPA is an important part of ensuring the project team is sending the right message throughout the company.

MountainView Servicing Group is brokering the sale of a multibillion-dollar Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae mortgage servicing rights portfolio.

Radian Group, of Philadelphia, had an explosively strong fourth quarter in 2014 thanks to a reduction of its risk profile as a result of the pending sale of its financial guaranty unit.

Mortgage rates jumped from a 20-month low as the job market gained momentum.

Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment in Moorestown, N.J., has agreed to acquire Aurora Financial in Marlton, N.J.

Operating in the shadow of Freddie Mac's business as America's second-largest guarantor of home loans, the company's unit serving apartment landlords is booming as borrowers take advantage of looser lending terms.

GOP lawmakers on Wednesday harshly criticized the Federal Housing Administration's recent move to lower insurance premiums, saying it violates the law and will be used to entice borrowers into predatory loans.

Genworth Financial's private mortgage insurance business was a rare bright spot for a company that overall, lost $1.2 billion during the fourth quarter.

Recent moves to offer low down payment loans and cheaper mortgage insurance have been met with mixed reaction, as the opportunity for increased homeownership must be weighed against the potential of riskier lending practices.

A new report from Fitch Ratings found the percentage of loan principal a lender recorded as a loss after foreclosure was similar for agency and nonagency loans.

Consumer optimism toward the housing market grew in January, a sign that the improving economy has warmed consumers to the prospect of purchasing a home, according to survey results released Monday by Fannie Mae.