GSEs

Mortgage rates for 30-year loans rose to a seven-week high, increasing borrowing costs from close to historic lows.

Freddie Mac will return $900 million to the Treasury Department next month, bringing total payments to nearly $21 billion above what it received in federal aid after the 2008 credit crisis.

Mortgage servicer PHH Corp. posted a net loss in the fourth quarter, as its mortgage production and servicing segments both struggled as the year ended.

Foreclosures and delinquencies may seem like problems from the past, but servicers are still struggling with a massive backlog of distressed loans and a return to normalcy is at least two years away, if not longer.

As a deep freeze grips parts of America in a typically slow season for housing, first-time buyers are flocking to Redfin Corp.'s property tours and classes, signaling their renewed interest in the market.

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.