Servicing

JPMorgan Chase has purchased $45 billion in servicing rights from embattled mortgage firm Ocwen Financial.

With support from Bank of America, a nonprofit lender is trying to revitalize Detroit by offering no-down-payment mortgages at up to 150% of a home's assessed value. The idea is to provide borrowers with enough cash to buy run-down homes and fix them up, and if the program works as promised it could prove to be a template for lending in other cities — like Baltimore — that have large swaths of boarded-up homes.

Issuance of securities without government backing tied to homeowners with weak credit records or other imperfections has been frozen since 2008.

There continues to be improvement in the number of distressed homes nationwide, according to a report from CoreLogic.

More lenient capital requirements than expected from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were good news for two legacy private mortgage insurers, but another is facing a bigger deficit than initially thought.

In response to the guidance offered by one of our commenters recently, Freddie Mac sets the record straight about their review process.

Genworth Financial Inc., the insurer divesting units after posting record losses, has sold 14% of its Australian mortgage-guaranty unit, the company announced on May 11.

Black Knight Financial Services, the mortgage technology company backed by private-equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners, is seeking to raise as much as $425 million in an initial public offering.

The administration's signature loan modification and refinancing programs will be extended for one year to help borrowers "who continue to face challenges," the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency said.

The U.S. commercial-mortgage backed security delinquency rate fell again in April, fueled by strong new issuance, according to Fitch's latest index.