Origination

Essent Group may have an opportunity to buy Radian Group, the rival mortgage insurer whose chief executive officer is stepping down.

The number of zombie foreclosures, properties in the foreclosure process that are vacant, dropped 30.1% from a year ago during the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac.

Mortgage rates held near 2016 lows as a result of minimal action in the 10-year Treasury yield over the past week, according to Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae forecasts flat to declining 30-year mortgage interest rates this year and next, while Freddie Mac thinks they will increase.

The percentage of loan applications which become closed loans slipped from March's high last month, according to Ellie Mae.

Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, introduced legislation Thursday to reform consumer credit reporting.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a proposal Wednesday to codify recent changes to its reverse mortgage program and to provide additional protections for seniors, including a cap on annual interest rate increases.

Home prices in the San Francisco Bay Area, the epicenter of the U.S. technology boom and housing-affordability crunch, hit an all-time high last month.

Mortgage applications decreased 1.6% from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Radian Group, the second-largest U.S. mortgage insurer, said Chief Executive Officer S.A. Ibrahim will step down at the end of next year after steering the company through the financial crisis as weaker rivals collapsed.