Origination

The real estate inventory crunch is easing, although listings are still down 12.2% on a year-over-year basis, according to Zillow.

First quarter new mortgage originations increased 16% year-over-year following a trend expected to continue alongside falling loan delinquencies and price improvements.

Athas Capital Group has launched a wholesale subprime residential mortgage program, and it is on the verge of rolling out what it calls version 2.0.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.-insured bonds tied to housing were cut one level to AA from AA+ by Standard & Poor’s after the ratings firm lowered its grade on the parent company last month.

The average consumer rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage rose for the sixth straight week in Freddie Mac’s survey, nearing 4%.

During May, there were 148,054 U.S. properties with a foreclosure filing, up 2% from the prior month, but still down 28% compared to May 2012.

Investors had a strong negative reaction to Newcastle Investment Corp. in the wake of the real estate investment trust’s upsizing and pricing of its public offering of 35 million shares of its common stock.

Only two of the 17 Mortgage Industry Equity Composite members closed higher on Wednesday, another down day for the markets as a whole.

Although 19.8% of all residential properties with a mortgage still were in negative equity positions during the first quarter, this represented a decline from 21.7% at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012.