Origination

The average rate for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage held fast to its record low level of 3.87%, but other rates inched up during the week ending Feb. 9, according to Freddie Mac's primary market survey.

Wendover Consulting Inc., the Greensboro, N.C. company founded by reverse mortgage guru Jeff Taylor, has beefed up its management team with three new hires.

When the White House releases its fiscal year 2013 budget next week it's expected to show that the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance fund is still in the black - but barely, according to mortgage insurance and former regulators who have been tracking the issue.

I own a pinball machine. BARRACORA is her name. It's part of the office furniture. I play it for fun. But I also play when I get stressed.

Many bank warehouse operations have been closed (PNC Financial Services) or have been "listed" for sale such as Bank of America and MetLife. For a bank to purchase a major warehouse lender the bank must have a liquid balance sheet and be able to support at a minimum of carrying the established warehouse line commitments of at least $1 billion (the estimated size of MetLife's operation).

Bank of America Corp. is limiting the number of refinance applications it accepts over the phone, telling borrowers who do not have an existing relationship with the bank that they may have to wait 60 to 90 days before their loan application can be processed, a B of A spokesman said Wednesday.

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust earned $19.6 million in the fourth quarter - almost flat compared to 3Q - as it ramped up its correspondent division.

The commercial mortgage market didn't get as much press, but it went into the tank shortly after the residential market did. However, if projections by the Mortgage Bankers Association turn out to be right, it is recovering steeply in that V shape that has so far eluded the residential side.

Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp.'s inventory of delinquent loans declined by over 1,200 loans during January, but new notices of default outpaced cured by 3,000 loans.

PennyMac released 4Q earnings this morning and the big news wasn't its profit - which was decent - but the fact that it bought almost $1 billion of mortgages from other lenders via the correspondent channel.