Origination

Caliber Funding LLC, Irving, Texas, is talking to several loan officers and support staff who worked at MetLife Home Loans and may wind up hiring upwards of 300 full-timers, according to officials familiar with the situation.

A regulatory proposal to require a minimum downpayment of 20% on 'qualified residential mortgages' will make it more expensive for first-time homebuyers to obtain private mortgages, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Currently there is considerable attention being given to a fair housing case the Supreme Court is set to hear in the near future. Some have said that this case could have substantial effects on fair lending litigation. While it is not impossible this is the case, in all likelihood, I believe that the case will have little effect on fair lending litigation.

Only time will tell if the latest round of condominium buyers in the Greater Downtown Miami area will follow the fate of many of their most recent predecessors.

Redwood Trust is starting to feel like the Maytag repairman of the jumbo MBS market: it sits all alone with no company.

The remodeling sector will start slow but show enough improvement over the year that it will end 2012 on a positive note, according to a key forward indicator tabulated by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.

The Fed's recent report on current conditions and policy considerations in the housing market points to barriers to recovery that have been persisting beyond its sphere of influence despite its stimulus efforts.

Just when Redwood Trust was starting to look a bit like the Maytag repairman of the jumbo MBS market, we began to hear reports this week that two top 10 ranked banks are working on jumbo deals - for later in the year.

The growing number of community banks starting warehouse lending programs has to be gratifying to the executives at Titan Lenders Corp., Denver. It was just three years ago they were so concerned about the future of this business they called for Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to fill the need.

Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. has been placed under supervision by the North Carolina Department of Insurance, its parent company Old Republic International Corp. announced.