Origination

My inbox was slammed by emails from readers who said "right on" to my commentary that the White House is (wrongly) using mortgage brokers as a whipping boy for the mortgage crisis. But some larger questions still loom: Does this White House even know what a loan broker is? I would guess not.

Current management of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conservatorships is contributing to tight mortgage credit conditions, holding back a recovery in the housing market, according to a Federal Reserve Board official.

The rental market is heading south, especially in Florida. And that's a good thing.

Regulatory impediments may have the power to considerably change not only one's ability to engage in a mortgage-related transaction but to impact larger housing performance in 2012.

The New York Court of Appeals late Thursday agreed to allow the National Association of Federal Credit Unions to argue that the state's federally chartered CUs should be exempt from the state's mortgage recordation tax.

Fitch's U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities report shows 2011 ending with another decrease in delinquencies during December, but notes that office delinquencies are continuing on an upward trajectory.

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay nearly $1 million in restitution to Maryland residents who lost their homes to foreclosure after receiving so-called "Pick-a-Payment" mortgages.

University Bank in Ann Arbor, Mich., has acquired an additional 37.5% stake in a specialty finance firm which it already half owned.

This week President Obama told the Senate to take a hike, installing former Ohio AG Richard Cordray as the new head of the CFPB via a recess appointment. But the real story here is that the White House continues to use loan brokers as the whipping boy for the housing/mortgage meltdown.

The trend toward fewer loans becoming delinquent appears to have halted momentarily, according to the latest mortgage monitor report released by Lender Processing Services.