Secondary

Rising mortgage rates will only be "a mild deterrent" to home purchase activity during 2019 as other indicators like price and demand will cancel that out, according to Standard & Poor's.

Redwood Trust has exercised its option to expand its minority stake in 5 Arches to 100%, increasing Redwood's exposure to loans used for house flipping and other types of residential investment.

The specialty finance company is contributing all of the collateral for the $259.7 million deal; by comparison, the previous deal included collateral contributed by Goldman Sachs.

Flagstar Bancorp's acquisition of 52 Midwest branches of Wells Fargo helped increase its core customer base, but its mortgage results were lower than anticipated in the fourth quarter, according to the Troy, Mich.-based bank.

Timothy Mayopoulos is back in the mortgage industry, becoming the new president of the digital mortgage technology developer Blend, months after leaving his post as Fannie Mae’s CEO.

The stock market's volatility during December helped to improve the potential for existing-home sales, although housing's performance remains well below its capacity, First American Financial said.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shares soared Friday amid fresh reports that the Trump administration is working on proposal that would recommend freeing the mortgage-finance giants from government control.

Ditech Holding Corp. fired its chief operating officer after nine months, and entered into a forbearance agreement for a debt payment that was due in December, it said in a regulatory filing.

MGIC Investment Corp. responded to the broad-based roll out of "black box" pricing engines from the other mortgage insurers by bringing its version to market.

The Milken Institute's plan to address the housing finance system proposes a number of measures that could be carried out by regulators, after years of stalled legislative attempts.