Secondary

Bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this week would make it easier for consumers to secure financing to purchase manufactured housing.

Ed DeMarco, the former chief regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, warned that efforts under the Obama Administration to expand access to credit could risk repeating mistakes that led up to the crisis.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis is again admitting mortgage-investment firms as members, even as the overseer of the government-chartered system of 12 regional lenders considers barring such companies.

Getting a home loan is easier now than a year ago, according to the Zillow Mortgage Access Index.

Nomura Holdings Inc. will defend claims by a U.S. regulator that it sold defective mortgage-backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before the 2008 financial crisis, becoming the first bank to take such a case to trial.

The two prevalent forms of private-label RMBS representation and warranty frameworks that became popular following the financial crisis do a good job of detecting defective loans, according to Moody's Investor Service.

Negative attitudes in Washington toward the mortgage industry are starting to thaw, yet devising Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's exit from conservatorship or charting the future of housing finance reform still will be tough.

Mortgage rates rose to the highest levels this year as job growth gained momentum.

Real estate investment trust ZAIS Financial Corp.'s acquisition of privately owned mortgage company GMFS proved to be highly dilutive to earnings.

J.G. Wentworth Co. has reached an agreement to acquire WestStar Mortgage in a cash and stock deal.