Secondary

Arch Capital Group is repurposing a subsidiary to insure mortgages that are headed for private securitizations. Insuring such loans separately from the unit that works with Fannie and Freddie lets Arch offer more favorable terms to lenders.

Mortgage applications were down for the first time this year as both purchase and refinance activity decreased.

More than 300,000 South Floridians who lost their homes during the housing bust could be eligible to own again over the next eight years.

The business of bundling riskier U.S. mortgages into bonds without government backing is gearing up for a comeback. Just don't call it subprime.

At a hearing Tuesday, GOP lawmakers hammered FHFA Director Mel Watt for four hours over his recent decisions to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy loans with lower downpayments and provide money to two affordable housing trust funds.

With conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac well into its seventh year, the government has now had control of the housing agencies longer than 47 members of the Senate have been office.

Homeowners associations seeking unpaid dues are seizing on a court decision allowing them to foreclose on properties ahead of banks, and the FHFA is litigating to defend Fannie and Freddie mortgages. Private lenders, meanwhile, are trying to keep the problem from spreading to more states.

Progress Residential priced its second securitization of single-family rental properties.

Purchases of new homes jumped in December to the highest level in more than six years, a sign the industry is poised to keep expanding in 2015.

CoreLogic Inc., the property-data firm spun off from First American Financial Corp., hired Frank Nothaft from Freddie Mac as its chief economist.