Housing

In one corner are groups like the Community Home Lenders Association and the major credit union groups, which are hoping the administration will further cut premiums after a reduction a year ago. On the other are MBA and ICBA, which argue a cut now would be too soon.

Activist investor Carl Icahn, who's pushing American International Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Peter Hancock to shrink the insurer and boost returns, said the CEO must offer "a drastic strategic shift" at a presentation scheduled for next week. Icahn's plan includes splitting AIG into three units, one being United Guaranty Corp., a private mortgage insurer.

Confidence among U.S. homebuilders was unchanged at the start of year, indicating the residential real estate market was sustaining the steady progress made in 2015.

Fourth-quarter mortgage banking income at Wells Fargo & Co. totaled $1.7 billion, up 10% from the $1.5 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2014, as the gain on originations and sales increased by $145 million year-over-year.

The availability of debt and equity financing declined during the most recent quarter, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council.

JPMorgan Chase reported a 21% drop in year-over-year earnings for its mortgage business as revenue dropped 10%.

Interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages fell further this week due to overseas turmoil, according to Freddie Mac.

Homeowners continue to have an overinflated sense of the value of their homes, at least compared to the opinion of professional appraisers, according to Quicken Loans.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has filed charges against three California-based home loan modification companies and nine of their employees for allegedly violating the Fair Housing Act.

Mortgage applications increased 21.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Jan. 8 compared to a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Community bankers and credit unions scored a significant victory while others in the mortgage industry lost out in the Federal Housing Finance Agency's final rule establishing membership standards for the Home Loan banks.

Consumers increasingly fell behind on their payments in several loan categories in the third quarter as economic growth cooled.

The agency scrapped a part of its 2014 proposal that would have required Home Loan Bank members to maintain a certain percentage of residential mortgage assets in order to keep their membership. But the agency held fast on a provision that would disqualify captive insurance firms from membership.

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro will get a boost in public visibility with a scheduled appearance on the Jan. 11 episode of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Greater consumer confidence about the economy is generating increased foot traffic at model homes and the largest backlog of sales orders since 2007, according to executives at builder KB Home.

But the strong demand for tax credits from those projects is also whittling down the investment returns as their riskiness declines, according to a new report by the New York-based accounting firm CohnReznick.

A recent tax change will provide more stability to banks and developers that use the low-income housing tax credit program, and the supply of below-market-rate apartments should increase as a result. But it's not enough to create the economic incentives needed to meet skyrocketing demand for affordable housing in the U.S.

Mortgage credit availability decreased in December on reduced affordable, low-down-payment loan programs, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Consumers became more encouraged by the housing market in December, as they reflected on their higher wages compared to a year earlier, Fannie Mae said.

Mortgage rates rang in the new year by keeping below 4%, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey.