Investments

This year's sluggish spring home buying season led to generally softer mortgage-related second quarter results at Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and PNC Financial Services Group, but First Republic Bank bucked the trend.

Public builder Beazer Homes USA plans to buy privately held Venture Homes for $65 million in a move that could make mortgage lending in Atlanta more competitive.

A Fannie Mae test to handle the private mortgage insurance process for lenders may raise concerns that it's going outside the scope of its secondary market mission. But the effort reflects its mandate to explore new credit-risk transfer alternatives, a company executive said.

Banks could shed as much as 20 million square feet of office space over the next five years as they shift many functions to high-tech operations centers in markets with cheaper rents.

With better-than-expected performance of the underlying mortgages, Fitch Ratings cut its loss projections for seasoned government-sponsored enterprise credit risk transfer deals.

The shareholders of Nationstar Mortgage Holdings and WMIH Corp. each voted to approve a $1.9 billion acquisition plan that will see the parent company of nonbank lender and servicer Mr. Cooper combine with the successor to S&L and subprime mortgage lender Washington Mutual.

Ditech Holding Corp. is considering selling itself, just over four months after the lender emerged from bankruptcy protection.

New securitizations backed by reverse mortgages are now at a low not seen in two years, signaling that higher volumes seen in recent months may be tapering off.

The Fed’s rate hike and its signal of two more increases to come this year will only add to investors’ worry that the U.S. housing market is getting too expensive.

Freddie Mac hit the $1 trillion mark on credit risk sharing for single-family mortgage loans with its second lower LTV deal of the year.

Ditech Holding Corp. returned to profitability in the first quarter, benefiting from accounting adjustments related to its emergence from bankruptcy protection in February.

Ocwen Financial Corp.'s Chief Financial Officer Michael Bourque has resigned, becoming the second top executive to leave the company after it agreed to acquire PHH Corp.

Ditech Holding Corp. has received a second notice from the New York Stock Exchange warning its common stock could be delisted for not being in compliance with the exchange's requirements.

Institutional investors bought more single-family rental homes in 2017 than in previous years, the first increase since 2013.

The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose to its highest level since 2011, extending a selloff in the world’s biggest bond market and raising fresh questions about how high America's borrowing costs will climb.

PHH Corp. took a net loss in the first quarter but was able to surpass minimums for net worth and available cash necessary for Ocwen Financial to acquire the company.

Capital One Financial Corp. plans to repurchase shares following the sale of $17 billion in mortgages to a Credit Suisse subsidiary.

Blackstone Group is doubling down on industrial real estate by buying Gramercy Property Trust, the second multibillion-dollar takeover of a warehouse company in as many weeks with the growth in e-commerce raising demand.

An increase in title orders opened helped Fidelity National Financial improve its first-quarter net income by 59% over the same period last year.

Fannie Mae's first-quarter profits were enough for it to rebuild its minimum capital buffer and pay the Treasury Department dividend after being forced to take a draw during the previous fiscal period.