Law and regulation

The National Association of Realtors estimates that the Federal Housing Administration's 1.35% annual premium stopped at least 125,000 renters from buying a home last year.

After slogging through several quarters of high expenses and shrinking profits, some lenders are now selling mortgage servicing rights to raise cash to cover payroll and expenses, industry sources say.

The apartment-lending units of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were among their few money makers after the U.S. housing collapse. Now they should help transform the U.S. mortgage industry.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau prohibits actions aimed at circumventing loan officer compensation rules. One example was a lender who permitted teams of LOs to share commissions.

Efforts to help underwater borrowers with second liens have had little success, and the Treasury's authority to create new homeowner aid programs under the Troubled Asset Relief Program has expired.

The CFPB report for full year 2013 shows that there were over 160,000 complaints to the bureau from homeowners, of which 60,000 were complaints about the mortgage process.

A U.S. magistrate judge in North Carolina dealt a blow to government efforts to use the 1980s-era Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act to penalize big banks, but many experts say the decision—which is not binding—may just be a temporary glitch.

The Mortgage Bankers Association urged the Senate and House finance committees to pass the Expiring Provisions Improvement Reform and Efficiency Act, saying the bill contains "several critical provisions" for real estate financing markets and the economic recovery.

New rules should protect the FHA from losses on reverse mortgages and make prepayments more predictable for bond investors, but they also slow the production of loans available for securitization.

As the real estate market continues to recover, regulatory pressures are pushing mortgage executives to place consumers and their interests front and center in mortgage transactions.

Secondary market agency won't securitize fixed-rate Home Equity Conversion Mortgages that feature a line of credit.

Charlie Keating, who died Tuesday, epitomized an era today's mortgage lenders would do well to remember as low-yielding portfolio assets tempt them to take bigger risks.

Barriers exist to full-blown recovery in the housing market. Structural barriers. Economic barriers. Regulatory barriers. The list is endless.

Rep. Maxine Waters' plan to overhaul the mortgage finance market may be dead-on-arrival in the House, but it is still likely to help determine the fate of a separate Senate bill seen as the leading congressional attempt to enact reform.

The industry-supported proposal survives the negotiations for the state budget.

The tax provision would help distressed homeowners seeking workouts and short sales from being penalized by the IRS.

Regulators are going against Congressional intent in their latest "qualified residential mortgage" proposal, former Rep. Barney Frank said.

As mortgage interest rates rise and fewer prime borrowers are in the market to refinance, lenders are starting to loosen credit standards again, years after the housing crisis sparked a flight to quality. But amid growing compliance requirements and increased regulatory scrutiny, will this time be different?

Freddie Mac began offering the deals last year with the goal of sharing more risk with the private sector at the direction of its regulator.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development reached settlements with Bank of America and mortgage banking firm James B. Nutter & Co. over allegations that the lenders failed to perform due diligence in underwriting Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans.