Originations

Freddie Mac began purchasing HARP 2.0 loans in January and by the end of the first quarter had acquired $5 billion of these refis, according to the company’s first-quarter securities filing.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will testify before Congress next Tuesday regarding efforts to allow more Americans to refinance their mortgages.

The government controlled Freddie Mac posted net 'comprehensive' income of $1.789 billion in the first quarter — but then had to turn around a pay the U.S. Treasury $1.8 billion in dividends, resulting in a small true loss for the quarter.

There was a lot of shock, sadness, and yes, grief here at SourceMedia at the recent passing of Neil Morse. We knew Neil as a gifted mortgage writer, an indefatigable road warrior, a thoroughly professional public relations executive, and finally as a colleague for his work with our conference group. He died way too soon (he was 62). But he had an impressive life.

The aggregate value of securitized commercial real estate loans priced by DebtX climbed to 87.3% at the end of March from 86.9% at the end of February.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: “We’re running out of inventory.”

Genworth Financial Inc. reported first-quarter net income of $47 million, compared to a profit of $59 million one year prior.

Mortgage applications rose a scant 0.1% for the week ending April 27 with refinancings slipping ever so slightly.

Fifth Third Mortgage Co. is not placing any LTV limits on refinancings of its existing mortgage customers under the HARP 2.0 program.

The message at the 2012 Regional Conference of Mortgage Bankers Associations in Atlantic City from many of the speakers at the first residential lending general session and at a roundtable hosted by National Mortgage News/Origination News was there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the future direction of the industry. And that is because it is waiting on a definition of what will constitute a qualified mortgage. Yet, attendees at the show were upbeat that the worse times are behind them.

EverBank Financial Corp. paid $350 million for the warehouse lending business of MetLife Bank, according to an amended S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Freddie Mac executive Anthony Renzi has accepted a senior mortgage job with Citigroup, after weighing a position with Wilbur Ross’ fast-growing mortgage empire.

PHH Corp. posted net earnings of $75 million for the first quarter, turning a profit on its residential mortgage operation, but suffering charges on its servicing business. In 1Q11, the company earned $49 million.

Michael D. Fraizer, chairman and CEO of Genworth Financial, resigned Tuesday afternoon, two weeks after the firm’s stock was hammered because of accelerating losses in its Australian mortgage insurance business.

Continuing its rapid expansion throughout the Northeast, Berkshire Hills Bancorp said that it has acquired Greenpark Mortgage Corp.

The real estate market enjoyed a splendid first quarter in Texas, where both sales and prices logged positive gains.

Flagstar Bancorp Inc. lost nearly $9 million in the first quarter, but that is an improvement over the loss of $78 million in the fourth quarter last year and $32 million in 1Q11.

Radian Group Inc. lost $169 million in the first quarter, as the company's mortgage insurance business had a pretax loss of $45 million for the period.

Fannie Mae acquired $95.3 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in March, a stunning 53% jump from the month prior, and a performance a source close to the company attributed to recent guarantee fee hikes.

It appears that a flip-flop of sorts is happening in regard to the FHA and VA programs.