Originations

Freddie Mac purchased $42 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in March, its strongest acquisition month since the refinancing boom of late 2010.

Tongues are clucking in the industry about the death of the ‘transitory’ license with many nonbank loan officers believing that their depository brethren are at a financial disadvantage.

Hudson City Bancorp—a large correspondent buyer of loans in the New York/New Jersey area—intends to limit its mortgage lending this year as it looks to diversify its mortgage-heavy balance sheet and improve its regulatory capital ratios.

Mortgage applications fell by almost 4% for the seven-day period ending April 20 after a brief week of improvement, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The national delinquency rate continued its downward slide in 2012, falling to just over 7% at March 31, down 6% from the month prior, according to new figures compiled by Lender Processing Services for its “First Look Mortgage Monitor” report.

EverBank Financial, a top ranked mortgage lender, finally set a price for a planned $225 million capital raise after sitting on its initial public offering for half a year.

The FBI mortgage fraud caseload is on track to pass last year’s volume and possibly even the record total reached in fiscal 2010.

BOK Financial, Tulsa, Okla., reported first-quarter earnings of $83.6 million, up from 29% from a year earlier, as credit costs lowered and mortgage banking revenue soared.

New home sales in January and February were much higher than originally reported, taking some steam out of transactions for March, which fell 7% from the prior month.

In a few weeks we’ll know whether the Treasury Department’s third largest investment in housing/mortgages will file for bankruptcy protection. I’m talking about Residential Capital Corp./GMAC, which recently missed a bond payment and has 30-days to make good on it.

Standard & Poor's reported Tuesday morning that home prices fell in February for the sixth consecutive month to the lowest level since 2002.

Eagle Bancorp, Bethesda, Md., originated and sold off more residential mortgages in the first quarter, which helped boost profits by almost 49%, to $7.6 million, from a year earlier.

The government's authority to issue new flood insurance policies expires at the end of May and the Federal Emergency Management Administration is urging Congress to pass a two-year extension of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Servicers are trying to determine the best strategy to reduce their portfolios of foreclosed/bank-owned properties, and renting them out to investors has become a popular play.

Just how healthy is the warehouse lending business today? The answer boils down to this: If you can't obtain a line of credit in the current market, then something must be wrong with your shop.

Randall Craig, a Toronto-based social media marketing expert, said marketing campaigns using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like, can be measured through the following four approaches.

Only time can tell which of the new loan solutions to the housing crisis will eventually succeed, but the search is still on. And at least one option introduced by Carpe Aquam Capital LLC of Marlton, N.J., has already earned the attention of policy makers and bankers alike.

Fueled by record revenue from mortgage banking, Washington Trust Bancorp. in Westerly, R.I., reported a record $8.4 million profit in the first quarter, an increase of 24% over the same period in 2011.

The mortgage industry will be saddled with high legal costs if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau provides a low bar for attorneys to challenge a lender’s adherence to the bureau’s “ability to repay” underwriting standards, according to the Consumer Mortgage Coalition, which represents some of the nation’s largest banks.

The Agoura Hills, Calif.-based risk mitigation firm has integrated Google Maps satellite images into FraudGuard to help lenders decrease loan processing time and quickly identify external issues with properties.