Originations

Over the past month two mortgage insurance firms have halted the writing of new coverage because of a lack of capital. Add that to the continued liquidation of another troubled insurer, Triad Guaranty, and you can boldly state that 38% of the MI industry is toast.

Mortgage rates are rising from their historical lows of the past few weeks.

Three years after making a big splash in mortgages and then growing its business to become the 12th largest in the U.S., insurance conglomerate MetLife is now throwing in the towel on residential finance.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. reported increases in retail and correspondent residential lending in the third quarter with pre-tax production income rising more than 70% on a sequential basis.

Do you have customers complete surveys? Do you solicit (or get unsolicited) testimonials? Do real estate agents tell you what a good job you've done? (Well, maybe I'm stretching this one a little bit.) The most powerful people on your marketing team are your past clients and real estate agents!

Sabal Financial Group L.P. of Newport Beach, Calif., this week acquired a $153 million portfolio of loans located in some of the hardest hit regions of the U.S.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development late Wednesday said it suspended former LendAmerica president Michael Primeau from conducting any business with the agency after his admission that he engaged in a "wide-scale mortgage fraud scheme."

Radco Cos., a real estate asset manager and consultant, has acquired multiple bank-owned multifamily developments in its hometown Atlanta.

Community Trust Bank, Dallas, ended September with $288 million of warehouse commitments on its books, a three-fold increase from a year ago.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Alexandria, Va., said its PenFed Realty unit has acquired Prudential Carruthers Realtors, a leading real estate broker in the Washington metro area with more than 800 brokers.

Carol Galante came to Washington in early 2009 to run the Federal Housing Administration's multifamily program, but two short years later she's in charge of the entire agency, managing everything from single-unit insurance to reverse lending.

Mortgage bankers will fund just $900 billion in new loans next year, the industry’s lowest volume since 1997, according to a new forecast from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The amount of home equity owned by American seniors fell by $63 billion between the first and second quarters, the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association/RiskSpan Reverse Mortgage Market Index found.

Mortgage applications increased by just over 1% for the week ending October 7, with refinancings remaining steady at about 79% of all new business.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to clarify the scope of a federal law aimed at protecting mortgage customers from being overcharged by companies that provide real estate settlement services.

The Obama Administration expects to roll out a plan to lower barriers to refinancing in "the next couple of weeks," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan told mortgage bankers at their annual convention in Chicago.

AppraiserLoft, the troubled AMC, has suspended all new business, and is preparing to shut down.

State regulators have issued guidelines to mortgage examiners on how to test state-licensed nonbanks for steering and other violations of the Federal Reserve's loan origination compensation rule.

Reverse Mortgage Solutions believes mortgage brokers may be the big winners from Bank of America and Wells Fargo exiting the reverse mortgage lending arena.

Housing is "extremely important to the President," a key White House advisor told the Mortgage Bankers Annual convention in Chicago.