Originations

Single-family housing starts unexpectedly jumped 7.7% in March and the government revised upward its estimates of building activity in February and January by 23,000 units.

Fannie Mae has declared war on so called "side agreements" that lenders have worked out with mortgage insurers to reduce their exposure to loan buybacks.

Sandler O'Neill on Monday reduced its price target on Genworth Financial to $13 a share (from $15), citing problems with the company's mortgage insurance division.

The National Association of Independent Housing Professionals is giving up — for now — in its court battle against the Federal Reserve Board to block the agency's just implemented loan officer compensation rule.

JPMorgan Chase plans to sell a $1.5 billion B-piece offering to Torchlight Investors, according to a Bloomberg report.

Lawmakers from both political parties sharply criticized the banking regulators on Thursday for their risk-retention proposal, arguing it will lead to a credit crunch.

Guthy-Renker LLC, a marketing company known for its infomercials, will be entering the mortgage banking business through the acquisition of “a significant equity position” in Paramount Equity Mortgage, Roseville, Calif.

In the traditional brick-and-mortar mortgage universe, local mortgage originators trade leads with local real estate brokers all the time, without fear of getting trumped.

Essent Guaranty Inc., the nation’s newest private mortgage insurance company, has come out with a statement that it says protects mortgage lenders from having their claims “unfairly denied for immaterial misrepresentation, underwriting errors and missing documents.”

As REITs emerge as a key source of agency MBS demand and become the marginal buyers for mortgage-backeds, spreads are still range-bound even though there is the news that the Treasury is unwinding its MBS portfolio, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts in a report released Friday.

NASA Federal Credit Union, Upper Marlboro, Md., said it will begin offering 100% financing on mortgages in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which is considered one of the better housing markets in the U.S.

Gramercy Capital Corp., New York, has received a second extension on the maturity date, this time for two weeks, from the lenders on $791 million in loans, in order to negotiate an orderly transition of the properties securing the loans to those lenders.

If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are going to be prohibited from purchasing mortgages tied to properties with private transfer fees, then the GSEs should create a database of these "hidden fees" fees to better protect lenders and consumers, according to the Consumer Mortgage Coalition.

CitiMortgage funded $14.1 billion of home mortgages in the first quarter, a 35% decline from 4Q, and further evidence that the nation's mega banks — as expected — are seeing a noticeable drop in new originations.

While flood map updates generally are largely improved and occurring in an accurate and relatively timely fashion, it appears the question of whether levees should be “decertified” has reached an impasse for the time being.

The long rumored ‘mega’ layoff at Bank of America’s mortgage unit has begun.

The mortgage insurance industry hopes that banking regulators recognize the value of their product when finalizing their ‘qualified residential mortgage’ test -- but so far their pleas have fallen on deaf years.

California's home sales improved by 3.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis month-to-month and 1.5% year-over-year in March, according to the California Association of Realtors.

The unthinkable happened. The free world may just come to an end. Not because the government shut down, but because Pia was voted off of American Idol.

It appears that 100% financing on home mortgages is back – at least for a few days.