Underwriting

Down payments decreased in size in the first quarter, as mortgage lenders loosen underwriting requirements in the quest for higher volume, LendingTree said in a report.

Community West Bancshares in Goleta, Calif., said that a litigation settlement concerning its sale of residential-mortgage loans will reduce its second-quarter profit.

A decade after home sales peaked, 15.4% of owners in the first quarter owed more on their mortgages than their properties were worth.

Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro touted the Federal Housing Administration’s recent improvement on Thursday, saying it was on a trajectory to hit its statutory minimum and had recently seen a "significant uptick in refinancings."

Private mortgage insurers see deeper coverage of GSE loans as a way to expand business, while lenders hope it could lead to a reduction to guarantee fees.

Alternative data used to score "credit invisibles" may do more harm than good. That's because in areas like employment and insurance, no credit score is often better than a bad one

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's "qualified mortgage" rule has put a damper on the recovery of the housing market, according to an American Bankers Association survey.

The title insurance industry in the United States looked a whole lot better in 2014, according to a recent study by Fitch Ratings.

Mortgage credit availability rose less than 1% in May, according to data released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Freddie Mac's weekly survey of the primary mortgage market found average interest rates for conforming loan products to be fairly stable.

The share of high loan-to-value ratio purchase loans is at a two-year high, according to RealtyTrac's 2015 Down Payment Report for the first quarter, released Thursday.

Real estate executives have turned more bullish on the real estate market as it continues to attract the interest of foreign investors, a new study from law firm Akerman LLP found.

The CFPB gave little ground in its pledge Wednesday to be "sensitive" to lenders that make a "good-faith effort" to comply with new mortgage disclosure rules that go into effect in August. The agency's statements fell short of a formal grace period that the industry and lawmakers had been demanding.

Signs of increased underwriting discipline dissolved in the first quarter, creating a challenge for U.S. CMBS investors, according to Fitch Ratings.

While demand for mortgages continues to slide up and down, profits for independent mortgage bankers are up.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a blog post Wednesday designed to mollify industry and congressional concerns that lenders will not be ready to implement new disclosure forms by an Aug. 1 deadline.

A global bond-market slump pushed yields on benchmark U.S. mortgage securities to the highest level in more than seven months, signaling potential pressure on the American housing market amid its peak selling season.

The type of reinsurance product that private mortgage insurers hold likely won't matter for meeting the GSEs' new capital requirements, said the CEO of Genworth Mortgage Insurance.

Private mortgage insurers are willing to offer "deep coverage" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's risk-sharing deals, but only after a premium structure is negotiated with lenders and the GSEs.

Resigned to the fact that purchase volume is unlikely to make up for any decline in refinancing, Stonegate Mortgage is focused on improving efficiency to increase loan profits over trying to grow loan volume.