Mortgages

KeyCorp will keep and expand First Niagara Financial Group's Buffalo, N.Y.-based mortgage operations to spur along its return to being a player in residential lending.

Mortgage rates increased for the second week in a row as the Federal Reserve decided to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade.

TowneBank in Suffolk, Va., has agreed to buy Monarch Financial Holdings in Chesapeake, Va., for $220.6 million in stock.

There could be more willingness among lenders to roll back self-imposed requirements for agency loans in 2016, but secondary-market conditions will be mixed for mortgage sellers while rates and costs are poised to rise.

Mortgage stocks for the most part saw price per share gains in the wake of the Federal Open Markets Committee decision to raise short-term rates.

Real estate finance services provider Chronos Solutions in Frisco, Texas, has acquired San Diego-based mortgage technology company Cogent Road.

Credit scores on closed loans have declined for six consecutive months, according to the latest Ellie Mae Origination Insight report.

A new report from Fannie Mae suggests the millennial generation is getting a move on.

Mortgage applications declined 1.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Dec. 11 compared to a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Genworth Financial Inc. has named Kevin Schneider, currently executive vice president of global mortgage insurance, as its chief operating officer.

New-home construction rebounded in November, led by gains in single-family dwellings that signal the residential real estate industry will continue to support growth in the world's largest economy.

Default rates on various types of consumer loans improved in November, according to Standard & Poor's and Experian.

SingleSource Property Solutions in Canonsburg, Pa., has merged with iMortgage Services in Pittsburgh.

Affordable apartments have not been this hard to find in decades, and a new Mortgage Bankers Association study suggests there are ways existing public-private partnerships could do more to address the concern.

The agency released a plan Tuesday that would provide incentives for owners of manufactured housing communities to reform their practices if they want to tap financing by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquency rate improved from October to November, according to Fitch Ratings.

Total commercial and multifamily mortgage debt outstanding increased in the third quarter, in a quarterly comparison, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The number of residential properties with negative equity continued to decline in the third quarter, according to CoreLogic.

Fannie Mae is offering yet another carrot to lenders that have lobbied extensively for relief from loan repurchases.

In their search for ways to shift the credit risk of mortgages from taxpayers to capital markets, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be overlooking important players: the lenders that make these loans in the first place.