Mortgages

Market interest in launching REO-to-rental securitizations has increased over the past several months, driven partly by the sizable inventory of real estate owned properties.

The tamper-evident electronic mortgage seal gets put to the test.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported that banks and thrifts originated $186 billion of closed-end single-family loans in the second quarter through retail means, compared to $170 billion in the first.

The roots of the mortgage crisis stretch back to 1996 with the introduction of Freddie Mac’s Loan Prospector and Fannie Mae's Desktop Underwriter automated underwriting systems.

The Case-Shiller house price index rose 2.3% in both June and May on a nonseasonally adjusted basis and all 20 cities featured in the index posted month-over-month increases in both June and May.

Bank of Oklahoma hired former Fannie Mae executive Elliot Salzman as vice president in charge of correspondent lending.

GFI Mortgage Bankers has agreed to pay more than $3.5 million to resolve a lending discrimination lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.

Hudson City Bancorp could no longer defy the odds of interest rate risk, agreeing Monday to sell itself to M&T Bank for $3.7 billion.

As part of Assembly Bill 2314 owners of vacant blighted properties can face fines from $1,000 to $5,000 per day if there are any code violations at the site.

Buried in the fine print of the Treasury Department’s revised bailout deal with the government-sponsored enterprises is a clause that allows Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sell up to $250 million of assets in one fell swoop without prior approval from the agency.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not giving residential loan officers much flexibility when it comes to changing their origination fee.

The “real” homeownership rate has fallen to its lowest level in almost 50 years.

The federal regulatory monitor of the $25 billion robo-signing settlement with the nation’s five mega-servicers has recruited five directors to help manage the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight.

Findings from Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research indicate a small-ticket remodeling pickup is likely to help lift both near-term and long-term investment.

Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan explains the impact that housing is having on the U.S. economy.

The conundrum the industry is grappling with is accelerating short sales while simultaneously detecting and preventing the growing incidence of fraud these transactions may produce.

The National Association of Realtors is forecasting that the vacancy rate on multifamily dwellings will fall to 4.2% this quarter compared to 5.6% a year ago as high demand outstrips supply.

Over the past several years, there has been an increased focus on determining risk associated with the participants facilitating a loan transaction.

Morrison & Foerster can't say it hired the attorney who wrote the CFPB's rulebook. But it picked up the guy who started the job.

Lender Processing Services and RentRange will offer rental property income data to mortgage servicers, investors and others who need it to make informed decisions about distressed housing assets.