Mortgages

CitiMortgage is selling $158 million of nonperforming loans to a joint venture that will be required to give underwater borrowers an option to rent the property if they cannot qualify for a loan modification.

Bank of America, as part of a continuing effort to reduce its residential exposure, is offering roughly $7 billion of mortgage servicing rights through what’s being called a ‘Barbell’ auction.

Redwood Trust, the most active player in the jumbo securitization market, wants to buy already funded Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loans from mortgage bankers and service the product through a subservicing firm called Cenlar.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could release long awaited residential servicing rules Thursday, according to a memo being circulated by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Under pressure from industry groups, federal banking regulators have extended the comment period on Basel III risk-based capital proposals by six weeks to Oct. 22.

Reverse mortgage lenders in Massachusetts have gained a two-year reprieve from enforcement of the state’s face-to-face counseling requirements scheduled to go into effect on Aug. 1.

Fannie Mae is pressing its seller/servicers to repurchase $14.5 billion of bad mortgages but only a small portion of those buyback requests involve loans originated after 2008.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Wednesday slammed plans by some local governments to use eminent domain to refinance underwater mortgages.

Silvergate Bank said it has gotten the approval necessary to become a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage issuer from Ginnie Mae.

Rebuilding Together has teamed up with Wells Fargo to create an REO home program that helps communities transform bank-owned properties into safe affordable homes.

Will other correspondent buyers of residential loans follow in the wake of PHH Mortgage and exit the third-party channel?

Freddie's strong operational performance is sustainable, and it is a reminder that the government-sponsored enterprises could serve as a cash cow for private investors.

Two identifiers will determine whether the single-family rental market securitization product will be successful: the local employment base and desirability of the neighborhood.

Residential mortgage applications fell almost 2% for the week ending August 3, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The comparison is to the week prior.

Western markets are catching the turnaround fever, according to the second quarter ‘Top Turnaround Town’ report from Realtor.com.

Fannie reported comprehensive net income of $5.4 billion in the second quarter, a stunning 74% improvement from 1Q and will require no financial assistance from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Guarantee Rate Inc., one of the fastest growing mortgage bankers in the U.S., is in talks to buy Manhattan Mortgage, New York, a large brokerage shop that had close ties to Wells Fargo Co., according to industry officials who were briefed on the matter.

PHH Corp., the parent company of the nation’s largest nonbank mortgage lender, lost $57 million in the second quarter and signaled its intention to reduce its presence in the correspondent lending channel where it ranks seventh nationwide.

Refinancings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans with LTV ratios above 125% surged in June as lenders were able to securitize and sell these severely underwater loans for the first time.

Controversy about what method leads to higher real estate valuation accuracy and realistic pricing is keeping up competition between vendors striving to custom fit their tools to the changing needs of their lender and servicer clients.