Mortgages

Thanks to rock bottom interest rates new mortgage applications spiked by 18% for the week ending June 8 on a sequential basis.

Wells Fargo & Co., the nation's largest home lender and issuer/servicer of GNMA loans, is telling its correspondents and brokers that it will only participate in the FHA's new "Streamline" refi program on loans its services.

More than 1.3 million people received assistance from a foreclosure mitigation counseling program.

According to a report by the National Fair Housing Alliance and four of its local member organizations, some of the larger financial institutions are not handling the maintenance problems in minority neighborhoods as well as they are in predominantly white neighborhoods.

The Government National Mortgage Association is in no rush to sell the $11.5 billion of mortgage servicing rights that it inherited almost two years ago when nonbank lender/servicer Taylor, Bean & Whitaker failed.

Paramount Residential Mortgage hired former Caliber Funding official Dave Pilotte as its new wholesale manager in charge of the Inland Valley area and Southern California.

In a speech before the American Bankers Association Monday Consumer Financial Protection Bureau deputy director Raj Date slammed loan brokers for causing the mortgage crisis, raising the ire of at least one loan broker trade group, the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, which is calling for his resignation.

Last time I wrote about some of the better marketing I saw in the past few weeks as I continue to recover from a leg infection. Unfortunately not all advertising I came across was as strong.

Commercial and multifamily real estate loan balances increased by $8.1 billion in the first quarter compared with the end of last year.

Discover Financial Services has finally closed on its purchase of LendingTree Loans, also known as Home Loan Center, from Tree.com for a total purchase price of $46 million.

The surge in Federal Housing Administration lending after the housing bust may turn out to be the mortgage insurance fund’s salvation.

Occupy protesters have vowed to return to an empty foreclosed home in south Minneapolis after holding two protests in the past month.

CoreLogic will implement a series of changes to its board, including the addition of three independent directors and the announced resignation of board chairman D. Van Skilling.

The National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, in a new comment letter to the CFPB asks the agency to exclude all Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and government mortgages from coverage under proposals that could radically alter how loan officers earn their pay.

The median net worth for American families plummeted by 38.8% between 2007 and 2010, falling to a level not seen since 1992, according to a Federal Reserve study on consumer finances.

According to new reports, both Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company controlled by Warren Buffett, and Ocwen Financial have expressed interest in buying the nation’s fifth largest servicer.

Not too many life and homeowners insurance firms are foregoing rate increases and rebating money to their insured.

Mortgage default risk is adjusting to precrisis levels. Almost.

The UFA Default Risk Index for the second quarter of 2012 increased slightly to 120 from last quarter’s revised 119 that was based on the UFA baseline macro scenario.

A federal judge ruled in favor of two investors involved in litigation against Bank of America offering an alternative insiders see as self-help in mitigating conflicts of interest between lenders and investors of asset-backed commercial paper.