Mortgages

Changes made to the Obama administration's flagship mortgage refinance program, HARP, have boosted profits at the nation's largest banks at the expense of homeowners and U.S. taxpayers, according to mortgage experts testifying at a Senate hearing this week.

The Federal Open Market Committee said Wednesday that the central bank will maintain its reinvestments of principal payments from agency mortgage-backed securities and debt holdings into new agency MBS.

Buoyed by stronger credit quality and higher mortgage banking income, Lakeland Financial of Warsaw, Ind., reported record first-quarter income of $8.6 million, up 45% from a year earlier.

Fannie Mae this week established new timelines to expedite residential short sales as required by its regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

At the start of this year, nearly one in four mortgages was underwater and 4.5 million mortgages were seriously delinquent. And today, some studies estimate that as many as 10 million borrowers are at risk of defaulting on their mortgages in the coming years. One of the problems that has made things even harder for struggling homeowners is the state of the mortgage servicing industry.

The Mortgage Bankers Association is supporting a Senate bill to streamline the Home Affordable Refinancing Program which relieves lenders of repurchase risk when they refinance underwater GSE borrowers.

Freddie Mac purchased $42 billion of mortgages from its seller/servicers in March, its strongest acquisition month since the refinancing boom of late 2010.

National home values experienced their largest monthly gain since May 2006 by increasing 0.5% in March, according to Zillow’s Home Value Index.

It's been a bumpy ride in recent quarters, but loan-loss provisions have gradually tapered off and early signs from first-quarter reports suggest that lower provisions may be here to stay.

Tongues are clucking in the industry about the death of the ‘transitory’ license with many nonbank loan officers believing that their depository brethren are at a financial disadvantage.

Hudson City Bancorp—a large correspondent buyer of loans in the New York/New Jersey area—intends to limit its mortgage lending this year as it looks to diversify its mortgage-heavy balance sheet and improve its regulatory capital ratios.

Mortgage applications fell by almost 4% for the seven-day period ending April 20 after a brief week of improvement, according to new figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The national delinquency rate continued its downward slide in 2012, falling to just over 7% at March 31, down 6% from the month prior, according to new figures compiled by Lender Processing Services for its “First Look Mortgage Monitor” report.

EverBank Financial, a top ranked mortgage lender, finally set a price for a planned $225 million capital raise after sitting on its initial public offering for half a year.

The FBI mortgage fraud caseload is on track to pass last year’s volume and possibly even the record total reached in fiscal 2010.

Treasury’s policy director Laurie Anne Maggiano is concerned about misperceptions related to how the attorneys general servicing settlement money will affect borrowers and the marketplace over time.

BOK Financial, Tulsa, Okla., reported first-quarter earnings of $83.6 million, up from 29% from a year earlier, as credit costs lowered and mortgage banking revenue soared.

New home sales in January and February were much higher than originally reported, taking some steam out of transactions for March, which fell 7% from the prior month.

The national composite declined to 1.96% in March from the 2.09% February rate.

In a few weeks we’ll know whether the Treasury Department’s third largest investment in housing/mortgages will file for bankruptcy protection. I’m talking about Residential Capital Corp./GMAC, which recently missed a bond payment and has 30-days to make good on it.