Mortgages

For Residential Capital Corp. the shinola hit the fan on Tuesday. Early this morning ResCap filed a notice with the SEC saying it missed a scheduled payment on its debt Tuesday, laying the ground work for an eventual default - that is, if the payment is not made up within 30 days.

The residential mortgage division of Ally Financial Inc. missed a scheduled payment on its debt Tuesday, laying the ground work for an eventual default if the payment is not made up quickly.

Nearly three out of every four loan applications taken over the Mortgage Marvel on-loan shopping website last year were for refinancing.

Fact: Our industry can be a bit stressful. Which is why I love these two ideas.

Construction of new single-family homes fell flat in March after dropping 9% in February, according to government figures released Tuesday morning.

Mortgage standards are already too tight and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency should not make them even tighter in drafting a final 'qualified mortgage' rule, according to a new letter signed by 33 lender, housing and consumer groups.

Some regulators are using the state-run National Mortgage Licensing System to ride herd over more than just the mortgage business.

Political pressure backed with money can be very persuasive in Washington and it may provide relief for some underwater borrowers with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans.

Private-label residential MBS interest shortfalls and liquidity disruptions that Standard & Poor's has been observing are likely to continue for some time, a credit analyst said in an online broadcast.

Median home prices in California for March saw their first rise in 16 months on a year-over-year basis -- at 1.6% -- while the 9.2% increase from February was the largest sequential gain in almost eight years.

Improved asset quality and declining expenses powered Washington Federal in Seattle to a $34 million profit in the quarter that ended March 31, a 32% increase from the same period in 2011.

Anthony J. Simich, a division vice president for eWarehouseOne, resigned from the firm late last week, telling National Mortgage News that the company is having trouble closing lines of credit.

Loan originator compensation rules were originally adopted by the Federal Reserve Board in September 2010 and covered institutions were required to comply with the provisions on April 6, 2011.

Bank of America is preparing to sell off hundreds of foreclosed homes in bulk as part of its ongoing effort to clear out its inventory of distressed assets.

As depositories continue to balance the need for conserving resources with expanding their presence with branch locations, some technologists believe that video conferencing would likely become a bigger trend for mortgage originators.

Bank of America wants to clear out the backlog of distressed homes in Florida by using technology to speed up short sale approvals.

Rumors are starting to surface that if and when a 'HARP 3.0' program is unveiled it will include non-GSE loans. As one commenter told us, "There are a lot of Alt-A loans that look just like GSE loans, but went to private investors. Why should they be punished because their loan was sold to the wrong investor?"

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo & Co. each reclassified more than $1 billion of mortgages as nonperforming loans at the urging of regulators in the first quarter - even though the loans are still in good shape, their executives said.

Citigroup, which exited the wholesale channel a few months back, funded $14.3 billion of home mortgages in the first quarter, a steep decline from the prior period.

It seems strange how fast things have changed for businesses in the online era. In 1998, a romantic comedy featuring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan called "You've Got Mail" had the message that big businesses like chain bookstores are putting their independently-owned competition out of business (a message that could have been about dozens of other industries as well).