Secondary markets

Financial institutions are on the lookout and preparing to fight new mortgage repurchase demands from the government-sponsored enterprises now reviewing files from as far back as 2002.

Capital levels at SouthBank have dropped below a minimum required by regulators.

State-chartered housing finance agencies have been adapting to the low interest rate environment by securitizing mortgages via Ginnie Mae and selling loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae is starting to prepare investors for the first transaction in which the firm would share the risk of homeowner defaults with bond buyers.

Wholesaler 360 Mortgage is looking to expand its relationships with mortgage brokers beyond Home Affordable Refinance Program-related products.

I’m actually getting email from readers who agree with me that our industry really is like professional football.

NCUA has filed almost $10 billion of claims against the biggest Wall Street banks for the sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities to five failed corporate credit unions.

The subset of Home Affordable Refinance Program applications for the week hit 38%, up three percentage points from the prior week.

Both builders and developers report that lenders are loosening their purse-strings on their all-important acquisition, development and construction funding.

Commitments to purchase new mortgages fell 16% from June to $62.4 billion in July—the lowest level since April 2012.

Census Bureau data shows that builders started 19,000 single-family attached houses in the quarter, up from 18,000 for the April-May-June period in 2012.

After dedicating 28 homes last year (the first on the reservation since 1972) the San Felipe pueblo has made considerably better time on its next development.

The members of the Mortgage Insurance Cos. of America did $13.0 billion of primary new insurance written in July.

El Paso changed underwriters to sell $61 million of bonds for a downtown baseball stadium after the first try failed.

A surge in borrowing costs to a two-year high is starting to cool demand from homebuyers as higher rates combine with surging prices to reduce affordability.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering a reduction in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan limits that is slated to kick in the first day of January.

LaTanya Moore-Newsome, a real estate agent with Century 21 in Atlanta, has been calling Wall Street-backed landlords for months on behalf of her low-income clients with government housing vouchers.

Zais Financial Corp., Red Bank, N.J., has purchased a residential mortgage loan portfolio with an unpaid principal balance of $98.2 million.

There was a 10 basis point decrease in the price of whole loans securing commercial mortgage-backed securities in July.

The Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey finds the average rate for the 30-year fixed rate loan is still 92 bps higher than it was for the same week last year.