Secondary markets

Multifamily lending has been the darling of banks and investors for the past few years due partly to easy financing from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the housing bust that has forced more families to rent rather than own.

When Charles O. Prince III was chief executive officer of Citigroup from 2003 to 2007, he didn’t know about a surge in mortgage risk that his own investment bankers loaded on to its bank’s books.

Redwood Trust is having a spectacular run. Its shares have returned 83% in the past year and there have been zero defaults among the $4 billion of jumbo loans it packaged and sold as bonds since 2010.

Recent data show the United States residential mortgage default outlook is strong in the context of the global securitized market.

Penny Mac’s stock ended the trading day Friday with the largest percentage gain among those listed in this publication’s Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.

A new lending platform recently launched by Case Real Estate Capital is starting to look at deals and take applications.

The NAMB Board discussed how mortgage brokers were able to gain an advantage from certain regulations.

Home Loan Servicing Solutions reported net income of $14.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2012 and no change in servicing asset valuations.

Investor interest in second liens is continuing this year with several more pools expected to come to market.

U.S. CMBS delinquencies declined for the eighth month in a row, hitting the lowest level since the fall of 2010 in Fitch’s latest index data.

Red Mortgage Capital originated a $19.5 million refinance for the Oyster Bay Manor/Harbor House.

Prepayments on Home Affordable Refinance Program-eligible cohorts remained stable or slightly higher, but overall conventional bond speeds have dropped.

Equity Residential generated normalized funds from operations in the fourth quarter of 75 cents per share.

Invesco Mortgage Capital generated 77 cents per common share of net income for the quarter ending Dec. 31, 2012.

Ellie Mae’s stock price increase on Wednesday was the largest among stocks in this publication’s Mortgage Industry Equity Composite.

Peter Albano is joining Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. as head of taxable fixed-income sales.

A U.S. judge sided with a bond insurer in a closely watched case over representation and warranty putbacks in residential mortgage-backed securities.

Despite the buzz about the REO-to-rental market over the past year, there is still no clear indication of the role securitization can play in the permanent financing of repossessed single-family homes for conversion into rental properties.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s decision to allow banks to include highly rated residential mortgage-backed securities into their calculation of a new liquidity coverage ratio is undoubtedly good news for European RMBS.

Mortgage application volume rose for the fourth time in the last five weeks, even as rates on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased for the seventh time in the past eight weeks.