Secondary markets

First American Financial Corp. has priced a $250 million debt offering which is scheduled to close on Jan. 29.

Redwood Trust sold $619.2 million of home-loan securities in its second deal this month.

The Federal Reserve purchased $14.1 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities over the past week.

Most mortgage officials feared Jan. 21, 2013 much more than the abortive Doomsday that was supposed to have happened a month earlier.

Updates from the Consumer Financial Protection Board and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Secondary market platform Tradeweb released numbers showing to-be-announced mortgage-backed securities trading reached a record high of $24 trillion in 2012.

San Bernardino County has rejected a controversial plan to use eminent domain for the seizure of underwater mortgages.

Residential Capital agreed to pay $297.6 million to end opposition by government-run loan investor Fannie Mae to the sale of ResCap’s main business.

There were two events in the weeks leading up to the New York Association of Mortgage Brokers annual convention which would have an impact on attendees and their immediate future.

The author sees elements of mutual fund sales in the commercial originations business.

The Federal Home Loan Bank System has a new $3 billion, two-year global note in the works that it has plans to price Thursday.

The New York Association of Mortgage Brokers annual convention was delayed by Hurricane Sandy and that was a big topic of conversation at the show. One of the presenters at the Melville gathering was a representative of the Small Business Administration. Sandy was a topic during Origination News' roundtable with NYAMB's board.

Egan-Jones Ratings was barred from grading government debt and asset-backed securities for 18 months after settling charges it made material misstatements to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Fitch presale report on the second Sequoia/Redwood Trust deal of 2013 is out.

Moody’s Investors Service has withdrawn ratings on $122 million of pre-2005 residential mortgage-backed securities deals issued between 1996 and 2004 as cash flows from these older deals have diminished to very low levels with age.

First Financial Network announced an $85 million loan sale of several assets held by the failed NOVA Bank for which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is acting as receiver.

A report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said that while the fourth-quarter results reported by the large mortgage originators have been positive, its concerns over the sustainability of the current mortgage banking environment going forward has increased.

The Treasury Department is considering ways to help underwater borrowers with private mortgages to refinance into a lower interest rate and reduce the risk of default.

We're hearing there’s no easy way to get a high rating on an REO-to-rental securitization.

National home values finished 2012 with the largest annual gain in six years since the peak of the housing bubble.