Secondary markets

The much-maligned collateralized debt obligation appears to be set to play a crucial role in the refinancing of maturing commercial mortgages and the recapitalization of the recovering commercial real estate market.

Blackstone Group accelerated purchases of single-family homes as prices jumped faster than it expected.

Even though less securitized commercial mortgage loan deals moved into special servicing in 2012 analysts are cautiously optimistic for 2013.

The MLS Data Co-op enables data-sharing relationships among several different multiple listing services.

Mounting signs of improvement in residential markets may bring more players back to the origination business.

The new methodology also includes data on redefaults of modified loans into the servicing quality performance analysis.

The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency hits the market Wednesday with $75 million of tax-exempt homeownership finance bonds.

Even though the rates for the 30-year fixed-rate conforming mortgage rose to their highest level since November, application volume was up 11.7% for the week ended Jan. 4, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

We're hearing a lot about rising single-family asset values, but whether home prices really are appreciating depends on where the assets are.

Institutional investors of all sizes are reportedly amassing billions of dollars in capital they plan to invest in renting unsold real estate owned inventory.

The latest jumbo mortgage-backed securitization by the only consistent issuer/aggregator in the space, Sequoia/Redwood, utilizes a two-pool structure.

Thirty-year conventional prepayment speeds increased 4% in December from the previous month.

It is still not practical to include commercial loans of several hundreds of millions of dollars in commercial mortgage-backed securities conduits, as was common in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

A Mortgage Grapevine poster who is an expert in the USDA program has let the community know that the government agency has come out with a new underwriting matrix.

Almost 55% of the loans financed through a commercial mortgage-backed security execution reaching their balloon date were paid off in December.

The unwillingness of lenders to add capacity and offer aggressive pricing is a totally rational response to a regime in which prices for a variety of inputs have been massively skewed by government actions.

Prices for the commercial real estate loans that comprise mortgage-backed securities rose in November.

NCUA has opened a new battle with Wall Street by filing a new suit over the sale of faulty mortgage-backed securities to the failed corporates.

The congressional playbook for the new year is a familiar one, as lawmakers will continue to oversee implementation of the Dodd-Frank reform law and possibly begin to make inroads on housing finance reform.

Some think the private-label mortgage-backed securities market can make more of a comeback this year due to the agencies’ rising guarantee fees.