Secondary markets

In December, builder confidence reached a level of 47, marking a two-point gain from the prior month’s reading.

Treasury 10-year yields touched the highest level in seven weeks amid speculation talks are progressing in Washington to resolve a budget showdown that threatens to send the economy into recession.

More existing homeowners who have been paralyzed by falling house prices and job insecurity may finally be in the mood to move up and purchase a new home.

The Obama administration thinks you can have your MBS cake and eat it, too, but some on Wall Street are not so sure.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is desperately trying to find a quick fix for its reverse mortgage program.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency gets credit from securitization market participants for producing profitable and viable government-sponsored enterprises.

When a consumer enters into a short sale it goes down on their credit report as a default, unless someone pulls a string.

Bob Ryan, a senior HUD official who launched FHA’s foray into risk management as it pertains to lenders, has accepted a position with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Stephen Cross, the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s deputy director of its Division of Federal Home Loan Bank Regulation, will retire in March.

Issuance of Government National Mortgage Association-backed MBS jumped 12% in November on a sequential basis.

Consumer advocates and mortgage bond investors have alleged that banks and insurers grossly inflate the cost of such policies, overcharging struggling homeowners and investors by hundreds of millions of dollars.

A delay of Bank of America Corp.’s return to selling mortgage securities shows the housing bust is still limiting the market’s revival.

Treasuries fell after Federal Reserve officials said they'll expand their third round quantitative easing with additional asset purchases.

Having a business plan for when refinancings go away.

Although Bank of America exited the correspondent channel earlier this year, its Merrill Lynch affiliate is aggressively bidding on jumbo loans in the secondary market.

The Federal Housing Administration's fiscal year 2012 actuarial study for its main single-family program shows that its capital position has turned negative, by $13.5 billion.

Thirty-year conventional prepayment speeds overall dropped 8% in the latest month.

Research looking into the increasing gap between primary and secondary mortgage rates suggests that there are some factors to watch which affect these going forward.

The White House has been unhappy, to some degree, with Edward DeMarco because of his refusal to allow the GSEs to write down the principal on underwater loans as a restructuring tool.

Ed Pinto says 40% of FHA loans are subprime and are hurting neighborhoods.