Secondary markets

Stonegate Mortgage, a fast growing nonbank lender based in Indianapolis, has received a $25 million investment form private equity fund, Long Ridge Equity Partners, and plans to use the money to grow both its servicing portfolio and third-party lending channels.

Part of an agreement with regulators that could result in principal reductions planned for 200,000 residential mortgages owned or serviced by Bank of America as could benefit the bank but could be neutral to negative for some residential mortgage-backed securities bondholders, according to a recent Fitch report.

While Fitch's February CMBS delinquency data showed relative stability overall compared to the previous month and a year ago, there were some variations in sub-markets such as a high level of 60-day late payments in Atlanta office loans.

Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ocwen Loan Servicing's rating as a special servicer to 'SQ2-' from 'SQ2'.

The outstanding amount of home mortgages as of 4Q11 fell $40 billion quarter-over-quarter and $240 billion year-over-year to $10.3 trillion, Standard & Poor's analysts noted, citing the Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data.

In one of the most ambitious lawsuits of its kind so far, Space Coast Credit Union has filed a civil damage claim against several investment banking firms that sold $150 million of mortgage-backed CDOs to Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, which failed in 2009, and was then acquired by Space Coast.

Freddie Mac executives believe the GSE has passed an important milestone regarding the firm's 2005 to 2008 books of business that could lead to a much stronger financial performance in its single-family business going forward.

It would appear that certain politicians - both left and right - look at guarantee fees and say to themselves: Hey, here's a way to raise some revenue and no one will blame us for taxing mortgage lenders. Well, guess again.

While Fannie Mae continues to bleed red ink like a busted crankcase, Freddie Mac turned a profit in the fourth quarter. Overall, it earned $1.5 billion -- but then had to give its "Godfather" (the U.S. Treasury) $1.7 billion in protection money, er, I mean, dividends. Sounds a bit screwy to me but then again the past 10 years in this industry have been screwy.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency Friday declared that the new CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — whoever that person might be — will earn no more than $500,000 per year, a major reduction in pay from the current job holders.

Freddie Mac posted net "comprehensive" earnings $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter, but must turn around and pay the U.S. Treasury a $1.7 billion dividend, which means it ultimately lost money during the period.

Old Republic International Corp.'s liquidity is "moderately tighter than previously expected," warned Fitch Ratings. This places greater uncertainty on ORI's ability to fund a potential debt acceleration.

Pressure from housing groups this week succeeded in thwarting a Senate amendment to a transportation bill that would have raised guarantee fees on Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loans to pay for Gulf Coast reclamation projects.

Suddenly, it appears that mortgage banking is hot. Okay, maybe hot is not the best word, but in the past few weeks two residential-related IPOs have hit the market: Nationstar Mortgage, and Home Loan Servicing Solutions. Both are specialty servicers (of sorts), though the latter is really just a shell corporation created to unlock MSR value for Ocwen Financial Corp. (Or maybe I'm being too critical?)

The Prestwick Mortgage Group will auction off a $13 million portfolio of bulk Freddie Mac residential servicing rights owned by a national bank.

Several liberal House members pressed President Obama on Wednesday to fire the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Edward DeMarco, if he continues to oppose writing down underwater mortgages.

The 9.37% CMBS delinquency rate in February was lower both sequentially and compared to year-ago monthly figures by Trepp LLC's measure, but the company notes that whether this is a true sign of improvement depends in part on the fate of paying loans that are past their maturity date but have not yet been modified, refinanced or foreclosed upon.

Some prepayment reports are showing certain agency MBS speeds are picking up a bit, and at least one suggests that new FHA mortgage insurance premium changes could have a slight, mixed effect on Ginnie Mae bonds going forward.

The new premium structure for FHA-backed single-family loans will increase receipts by $1 billion per year to bolster the government's mortgage insurance fund, keeping it out of the red. But it could also reduce demand and curtail FHA lending by 30% by the end of fiscal year 2013, according to new projections.

Mortgage application volume declined by 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ended March 2, as the market share of refinance apps hit their lowest point since December, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Data for the previous week was adjusted for Presidents Day.