Company says it it found no evidence of a data breach and that borrowers' personal data "remain secure."

Loan closing delays caused by the attack have forced lenders to pay for rate lock extensions and hedging losses, while home closings funded by purchase mortgages have also been delayed.

Ellie Mae Inc., the provider of software used by lenders to make home loans, said a technical breakdown this week has prevented some mortgages from closing.

Mortgages at the nation's largest financial institutions continued to improve for the fifth consecutive quarter at the end of last year, an indication that 2013 was a steadier year for mortgage portfolios than the quakes seen following the housing crisis.

Contracts to purchase previously owned homes unexpectedly fell in February for an eighth straight month, a sign of further weakness in the industry.

The Federal Housing Administration will require lenders to submit full electronic appraisals for the mortgages it insures — a risk management practice Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac adopted two years ago.

Mortgage rates for 30-year loans rose to a two-month high, increasing borrowing costs for homebuyers as the market’s recovery showed signs of weakening.

With more reliable loan data, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would have greater confidence that borrowers would not default. In return, lenders would receive a juicy carrot: fewer buyback requests.

There is growing evidence that Washington is making the same mistake with respect to the housing and mortgage markets.

Purchases of new homes fell in February to the lowest level in five months, a sign the industry may take time to pick up after inclement weather damped demand earlier in the year.

On the surface, it seems mortgage firms must explain valuation reports to each new applicant or eliminate the use of lower-cost advanced valuation intelligence. However, there may be another option.

Lenders should avoid repeated mistakes in their process as they could be used as evidence of a fraudulent intention to originate loans without proper safeguards and underwriting processes.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will suspend work on the Uniform Mortgage Servicing Dataset to conduct a fact-finding exercise to identify broader data standardization needs in the servicing industry.

The slowdown in housing since the middle of last year reflects a pickup in borrowing costs, declining affordability, limited job growth and, more recently, bad weather.

There is likely to be a record number of consumers shopping online for their mortgage in 2014.

Home sales in California fell 13.7% in February from a year earlier, the seventh monthly decline in a row, as housing inventory increased, according to the California Association of Realtors.

The best thing to happen to the business over the last three decades was the development of the secondary agencies' automated underwriting engines. The worst? There are several strong contenders….

The vendor thinks it can meet lenders' needs by creating a system which manages the various tasks that must be completed to move a loan through the origination pipeline.

Housing starts were little changed in February after declining less than previously estimated a month earlier, indicating the homebuilding industry is stabilizing after bad winter weather curbed construction.

The number of homeowners who received loan modifications rose to roughly 44,000 in January—up 2% from the previous month.