Originations

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed steps to ease Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements, just days after announcing it was retiring a platform to let users analyze raw mortgage data.

Mortgage refinance applications reached their highest level in three years as interest rates plunged last week in the aftermath of the Federal Open Market Committee's March meeting.

New Residential priced its second stock offering in four months, looking for gross proceeds of nearly $665 million.

HomeStreet Bank will attempt to sell its stand-alone mortgage business and portfolio of servicing rights, a move that comes amid growing pressure from an activist investor to exit home lending and concerns about declining demand and regulatory challenges.

As 30-year fixed-rate mortgages rose 30 basis points year-over-year, non-QM originations are estimated to grow 400% in 2019.

Plans to begin rating securitizations backed by fix-and-flip mortgages may help lenders create new capacity and satisfy growing demand for short-term financing of house flipping projects.

Citigroup's residential mortgage originations declined 23% and its home-loan revenue dropped by 35% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2018, as the company continued to distance itself from home loans.

Many federal agencies have been closed for more than three weeks, making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history. With no end in sight, here's how it's affecting banks, credit unions and mortgage lenders.

As the government shutdown enters its third week, mortgage servicers are activating the response plans they normally use during hurricanes and wildfires to assist federal workers who may have trouble paying their mortgages.

Borrowers and financial institutions may be feeling the strain from reduced operations at the FHA and IRS, which has suspended the release of certain income documentation during the budget impasse.

New Penn Financial will change its name to NewRez at the start of 2019, reflecting its acquisition earlier this year by New Residential Investment Corp.

Consolidation is coming in the mortgage industry, but a protracted timetable will continue to constrict industry profits.

Social Finance, the lending and refinancing startup valued at more than $4 billion, is cutting about 7% of its staff, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The sustained rise in home values will boost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's loan limits for 2019, marking the second consecutive year in which it increased by nearly 7%.

Subprime originations are climbing in multiple consumer loan categories, including mortgages, but the increase is much smaller in the home loan sector than it is in other markets, according to TransUnion.

Ginnie Mae officials are concerned about unusual activity with Department of Veterans Affairs cash-out refinances and are investigating the causes, as well as whether predatory lenders are taking advantage of veterans.

Although forecasts anticipate a continuing drop in overall originations, private-label residential mortgage-backed securitizations backed by newer loans are expected to keep increasing through next year, according to Bank of America.

High property values and low mortgage rates pushed commercial and multifamily originations beyond their projected totals in 2017 to a new market peak, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are stepping down because the job they were hired to do — return the GSEs to profitability — is done. But attracting top-flight candidates to lead the mortgage giants into a new phase may not be easy.

Zillow Group is moving from being a mortgage marketer to originating loans with its acquisition of Mortgage Lenders of America, in an effort to support its home-flipping business.