RMBS

If several California cities move ahead with a plan to seize underwater mortgages, they could end up paying more for the loans they expected, according to a legal expert retained by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA).

Another report of new lows in mortgage rates led to a 22% surge in the MBA's Refi Index to ~5331 for the week ending July 13, just under its mid-June high since April 2009 of 5386. As a percent of total application activity, refinancing share rose to 80.1% from 77% in the prior report.

Wells Fargo's mortgage servicing rights portfolio could have an impact on the bank's capital ratios under the Basel III requirements in the not-so-distant future when interest rates rise, a report from Fitch Ratings warns.

Fitch Ratings has switched to predicting gains in new home prices for 2012 instead of modest declines, due to "overt price increases and mix issues." The average single-family new home price should improve by 4.25% and the median should rise by 4.5% in 2012.

The increase in house prices in April was so widespread that 97% of the nation’s 579 metropolitan statistical areas registered an uptick in values from the month prior, according to Lender Processing Services (LPS).

A U.K. RMBS deal issued by Clydesdale Bank will offer investors three-year and five-year bonds.

Jobs are what will get our national economy out of the doldrums. Job growth nationally has flattened out, and at a very low rate, over the past three months. But perhaps even more importantly, mortgage job growth has been flat.

Congress did not intend to impose additional legal liability on lenders that originate properly underwritten loans, according to 106 members of the House of Representatives.

A regulator will allow bond insurer MBIA to make a payment on surplus notes issued in 2008, the company said.

In their Securitization Weekly Overview, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts highlighted the “unusual” co-existence of the risk-on and risk-off trades that has emerged this year.