Mortgages

The Democrat, who will likely head the Financial Services Committee, has signaled she'll make expanded housing opportunities for lower-income consumers a top priority.

CleanFund has created a division that helps structure Property Assessed Clean Energy financing to meet a mortgage lender's credit criteria; its also talking to lenders about co-financing the energy upgrades.

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.

Lawmakers have had to extend the program eight times since October 2017, as Congress has been unable to pass broader reforms.

Volatility in the stock market caused the growth in the top 5% of average home sale prices to slow more than the rest of the market, according to Redfin.

The Federal Housing Administration's risk-sharing program with the Federal Financing Bank began as a temporary fix, but the agency is exploring how to make it more permanent.

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%.

The proposal by Fannie and Freddie’s regulator to impose bank-like capital requirements would be relevant only if the companies leave conservatorship. But that hasn’t stopped lenders from requesting changes.

The effort to raise the threshold for transactions excused from appraisal requirements responds to concerns that the current threshold is outpaced by real estate prices.

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.

Bank jumbo mortgage underwriting standards weakened in the third quarter by the most in three years and as profitability remains under pressure, loosening should continue at an accelerated pace, a Moody's report said.

The Trump administration should consider putting much of the subsidized mortgage lending done by the federal government under the government-sponsored enterprises to improve efficiency and transparency.

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.

The revised blueprint by Moelis & Co. LLC incorporates a pending regulatory capital plan for the mortgage giants.

Continued diversification of its business lines and better margins in its securitization activities helped Redwood Trust overcome steep mortgage origination declines and post nearly 14% annual growth in net income during the third quarter.

While the foreclosure crisis is over and federal regulators are being less assertive on enforcement actions, mortgage servicers must remain vigilant about compliance, as state agencies are stepping up their own oversight, according to Standard & Poor's.

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.

The unique approach Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are each taking with their credit-risk transfer products is quickly becoming a key point of differentiation that's rekindling competition between the government-sponsored enterprises.

The company’s first transaction, Eagle Re 2018-1, transfers a portion of the credit risk on approximately $36.3 billion of mortgages, according to Morningstar Credit Ratings.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transferred a substantial amount of credit risk to the private sector through both single-family and multifamily market transactions in the first half of the year, with activity expected to rise in 2019, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.