Mortgages

The amount of distressed assets rose 10% in the first three months of the year, according to a new report from MSCI Real Assets.

But the Mortgage Bankers Association also raised the dollar volume that it predicts the purchase market will originate this year.

Both loan volumes and interest rates came in mostly flat, but the jumbo average ran ahead of the conforming for the second week in a row, the Mortgage Bankers Association said.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau decided to move forward with its proposal based on feedback to an earlier request for input.

The findings from Standard & Poor's show little impact from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's proposal regarding what information is required to underwrite a conforming mortgage.

Among the nonperforming assets 44.01% are either in foreclosure or referred for foreclosure; 19.32% are in default; 7.17% are liquidated and 1.75% are in bankruptcy.

Monetary policy officials have finally gone a month without tightening but made it clear more action could lie ahead, suggesting it could be awhile before housing finance costs consistently fall.

CEO Curtis Farmer said the warehouse sector, where Comerica provides lines of credit to mortgage banking companies, has not been providing much help as the company seeks to bolster deposits.

The Treasury has added Property Assessed Clean Energy financing for solar panels and the like to the list of approved expenses that states could authorize.

Federal bank regulators issued proposed guidelines for banks and other mortgage lenders to craft policies around reconsideration of value requests. The move is the latest aimed at rooting out bias in home appraisals.