The decline in high-cost conforming loan limits set to occur later this year will affect a small fraction of the more than 300,000 counties in the U.S., according to an analysis released last week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. However, concerns remain that the non-agency sector will not adequately serve...

Non-agency mortgage-backed securities investors do not have enough confidence to allow for accelerated reform of the government-sponsored enterprises, according to Michael Berman, chairman of the Mortgage Bankers Association. “The key is the private markets have spoken that they don’t have confidence,” Berman said last week in...

Hoping to capitalize on the growing market for special servicing, Walter Investment Management announced last week that it plans to acquire Green Tree Credit Solutions. Walter said it will purchase the special servicer for $1.065 billion and Walter will have to drop its status as a real-estate investment trust. Green Tree currently services...

The Home Affordable Modification Program continues to be criticized for the pace of activity, but one segment of the market has embraced HAMP: servicers with loans in portfolio. While HAMP accounted for 27.0 percent of all mods completed by major banks and thrifts in the fourth quarter of 2010, HAMP accounted for 50.2 percent of...

Citing improved conditions for legacy non-agency mortgage-backed securities, the Federal Reserve this week auctioned off $1.33 billion in non-agency MBS acquired from American International Group. Information on the winning bids will be made public in three months but analysts suggest that...

American consumers have their own plan for winding down the government-sponsored enterprises: they’re refinancing less and showing little interest in borrowing to buy a new home. New business volume at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac plummeted by 21.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010 to... [Includes three data charts]

Private mortgage insurers continued paying MI premiums to captive reinsurance entities sponsored by mortgage lenders in 2010, but the payment flow declined further in a business arrangement that is gradually winding down. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of annual private MI regulatory filings reveals... [Includes one data chart and one graph]

Banks and other major providers of home-equity financing continued to back away from the market in the final months of 2010 while performance trends generally weakened, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of call report data. Banks, thrifts and credit unions held...[Includes two data charts]

The Mortgage Bankers Association has announced David Stevens, currently the assistant secretary for housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and commissioner of the FHA, will take over as MBA president and chief executive officer after John Courson leaves the association June 1. The AARP filed...

Many stakeholders are still in the dark with unanswered questions despite efforts by senior staff attorneys of the Federal Reserve to explain the complex provisions and issues arising from a final rule on loan originator compensation. Paul Mondor and Nikita Pastor, attorneys with the Fed’s Consumer and Community Affairs Division, which wrote...