Nationstar Mortgage’s servicing portfolio has grown significantly in the past year due to acquisitions from banks, a trend the company’s officials suggest will continue. “There is significant room for market penetration as larger banks dispose of servicing assets,” the nonbank servicer said in a recent presentation to investors. Nationstar is touting its growth prospects even after increasing its servicing portfolio to $102.7 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2011 from $12.7 billion at the end of 2007. The company owns 49.2 percent of the holdings, with the rest being subserviced for others ...

Carrington Holding Company this week announced a partnership with Oaktree Capital Management to purchase up to $450 million in real estate-owned properties and offer them as rentals. The plan is not specific to loans owned by the government-sponsored enterprises, according to Carrington officials. “Whether this inventory comes from the GSEs, banks or directly from the [multiple listing service] isn’t a primary concern at the moment,” said Rick Sharga, an executive vice president at Carrington Mortgage. “We’ll put together the portfolio based on properties that meet the criteria we’ve established to ensure a reasonable return for the investors.” ...

Total FHA forward mortgage originations fell to $190.3 million in 2011, a 32.8 percent decline from 2010 even as mounting FHA delinquencies continue to raise concerns of a costly taxpayer bailout. Five lenders accounted for a fourth of total production with a combined $48.2 billion and an aggregate market share of 25.3 percent, according to Inside FHA Lending’s 2011 ranking and analysis of top FHA lenders. The data do not include FHA reverse mortgages. However, the total output of the top five declined on a quarterly and yearly basis by 15.6 percent and a hefty 39.0 percent, respectively. Those five elite lenders included ... (includes one chart)

Two independent mortgage firms have made key changes to their operations to provide better subservicing solutions to FHA and VA lenders as well as reverse mortgage originators. Gateway Mortgage Group, a privately held mortgage bank based in Tulsa, OK, recently announced a new in-house subservicing unit dedicated solely to specialty and default servicing of FHA and VA loans. The decision to set up a subservicing shop became necessary due to the more stringent government loan requirements and increased oversight by regulators, according to Kevin Osuna, vice president of default services. Community bank servicers and smaller institutions were struggling ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have drummed up little support for their controversial proposal to pay mortgage servicers a flat fee for performing loans, but one top-tier lender has stepped forward to publicly endorse the idea. Ally Financial in a comment letter to the Federal Housing Finance Agency said it supports the so-called fee-for-service proposal, combined with a policy that would provide for the separation of excess interest-only cash flows from the underlying mortgage servicing rights. The company, which ranked as the fifth-largest servicer in the market as of the end of September, did...

Bulk sales of real estate owned properties by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA that would become rental properties may help relieve pressure from an excess of inventory for sale, but it will require a change in how the agencies have traditionally handled their foreclosure inventory. The Federal Reserve earlier this month made a strong case for an REO-to-rental strategy, arguing that even if it costs the agencies a little more in foreclosure losses it could help the broader housing market by firming up prices and shifting more units to meet growing demand for rental housing. Many private...

The Federal Reserve is calling for the design of a large-scale rental program of government-owned foreclosed properties as the best bet to moderate the inflow of unsold homes even as the Federal Housing Finance Agency shapes the eagerly awaited government REO reduction initiative.The Fed white paper, disseminated among the leaders of the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees last week, recommends that the GSEs work to convert foreclosed properties into rental housing.The paper states that a government-facilitated REO-to-rental program could take many forms.

The Federal Home Loan Banks continue to show an investment preference for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter of 2011, posting a modest increase from the previous quarter, according to a new analysis by Inside The GSEs based on data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.Ginnie Mae securities, meanwhile, remained popular within the FHLBank system during the three-month period ending Sept. 30, 2011.GSE MBS accounted for 68.9 percent of combined FHLBank MBS portfolios, up 1.7 percent from the second quarter of 2011. The Finance Agency’s data do not separately break out Fannie and Freddie volume or share.

PHH Corp. over the last month has felt the pinch of being the largest mortgage banking business not associated with a depository institution as it faced some setbacks in lining up financing for its operations. The company this week priced a $220 million offering of 6.00 percent convertible senior notes that is being co-managed by JPMorgan Securities and BofA Merrill Lynch. That was up from the $150 million offering originally announced, and PHH gave the underwriters the option to purchase an additional $30 million. PHH will use the money to pay off $250 million of 4.00 percent convertible senior...