Industries

Two senior GOP lawmakers are warning regulators against preferential treatment for housing advocates and nonprofits in sales of nonperforming, government-guaranteed mortgages.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency appears poised finally to allow principal reductions, but it's been nearly a decade since the mortgage crisis and underwater borrowers are much fewer thanks to higher home values.

ChoiceOne Financial Services in Sparta, Mich., will begin work on remodeling its bank's headquarters in May.

The agency may finally be reaching resolution on whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will allow principal reductions, two years into Director Mel Watt's tenure as agency director and nearly a decade after the mortgage bubble burst.

The House passed a bill late Monday to extend foreclosure relief for military service members through the end of next year.

Todd Sherman, who with his brother Tyler Sherman co-founded mortgage software developer Motivity Solutions, has died.

The sheer volume of regulations adds time and expense to closings without much benefit when consumers’ main interest is to get funds as quickly as possible.

As servicers downsize their loss mitigation units, housing counselors are finding the companies' designated points of contact are less experienced, making it more difficult to get packages approved for troubled borrowers.

If the Federal Reserve raises short-term rates in June, market volatility will spur investors to buy long-term bonds, driving down the 30-year mortgage rate to around 3%, consultant Barry Habib argues.

W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital shut its doors after it was stuck with nonagency loans with TILA/Respa integrated disclosure issues that it couldn't sell.

While the $1.9 billion of bonds are not guaranteed by the government, most of the underlying loans could have been sold to Fannie and Freddie, and the transaction accomplishes the same thing as the GSEs' risk-transfer deals.

Unity Bancorp in Clinton, N.J., has bought its corporate headquarters building for $4.12 million.

The Federal Housing Administration said Tuesday that it has revised its proposed lender certification requirements in an effort to provide more clarity and reassure lenders they won't be penalized for minor loan defects or mistakes.

Ginnie Mae needs more, and better-paid, staff to keep up with growing risks on nonbank seller/servicers, the watchdog agency head said.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac gave $186 million to the National Housing Trust Fund, their first such contributions to a fund designed to provide construction and rehabilitation of rental housing for low-income families.

United Security Bancshares in Thomasville, Ala., has agreed to buy a three-acre parcel near Birmingham, Ala., for a new executive office and retail branch.

Citizens Financial Group will build a new office complex in Johnston, R.I., and consolidate about 3,200 workers at the location.

Citigroup executives involved in the issuance of residential mortgage-backed securities at the center of the 2008 financial crisis will not be facing criminal charges for selling toxic bonds, U.S. authorities have determined.

Market volatility and new regulatory burdens are thinning the ranks of commercial mortgage lenders that underwrite loans for securitizations. Activity is slowing down as a result, and it is unclear if banks and insurers will fill the void, especially outside the largest cities.

Contrary to claims of anticompetitive practices, manufactured housing industry leaders want to increase the number of lenders offering financing.