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Nearly a decade into the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, no legislation has yet been passed to reform the housing finance system and resolve the long-term future of [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein The Federal Housing Finance Agency is suspending its ongoing review of new credit scoring models and will instead move forward with creating a regulatory framework for providers [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be forced to take draws from the U.S. Treasury again, this time due to an accounting rules change for loan-loss reserves. [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enjoy considerable market advantages because of their lower cost of capital and significant government subsidies. But with some conforming loans, the private [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Ocwen Financial is able to keep the answers to questions from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau involving the improper handling of escrow accounts confidential, a federal magistrate [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein The biggest challenge facing the Mortgage Bankers Association's new president and CEO isn't the housing market constraints and rising interest rates that have put a damper on [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Robert Broeksmit, a career mortgage industry executive, will succeed David Stevens as the president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association. Broeksmit is currently president and chief [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein If a financial industry petition to the Federal Communications Commission on the use of autodialers is successful, it could make Telephone Consumer Protection Act cases more difficult [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein First, some good news. Despite the meteoric rise in home prices, the real estate market hasn't ventured into housing bubble territory. The bad news? Home prices are [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Freddie Mac and Arch Capital are testing a new form of risk-sharing deal to boost investor appetite for low down payment mortgages. But the pilot is raising [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Editor's note: This is the first in a three-part series from the March issue of National Mortgage News magazine on the resurging mortgage broker and wholesale channel. [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Fannie Mae had warned of a fourth-quarter loss, but that didn't dull the pain of the actual numbers when they were released Wednesday, nor did it eliminate [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Flagstar Bancorp swung to a fourth-quarter loss as the Troy, Mich., company took an $80 million noncash charge to earnings because of the tax reform bill. For [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Testing of the common securitization platform is taking longer than expected, but the Federal Housing Finance Agency said it won't delay the 2019 launch of Fannie Mae [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein A bill that would ease Basel III capital requirements on commercial real estate loans could level the playing field between depository and nonbank lenders and spur more [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Ocwen Financial has reached a settlement with 10 states under which it may not acquire servicing rights for eight months but will avoid financial penalties. The settlement [...]

Tax practitioners have been guided and influenced in the preparation of income tax returns by various statutory, regulatory, and administrative provisions, as well as by professional rules. Such provisions and [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein With the London interbank offered rate going away by 2021, picking a new index to serve as the benchmark for adjustable-rate mortgages is the easy part. Industrywide [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein The time needed to close a mortgage improved nine days since the start of the year as the market has shifted to doing more purchase loans. It [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Recent swings in interest rates and home prices have put downward pressure on homebuyers' purchasing power. Lenders that don't proactively educate consumers on how these rapidly changing [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Even with 'a more fiscally conservative, limited-government, and less regulation-minded administration' in place, 'bumpy waters still lie ahead' for mortgage servicers, the chairman-elect of the Mortgage Bankers [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein In past cycles, when interest rates rose and origination volume was harder to come by, mortgage lenders relaxed underwriting criteria, undercut each other on price, or both, [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein The Department of Justice has agreed to a settlement with a pair of Cincinnati banks accused of redlining African-American neighborhoods in four cities in Ohio and Indiana. [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein A consumer's ability to afford to purchase a home fell to an eight-year low in the fourth quarter because of rapid price appreciation, moderate wage growth and [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Facebook has disabled so-called ethnic affinity filters from housing, credit and employment ads following mounting criticism that the practice allowed marketers to discriminate against minorities in violation [...]

Byline: Andy Peters, Brad Finkelstein It will be at least two years before banks are required to upgrade their consumer websites to make them accessible to the visually and hearing [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein A new refinance mortgage offered by Social Finance, better known as SoFi, lets consumers tap into their home equity to pay down student loan debt at terms [...]

The affect on the taxation of partnerships, as a result of principle developments in 2004, are discussed. The topics like like-kind exchanges, restructurings, partnerships with tax-exempt entities are also discussed.

The nature of public fund investing is unique. As stewards of public moneys, government portfolio managers have the fiduciary responsibility to ensure that investments are suitable. The Wall Street approach [...]

The Internal Revenue Service had recently brought in new developments to the taxation of partnerships. Tax regulations with respect to partnership audits and procedural matters, and partnership accounting, are discussed in detail.

The details of the sections 1202 and 1045 whose primary purpose is to encourage the investments in the real estate industry by professionally managed partnerships are discussed. The benefits of these sections like providing flexibility and increasing the capacitance of the industry are presented.

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Arch U.S. MI's acquisition of United Guaranty Corp. will make one of the smallest private mortgage insurers the sector's new market leader. While the move is likely [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Freedom Mortgage in Mount Laurel, N.J., has acquired the mortgage banking business of Montebello, N.Y.-based Sterling Bancorp. Freedom will handle new mortgage requests from Sterling National Bank [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Mortgage lenders can expand their businesses by catering to borrowers who aren't proficient in English, but doing so requires strategic recruiting and hiring and compliance with federal [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Lenders are seeing more attempts at reverse occupancy mortgage fraud, with borrowers typically pretending that their primary residences are investment properties. Non-owner-occupied mortgages usually require the borrower [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein, Jacob Passy The market gyrations following the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union have an upside for mortgage lenders, as already-falling interest rates are expected [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Black Knight Financial Services, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based mortgage technology company, has acquired Motivity Solutions, the companies announced. The price was not disclosed. Black Knight's products include the [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein When Perry 'Pat' Turner Jr. visits a house to do an appraisal, he usually just brings a camera, a note pad and a measuring device. But lately, [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein JPMorgan Chase has agreed to sell its U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development mortgage origination business to Freedom Mortgage of Mount Laurel, N.J. for an undisclosed price. [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Ocwen Financial in West Palm Beach, Fla., is the target of a second Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into its mortgage servicing practices. The company, formerly based [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Radian Guaranty is the latest private mortgage insurer to announce a change to its pricing structure for borrower-paid policies. The Philadelphia company said in a press release [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein The Mortgage Bankers Association increased its 2016 industry originations forecast to $1.48 trillion from its January projection of $1.38 trillion to reflect market turmoil that has held [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein Foreclosures and repossessions have subsided from the overwhelming levels of the housing bust, but mortgage servicers cannot afford to grow complacent about the volume of real estate [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein United Guaranty's spinoff from American International Group will result in changes to its capital structure that could shake up the competitive landscape in the private mortgage insurance [...]

Byline: Brad Finkelstein BankUnited of Miami Lakes, Fla., has exited the retail mortgage origination channel. It originated loans through its retail banking branches in Florida and New York. The bank [...]