The Lede

National Mortgage News, Apr. 2, 2018--Brad Finkelstein (subscription)There is now less fraud risk associated with adjustable-rate mortgage applications and this will offset some of the higher hazard associated with a purchase market, said First American Financial Corp.

National Mortgage News, Apr. 2, 2018--Victoria Finkle (subscription)When draft Senate legislation--based on talks between Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va.--leaked back in January, observers had warned the effort would need to quickly pick up steam in order to have a prayer of enactment ahead of the midterm elections this November. Instead, momentum has been moving in the wrong direction.

Reuters, Apr. 2, 2018--Patrick RuckerMick Mulvaney, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said the agency has the kind of power that should only rest with Congress. "The Bureau is far too powerful, with precious little oversight of its activities," Mulvaney told Congress in a routine report.

Mortgage Daily, Apr. 2, 2018Citigroup Inc. has appointed a new team of executives to oversee its drastically downsized mortgage banking business. The mortgage chief had only been on the job less than a year.

Mortgage Daily, Apr. 2, 2018The U.S. Mortgage Market Index from Mortgage Daily, a tool to forecast mortgage originations, declined 5 percent in the seven days ended March 30 from the prior week.

Mortgage Professional America, Apr. 3, 2018--Steve RandallThe paper, "Liquidity Crises in the Mortgage Market," highlights that many nonbank lenders failed during the housing bust but the sector has been growing since as the result of banks and others pulling back their exposure and tightening underwriting conditions.

National Mortgage News, Apr. 2, 2018--Rachel Witkowski (subscription)The rule raises the threshold from $250,000 to $500,000 for commercial real estate transactions. Under the new rule, more transactions are exempt from a long-standing requirement to get an appraisal. Instead, banks can simply get an evaluation of the real property collateral.

Bloomberg, Apr. 2, 2018--Oshrat CarmielHome sales in Manhattan plunged by the most since the recession as buyers at all price levels drove hard bargains and were in no rush to close deals.