The Lede

ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif., said home flipping in the second quarter increased by 12.4 percent from the first quarter but fell by 5.2 percent from a year ago.

Black Knight, Jacksonville, Fla., said its First Look Mortgage Monitor for Augus found foreclosure starts hit an 18-year low, while borrowers took advantage of lower mortgage rates to increase their level of prepayments.

ACES Risk Management, Pompano Beach, Fla., released its quarterly Mortgage QC Trends Report, showing critical defect rates fell by 6% in the first quarter from the previous quarter.

Trepp, New York, reported the volume of commercial mortgage-backed securities loans and assets in special servicing declined again in August, falling three basis points to 3.22 percent.

CHICAGO--Representatives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac here at the Mortgage Bankers Association's Risk Management, QA and Fraud Prevention Forum said quality of loans submitted to them show better quality control processes and fewer defects, but cautioned that the defects the do appear show a greater degree of sophistication.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it will continue publication of consumer complaints, data fields and narrative descriptions through the Bureau's Consumer Complaint Database while making several enhancements to the information available to users of the database.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday announced the end of the Mortgage Servicing Rights financing pilot program for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

CHICAGO--Kyle Armstrong, Supervisory Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said mortgage fraud is hitting every part of the U.S. in every one of the Bureau's 56 field offices.

The Mortgage Bankers Association and more than 100 other organizations representing various business interests urged Congress to reauthorize the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act, which is set to expire at year-end 2020.

Wall Street Journal, Sept. 23, 2019--Daniel Kruger, Vipal Monga (subscription)The tumult in the market for short-term cash loans highlights some analysts' concerns about the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, the Federal Reserve's proposed replacement for the troubled London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 23, 2019--Kate Berry (subscription)A Supreme Court review of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's leadership structure looks even more likely now that the Department of Justice and the agency's own director have agreed that that structure is unconstitutional.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 23, 2019--Brad Finkelstein (subscription)Recapitalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac prior to the 2020 election is unlikely even if the net worth sweep ends, according to a Keefe, Bruyette & Woods report.

Bloomberg, Sept. 20, 2019--Arianne CohenA 2018 Columbia University study found that healthy adults who reside in multigenerational housing live longer. And a Pew Research Center analysis last year found that Americans are increasingly residing multigenerationally-20% of Americans live in a home that includes adults from two or more generations, up from 12% in 1980. Developers have taken note.

Wall Street Journal, Sept. 22, 2019--Andrew Ackerman (subscription)Mortgage-finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are expected to start keeping their earnings as early as this week, pausing a yearslong arrangement in which they handed nearly all of their profits to the Treasury Department.

U.S. commercial real estate remains a favored asset class even as economic uncertainty looms, said the Urban Land Institute and PwC.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 19, 2019--Hannah Lang (subscription)In its vision for the future of housing finance, the Trump administration foresees a smaller role for the Federal Housing Administration. Yet many of the ideas outlined for the FHA in a Sept. 5 report by HUD have raised eyebrows and have some former FHA officials concerned.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 19, 2019--Brad Finkelstein (subscription)Flagstar Bank expects to recover $1 million of its loan to defunct reverse mortgage lender Live Well Financial following the sale of the collateral that secured it.

HousingWire, Sept. 19, 2019--Ben LanePretium, an investment management firm that already owns one of the nation's largest single-family rental operators and buys non-performing loans from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac by the truckload, is now in the non-Qualified Mortgage lending business after acquiring Deephaven Mortgage.

National Mortgage News, Sept. 18, 2019--Kate Berry (subscription)The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ratcheted up investigations and enforcement actions in the past few months, an apparent shift by the agency under Director Kathy Kraninger, who had initially signaled that supervision would be the primary focus in her tenure.

Bloomberg, Sept. 18, 2019--Christopher MaloneyMortgage investors are unlikely to see a net supply surge even should interest rates continue to move lower, if only because the pace of new home construction is far slower than it used to be.

HousingWire, Sept. 17, 2019--Kelsey RamírezLife insurance companies are set to create a surge in multifamily lending in 2020, according to a new study from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

HousingWire, Sept. 17, 2019--Kelsey RamirezA rule that allows government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to sidestep stricter mortgage underwriting requirements is set to expire in 2021, and while that may seem like a ways away, its pending removal has sparked widespread debate throughout the industry. (MBA mention)

National Mortgage News, Sept. 17, 2019--Kate Berry (subscription)Kathy Kraninger, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, gave more support Tuesday to the Trump administration's position that the agency she runs exceeds constitutional limits.

American Banker, Sept. 17, 2019--Neil Haggerty (subscription)Senate Democrats are warning the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to be careful as it considers changes to its mortgage underwriting rules.