Headlines

Second-quarter profits at JPMorgan Chase dipped nearly 8 percent year-over-year as the bank continued to work with a diminished mortgage market. JPMorgan's latest earnings report, released Tuesday, shows the megabank earned $6.0 billion in profits over the latest three months, putting its performance somewhere between the $5.3 billion reported in the first quarter and $6.5 billion a year ago.

On the heels of the government's $7 billion settlement with Citigroup over toxic residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), leaders at the Department of Justice revealed Monday there may be similar settlements or lawsuits on the way. The comments take on deeper meaning in the context of the government's ongoing dealings with Bank of America, which was reportedly close to reaching a settlement on its own MBS case until negotiations stalled.

Like much of the country, Pennsylvania's housing market showed a little more life in the second quarter than in the first, though activity fell short of last year. "We're seeing some pockets of the state with positive growth, while others are a little more lackluster," said Kim Skumanick, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released Monday the findings of its June 2014 Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE), revealing a slight uptick in economic hopes among Americans as housing expectations remained flat. On the housing front, the median home price change expectation was little changed, dipping slightly to a median expected 3.9 percent over the next 12 months.

The mortgage industry had a lot to say late last week following the release of new draft standards for private mortgage insurers to work with GSE loans—and not all of the reactions were positive. U.S. Mortgage Insurers (USMI), a trade group comprised of a number of member insurers, was quick to lend its support in a statement, though not all member companies agreed.

More and more lenders are taking advantage of OpenClose's LenderAssist loan origination system (LOS) to gain greater insight into the secondary market, the Florida-based company announced.

Citi released its quarterly earnings report Monday morning, posting net profit of $181 million—a decline of 96 percent compared to earnings of $4.2 billion a year ago. The second quarter's results include a $3.8 billion charge related to a $7.0 billion settlement with the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities (RMBS) Working Group, also announced early Monday.

In the midst of hurricane season, CoreLogic released its storm surge analysis for the year, counting more than 6.5 million homes at risk of hurricane damage and a total of $1.5 trillion in total reconstruction costs for these homes. Importantly, CoreLogic noted a large portion of homes susceptible to flood damage are not located within Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood zones and therefore are not required to carry flood insurance.

The CFPB issued guidance to curb brokers transitioning into the "mini-correspondent" model in the hopes of avoiding rules affecting broker compensation. "Today we are putting companies on notice that they cannot avoid those rules by calling themselves by a different name," commented CFPB Director Richard Cordray with the release of the new guidance.

From April 2013 through March 2014, Chinese buyers accounted for 16 percent of foreign home sales, up from 12 percent in 2013. In dollar volume, China's share is higher, accounting for 24 percent of sales during that period. "Put another way, the value of homes bought by Chinese buyers in the US has increased from $1.2 [billion] to $7.5 [billion], or slightly more than 500 percent, over five years," said Paul Diggle at Capital Economics.