According to an analysis by Zillow, 11.2 percent of the 25.1 million homes that are currently worth enough to require a jumbo mortgage will fall under the conforming loan limit in 2018 due to higher loan limits established by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The analysis was based on county-specific home prices and the assumption that jumbos allow a loan-to-value ratio no higher than ... [Includes two briefs]

As Congress worked on tax reform legislation, participants in the structured finance market didn’t raise many concerns, but the bill passed this week could cause some problems for MBS and ABS markets, according to the Structured Finance Industry Group.

Since the start of 2015, credit ratings have been upgraded on nearly $350.0 billion of vintage non-agency MBS, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. The upgrades follow extensive down-grades during the financial crisis and can help create profits for investors.

S&P Global was the most active rating service in the non-mortgage ABS market during the first nine months, having graded $95.88 billion in new issuance, or 58.5 percent of the market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis.

The mortgage securitization rate edged up toward more normal levels during the third quarter, but the post-crisis slump in non-agency MBS activity continued to dampen the market.

More first-time homebuyers took advantage of the government-sponsored enterprises’ 97 percent loan-to-value mortgage products this year – to the point where they likely took away market share from the FHA program.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $50.61 billion of real estate mort-gage investment conduit deals during the third quarter, a solid 19.0 percent increase from the previous three-month period.

It’s been an ugly year for retail chain bankruptcies, which means investors in commercial MBS backed by such properties are continuing to feel queasy about some of the bonds they own.

Moody’s Investors Service erred in a number of its ratings of Freddie Mac’s structured multifam-ily MBS pass-through securities because it failed to take into account the guarantees provided by the government-sponsored enterprise on classes of its K-deals.

The number 15th ranked Fairway Independent Mortgage wouldn’t provide a hiring estimate but CEO Steve Jacobson said, “We’re always open minded about opportunities.”