Investor demand for non-agency mortgage-backed securities with non-qualified mortgages appears to have been boosted by the performance of such deals issued in recent years. There have been some delinquencies – owing to somewhat loose underwriting standards – but investors have largely been protected from losses. DBRS recently analyzed 18 non-QM MBS issued since 2015 and found that only three deals had experienced losses as of September. A $150.4 million deal from ...

Citadel Servicing has increased its portfolio of nonprime mortgages in the past year and has taken steps to improve operations, according to Fitch Ratings. Citadel serviced mortgages with an unpaid principal balance of $1.1 billion as of the end of November, up from a $673.1 million portfolio as of the end of 2016. Some 1.8 percent of Citadel’s portfolio was 30 or more days delinquent as of November, according to Fitch. A significant portion of the portfolio was originated after ...

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.