Today’s reduced liquidity is here to stay because of increased regulation and the unprecedented dominance of the Federal Reserve in the agency MBS market, said the Urban Institute. The top five dealers were responsible for about 55 percent of agency-MBS transactions in 2006, but today’s top five account for approximately 80 percent, Urban Institute analysts said. According to Inside MBS & ABS estimates, the Fed held 27.3 percent of outstanding agency single-family MBS ...

The CMBS market is a few quarters away from seeing the post-crisis refinance wave crest at levels above $12 billion, which would be double the recent pace of conduit loan originations, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service. But other analysts wonder if pending risk-retention requirements, a rate hike surprise from the Federal Reserve or other unanticipated developments will put a damper on recently restarted new issuance. Regarding the former, ...

A New York state court dismissed two mortgage repurchase actions filed by the government against Morgan Stanley, while Bank of America agreed to another settlement related to non-agency MBS issued by Countrywide Financial. Last month, Justice Marcy Friedman of the New York Supreme Court dismissed two residential MBS lawsuits filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency against Morgan Stanley ABS Capital I Inc. and Morgan Stanley Mortgage Capital ...

Single-family rental properties are still enjoying a downward trend in vacancies as well as low delinquencies, according to a new report from Morningstar Credit Ratings. However, with more leases set to expire in coming months, vacancy rates may begin to increase. “Vacancy rates have trended lower for the sixth consecutive month,” Morningstar analysts said in their new report. “However, we may see a reversal in this trend in the coming months, given ...

The MBS holdings of 16 top mortgage REITs were down 0.3 percent from the fourth quarter...

One observer noted: “Talk about a government takeover! This feels third-world to me…”

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan sellers pushed hard to increase originations of purchase-money mortgages during the first quarter of 2016, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. The biggest beneficiaries were loan applicants with lower credit scores. In the first quarter of this year, 21.4 percent of purchase mortgages sold to the two government-sponsored enterprises had credit scores in the 620 to 699 range. That was up from just 14.4 percent in ... [Includes two data charts]

Falling interest rates pounded the earnings of publicly traded nonbank lenders in early 2016 by forcing them to take huge writedowns on their mortgage servicing rights. The nine nonbank lenders tracked by Inside Mortgage Trends reported a combined $510.0 million loss in the first quarter, following a $12.7 million loss in the previous period. Back in the first quarter of 2015, the group had a combined $104.5 million in net income from their ... [Includes one data chart]

If you’re searching for some good news on the troubled PHH Corp., look no further than the book value of the company’s common stock, which is roughly $23 a share, according to a recent calculation from Sterne Agee CRT. In trading late this week, PHH’s share price was a mere $12.60, which means there appears to be plenty of upside as long as management can right the troubled ship and find a way forward as private-label clients fall to the wayside and servicing "marks" ...

Two lenders are returning to the structured finance market in an uncommon way, participating in a $210 million mortgage warehouse securitization. The transaction involving agency originations received provisional AAA ratings from Moody’s Investors Service last week. Station Place Securitization Trust 2016-3 will be backed by a revolving pool of agency mortgages originated by Greentree Mortgage and loanDepot. The two lenders participated in a similar $225 million deal ...