A widely-expected reduction in conforming loan limits in 2014 by the Federal Housing Finance Agency will likely be confined to a handful of states, but that’s not stopping industry stakeholders and advocates from worrying about the implications of tighter credit for middle-income homebuyers in high-priced markets. Currently, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans are capped at $625,500 in high-cost areas and it’s been stuck at $417,000 for everywhere since 2006. According to an analysis by Barclays Capital, the FHFA currently has the authority absent additional legislation to lower the base GSE conforming loan limit under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. Lowering the conforming limit would in turn reduce the high-cost limit.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw their combined business in single-family mortgage-backed securities decline during the first six months of 2013 with nonbank lenders making up well over one-quarter of their business, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis. The two GSEs pumped out some $693.6 billion in new single-family MBS during the first and second quarters. With a 28.5 percent market share, nonbank sellers accounted for $197.4 billion of Fannie and Freddie loans sold during the January through June period.Nonbanks as a whole made the most of the retail channel (55.1 percent) during the six-month period, which was generally comparable to all GSE sellers (60.2 percent), while the gap widened in the correspondent channel between nonbanks (19.9 percent) and all GSE sellers (29.0 percent).

Banks and savings institutions in the second quarter of 2013 reported the lowest volume of mortgage repurchases and indemnifications since the buyback blight really bit into the industry four years ago, according to a new call report analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. Banks and thrifts reported $2.671 billion in mortgage repurchases and indemnifications during the second quarter, the industry’s lowest since the second quarter of 2009, when buybacks totaled $2.059 billion ... [Includes one data chart]

Rising interest rates, falling prepayment speeds and a strengthening secondary market in mortgage servicing rights combined to push MSR valuations significantly higher during the second quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call report data. Banks and savings institutions serviced a total of $4.869 trillion of home mortgages for other investors as of the end of the second quarter. Collectively, they estimated a fair market value of $48.70 billion for their MSR assets ... [Includes two data charts]

Declining origination volume and narrower secondary market margins squeezed mortgage production income during the second quarter of 2013, but servicing income continued to improve, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average firm participating in the MBA’s quarterly performance survey reported pretax income of $3.068 million during the second quarter. That was down 16.0 percent from the first three months of the year and the lowest quarterly profit since the first quarter of 2012 ...

The refinance market may have largely spent itself for now, but the future of the purchase-mortgage market looks bright – and the path to success in that space is mobile technology, according to a leading industry executive. “The mother of all purchase markets is brewing,” said Bill Dallas, CEO of Skyline Home Loans, during a webinar sponsored by Inside Mortgage Finance this week. “The market is coming off a purchase bottom and is ready for a shift to purchase.” The Mortgage Bankers Association projects that ...

Thanks to declining refinance activity, the long-awaited slowdown in originations is finally here with mortgage professionals starting to worry about their jobs. For now, it appears that most of the employment losses – at least those at the megabanks – have come in the area of “back office” workers, including loan processors and underwriters. But servicing and due diligence-related positions also have been cut because of improving loan quality. Mortgage banking firms shed 1,200 positions ...

IBM announced last week that it is offering a digital loan-processing platform that will allow borrowers to engage in the loan application process via a smartphone or tablet. Eric Ray, a general manager of IBM’s financial services sector, said the IBM Digital Loan Platform will help lenders connect with borrowers. “We believe delivering a transformational customer experience will differentiate future mortgage leaders from the pack,” he said. “By partnering with IBM, lenders can out-maneuver ...

Impac Mortgage Holdings announced last week that it adopted an agreement designed to preserve the value of its net operating loss carry-forwards. The agreement also included provisions to prevent a change of ownership of Impac stock, causing some investors to raise concerns. The tax benefits preservation rights agreement allows Impac to carry forward net operating losses in certain circumstances to offset current and future taxable income, which will reduce its income tax liability. Impac said it ...

Large parts of the Bay Area and Southern California qualify for the top high-cost limit, while other California markets such as San Diego ($546,250) and Sacramento ($474,950) have intermediate high-cost limits.