Private mortgage insurers provided coverage on some $8.2 billion of mortgages securitized by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the first quarter of 2013 that had loan-to-value ratios exceeding 105 percent, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data. Private MIs had little choice in the matter since the Home Affordable Refinance Program allows underwater borrowers to refinance without getting additional MI, or any mortgage insurance if the original loan wasn’t insured. In fact, Fannie and Freddie securitized a total of $27.1 billion of mortgages with LTV ratios over 105 percent, most of which did not have insurance. But most private MI coverage was placed...[Includes one data chart]

Owner-occupants are driving increases in home prices and purchase activity, not institutional investors, according to Oliver Chang. The somewhat surprising conclusions from the founder and managing director of Sylvan Road Capital suggest that institutional investors are “along for the ride,” not propelling the current housing recovery. “The housing recovery appears to be broad-based and here to stay, although not because of the entrance of institutional investors into the space,” Chang said. He completed...

The non-distressed property market is strong and being driven by borrowers in need of mortgage financing, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey results. Thomas Popik, research director for Campbell Surveys, said time-on-market trends, number of offers and sales-to-list price ratios all indicate an exceptionally strong market for non-distressed properties. “The metrics for this segment are not affected by policy decisions at mortgage servicers to release or not release distressed properties onto the market,” he noted. The average number of offers for non-distressed properties, based on a three-month moving average, hit...

The Financial Stability Oversight Council issued a warning this week regarding the prolonged period of low interest rates, singling out real estate investment trusts that invest in agency mortgage-backed securities. “Agency REITs, a sector that how grown considerably in recent years, are highly exposed to a rise in interest rates,” said Trent Reasons, a senior policy advisor at the Treasury Department. An analysis of 16 REITs by Inside MBS & ABS, an affiliated publication, determined...

Almost one in five mortgage lenders in the country is still actively considering switching to a new loan origination platform, driven largely by the need to keep up with increasing regulation and, to a lesser extent, the desire for new features to gain or keep a competitive edge in the marketplace. According to the seventh annual compliance survey by QuestSoft, a provider of mortgage compliance software based in Laguna Hills, CA, 18.6 percent of lenders are reevaluating their current LOS platform, up from 0.1 percent in last year’s survey. Historically, the percentage of lenders considering an LOS change hovered...

For years, Union Bank of San Francisco has made a name for itself as a top-ranked portfolio lender of jumbo mortgages – but all that could soon change. No, Union Bank isn’t leaving the space – not by a long shot – but the $94 billion asset commercial bank is in the midst of making a major push into conventional lending where its footprint has been quite small. “It’s...

Most companies reported declining earnings from their mortgage banking businesses during the first quarter of 2013, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. As a group, however, the 23 diverse businesses included in the round-up posted a surprising 34.2 percent increase in aggregate mortgage banking earnings compared to the fourth quarter. The aggregate mortgage banking income was $6.74 billion for the group, a $1.72 billion increase over the previous quarter. Virtually all of that increase could be attributed to one company, Bank of America, which bounced back from a $540 million net loss during the fourth quarter to a $1.26 billion profit in early 2013 – a $1.80 billion turnaround. BofA took...[Includes one data chart]

Freddie Mac is getting the word out early that it is phasing out its software for managing delinquent home loans with plans to discontinue the service altogether next year. The company has already stopped registering new customers for EarlyIndicator, Freddie’s Windows-based program used to predict loan delinquency. "To provide users with time to transition, we are letting them know we are retiring EarlyIndicator one year in advance,” Freddie said in its announcement earlier this month.

One week after UBS Americas failed in its bid to shutter a lawsuit brought by the Federal Housing Finance Agency in connection with non-agency mortgage-backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal judge overseeing the case has ordered UBS to hand over internal documents to the FHFA the company argued were privileged. U.S. District Court Judge Denise Cote ruled last week that parts of memoranda from UBS’ outside counsel to the company which contained factual summaries of meetings held with third-party mortgage originators are not protected by attorney-client privilege and must be disclosed to the FHFA. “Even if it is true, as UBS argues, that the memoranda at issue were created for the ‘predominant purpose’ of rendering legal advice, that does not relieve UBS of the obligation to show that the entirety of each document is privileged,” wrote Judge Cote in her ruling.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the appointment of a long-time staffer to oversee the FHFA’s supervision of the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks. Fred Graham, most recently the FHFA’s acting deputy director of the Division of Supervision Policy and Support, immediately assumed his new responsibilities as the agency’s deputy director of the Division of the Federal Home Loan Bank Regulation following the FHFA’s announcement earlier this month.