Issuance of jumbo MBS was strong in 2013 until interest rates started to rise in May due to concerns that the Federal Reserve was set to taper its stimulus efforts.
A handful of firms say they are still aggressively recruiting residential loan officers who have a solid background in purchase-money lending – that is, sales professionals with deep ties to Realtors and home builders.
Also note that the ATR rule provides additional flexibility to small lenders in that the safe harbor has been expanded to 3.5 percent over the average prime offer rate.
Analysts forecast uncertainty for the agency MBS market going into 2014 as the policy landscape reshapes itself and investors cautiously adapt to the shape of things to come. Look for 2014 to be a “year of transition” amid a slowly rising range of U.S. Treasury yields, a slowly recovering economy, and a Federal Reserve that transitions away from quantitative easing toward forward guidance, according to RBS analysts. RBS noted...
The Aug. 28, 2013, release of the re-proposed credit risk-retention rule by federal banking and housing regulators was eagerly awaited by investors and the mortgage industry. But it’s also raised some new questions for securitizers and investors, according to a new white paper from CoreLogic. The proposed rule sets out the risk-retention provisions for securitizers that underwrite ABS, but it also exempts from those provisions all securities issued by the housing agencies, which is to say, MBS generated by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. “Given that exemption, what are the incentives for private securitization where there is capital relief in the alternative?” the white paper asked. CoreLogic notes...
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