The supply of 1-4 family mortgage debt declined again in the second quarter of 2014 despite an uptick in whole loans held in bank, thrift and credit union portfolios, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. The Federal Reserve Board late last week reported $9.855 trillion in single-family mortgage debt outstanding at the end of June. That was down $4.9 billion from March – a scant 0.05 percent decline, but the second straight quarterly downturn. The increase in mortgage debt outstanding in the third quarter of 2013 increasingly looks like an aberration rather than a turning point. The most recent figure is...[Includes one data chart]
With loan originations beginning to taper off this fall and expected to continue that way through yearend, lenders of different stripes likely will step up their sales of mortgage servicing rights in an attempt to make earnings projections. “There’s a ton of activity out there now,” said Tom Piercy, managing member of Interactive Mortgage Advisors, Denver, an MSR advisory and brokerage firm. “We’re the busiest we’ve ever been all year.” Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group, concurs...
Efforts to reduce the government-sponsored enterprises’ footprint using guaranty fees and loan limits should be left to Congress, according to Bob Ryan, a special advisor to the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Meanwhile, officials at the Treasury Department suggest that the FHFA does have a role in setting policy that will inform any housing finance reform action by Congress. In comments this week at the ABS East conference produced by Information Management Network in Miami Beach, Ryan said the FHFA looks to Congress for direction when considering how to run the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “There is nothing in the legislation that suggests the FHFA should shrink the footprint [of the GSEs],” he said. Ryan said...
In the non-QM space, Lake Sunapee Bank serves a large number of self-employed borrowers, medical professionals, high net-worth retirees, and first-time homebuyers.
Ginnie Mae this week unveiled a position paper outlining its views and new strategies for its mortgage-backed securities program with greater emphasis on liquidity and on the preservation of servicing rights both as an activity and as an asset class. During a conference it sponsored this week, Ginnie announced a number of initiatives that would help the agency adapt its complex financial and operational structures to a post-crisis secondary mortgage market in which non-depository and smaller institutions are playing a bigger role. Ginnie underscored...