MBS backed by expanded-credit loans increased by more than 400 percent last year, with an even better year anticipated in 2018. And although the growth in terms of dollar volume wasn’t huge, due diligence firms are beginning to feel bullish about their prospects.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this week reported a combined loss of $9.4 billion for the fourth quarter of 2017, a direct result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and its impact on their deferred tax assets. The two government-sponsored enterprises had to reduce the value of the DTA by $10.2 billion.

The credit box in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac lending continued to widen – at a glacial rate – during 2017, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities disclosure data. The easing trend seemed to lose momentum slightly in the fourth quarter, as more government-sponsored enterprise business landed in the middle-risk categories. For the full year, 12.13 percent of GSE purchase loans were in the highest-risk ... [Includes two data charts]

Look for more sales of mortgage-origination platforms this year, said Jeffrey Levine, a managing director at Houlihan Lokey and co-head of the firm’s financial institutions group. He noted that in recent years, merger-and-acquisition activity has been concentrated on transfers of legacy mortgage servicing rights. But as interest rates have risen, buyers and sellers are focused on origination franchises. Independent companies that have origination assets and servicing also look to be in play ...

Residential lenders and servicers alike are keeping a close eye on rising interest rates these days but for decidedly different reasons: Originators are feeling the pain of lower application volumes, while servicers are trying to figure out when they should cash in. For the shops that both lend and service, they’re hoping that the boom in mortgage servicing rights valuations will offset reduced income from loan closings. “I would say the mood is for caution,” said executive recruiter Rick Glass ...

The homeownership rate went up in 2017 on an annual basis for the first time since 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. After falling to the lowest level on record during 2016, the homeownership rate will likely continue to climb gradually, according to industry analysts. As of the end of 2017, the homeownership rate was 64.2 percent, up from 63.7 percent the prior year. When measured at year-end, the rate peaked at 69.2 percent in 2004. “After bouncing around near 50-year lows ...

Lending standards for most categories of residential real estate loans generally held steady in the third quarter of 2017, even as demand weakened, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest senior loan officer opinion survey. One big exception: Mortgages eligible to be securitized by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where some easing of underwriting was detected. Banks generally “reported that standards for residential home purchase mortgage ...

Banks and thrifts reported a total of $3.12 billion in income on their mortgage-banking operations during the fourth quarter of 2017, a 12.6 percent downturn from the previous period, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call reports. The final lap of 2017 generated the weakest quarterly profit figure for the industry since the disastrous second quarter of 2011, when banks booked a massive $9.37 billion loss on mortgage banking. Most of that loss ... [Includes one data chart]

Private mortgage insurers took a bigger share of the primary MI market last year, although the VA program rebounded in the fourth quarter, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals.

All totaled, the new tax law will result in Treasury – which owns the senior preferred stock of the GSEs – forking over $4.01 billion to aid Fannie and Freddie...