Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase continue to post strong residential finance profits, but there is a growing worry that the "mortgage party" may be drawing to a close.

Gain-on-sale margins for mortgage originations declined for lenders during the first quarter of 2013, according to industry analysts, but a number of factors appear likely to keep the margins this year well above historical levels. Core gain-on-sale margins for the major banks fell to 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2013, according to estimates by Credit Suisse Securities, down from 3.3 percent in the previous quarter and from a high of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2012. The analysts warn ...

Citadel Loan Servicing Corp. of Irvine, a new subprime lender launched by industry veteran Dan Perl, funded its first loan last week, and is getting a barrage of telephone calls from potential borrowers to its headquarters in Southern California. “We’re getting 25 to 30 inquiries a day,” Perl told Inside Mortgage Trends. The firm is in the process of evaluating between $1.5 million and $2 million in residential loans. The first mortgage it funded was for $315,000 on a home in Orange County, CA. The ...

It’s been a longstanding and usually treacherous tradition in the mortgage industry that when origination volume starts to sag, lenders begin to expand the credit box. One quarter does not a trend make, but the pattern in credit characteristics of loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suggest that some easing may be underway as the market works to sustain production volume. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of first-quarter sales to the government-sponsored enterprises ... [Includes one data chart]

Anticipation of a boom in the purchase-mortgage market has prompted some conventional conforming lenders to roll out products with no mortgage insurance, and the response has been overwhelming. The 360 Mortgage Group in Austin, TX, recently launched its exclusively wholesale “NOMI” (no-MI) product and demand has been very strong, executives said. “One week after launch, we have been getting calls from mortgage brokers, correspondents, real estate agents and consumers who are very ...

Over the past five years, lender captives paid $706 million in losses. Most of these captives were domiciled in the U.S. and sponsored by mortgage lenders, receiving $2.92 billion in ceded premiums.

Closing issues are the most significant concern that makes real estate agents reluctant to recommend lenders to buyers, according to a new survey by Campbell Surveys and Inside Mortgage Finance Publications. Real estate agents control or influence 45 percent of homebuyer decisions on lender choice, according to the survey. Insight from real estate agents could be key as the mortgage market shifts from a focus on refinances to an emphasis on purchase mortgages. Real estate agents prefer...

This past fall the Mortgage Bankers Association was pushing for a housing policy coordinator in the White House to ensure that federal regulations complement one another rather than conflict.

Total MBS and ABS issuance rose almost 3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012 to $515.3 billion during the first three months of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking.

Freddie Mac has a new head of single-family: David Lowman, an industry veteran who in the past headed mortgage operations at JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.