One month does not a trend make, but early indicators hint that mortgage lenders may be stretching the credit box to boost volume. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $91.71 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in January, a stiff 18.3 percent drop from the previous month. Some of the decline was the result of Fannie’s heavy volume in December, when its business flow was catching up from an unusually slow November. But mortgage interest rates have edged up, and there is widespread expectation in the industry that refinance volume in 2017 will drop sharply from last year. Higher rates could also tarnish a housing market that’s bumping up against affordability and supply issues.
Mortgage lenders that deliver loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage-backed securities continued to do gradually more business with borrowers with lower credit scores, according to an exclusive new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of MBS data. In 2016, 21.4 percent of purchase mortgages securitized by the two government-sponsored enterprises had credit scores ranging from 620 to 699. That was up from 20.6 percent in 2015 and 20.5 percent ... [Includes two data charts]
Lenders looking for originations as interest rates increase will likely have to put an emphasis on purchase mortgages. Seasoned loan originators with a track record of purchase-mortgage volume can help with that strategy, though retaining such LOs can be difficult because they are in demand. Matt Lind, a senior partner at Strategic Mortgage Finance Group, an advisory firm, noted that LOs often switch lenders, lured by incentives and higher compensation. He said nearly 60 percent of ...
Staying on top of the multitude of documents involved in the process of originating a mortgage can help lenders avoid regulatory issues and increase returns, according to an analysis by Nationwide Title Clearing. The mortgage research and document-processing service provider detailed a number of issues with the so-called trailing-document process in a recent update to a white paper initially published in 2014. NTC said the white paper on document tracking and organization ...
The bulk of the contributions for the MBS were aggregated by Invictus’ Verus Mortgage Capital affiliate. Servicing will be handled by Specialized Loan Servicing.
The two GSEs were placed in conservatorship in September 2008 by Treasury and the Federal Housing Finance Agency. At the time, their common and junior preferred shares were considered worthless.
Spencer Stuart, headhunting firm, aided the MI in its search for a new CEO. A few months back former Freddie Mac executive Bruce Witherell was approached about the job, but passed.
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