Ginnie Mae FY 2016 Highlights. “So far, we’ve pretty much broken every record,” said a Ginnie Mae spokesperson. Total mortgage-backed securities issuance for FY 2016 was $490.3 billion, “an all-time high by a pretty wide margin,” according to the spokesperson. September MBS issuance was also at an all-time high: $54.8 billion. Ginnie Mae commitment authority for the fiscal year was $430.2 billion. Approximately 2.3 million mortgage loans worth $462 billion underlay Ginnie’s single-family MBS pools in FY 2016. Of this total, $278 billion (1.4 million loans) were purchase mortgages, and $184 billion (0.9 million loans) were refinances or modified loans. Of the purchase dollar volume, first-time homebuyers accounted for $200 billion (1.1 million loans). Of the $462 billion single-family MBS pools, FHA accounted for 57.1 percent ($264 billion), VA, 38.8 percent ($179 billion), and rural housing loans, 3.9 percent ($18 billion). New California Law Protects Spouses of HECM Borrowers from ‘Widow Foreclosure.’ On Sept. 29, 2016, California Gov. Jerry Brown, D, signed Senate Bill 1150 into law to protect widows, widowers and other heirs of mortgage borrowers from unnecessary foreclosures.

Single-family MBS issuance jumped 25.7 percent during the third quarter to $440.77 billion…

Radian agreed to buy Clayton in May 2014 for $305 million.

On average, the loans have seasoned just 1.9 months, one of the fastest turn times for a jumbo MBS in recent years…

In its proposed rulemaking, the CFPB clearly indicated it was not going to re-open the substance of the rule and address what it considered policy issues…

Freddie Mac’s third-quarter MBS business was up 36.0 percent from the previous period, thanks to a whopping 43.6 percent jump in purchase-mortgage business…

Cash-out refis are propping up the refi market, said one analyst.

In a letter to its shareholders, Fairholme called the GSEs “two of the best businesses ever owned by the funds.”

A $2 trillion year for mortgage originators? It might be…

Continued increases to home prices along with low interest rates have prompted a number of borrowers to take cash out when completing a refinance. Some 41.0 percent of refinances completed in the second quarter of 2016 resulted in a loan amount at least 5.0 percent higher than the unpaid principal balance of the original loan, according to Freddie Mac. In the second quarter of 2015, the share was 33.0 percent and between 2010 and 2013 it typically ranged from 15.0 percent to 20.0 percent, according to Freddie. The total amount of home equity cashed out has also increased...