The rebound in new business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the second quarter of 2014 was fueled by a hefty increase in purchase-mortgage activity, but it also featured clear shifts in the volume of loans coming from different kinds of lenders. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level data on mortgage-backed securities issued by the two government-sponsored enterprises shows that nonbank lenders continued to ... [Includes 3 data charts]

So, you doubt our 2Q origination estimate? Here’s what an executive from a top-five warehouse bank told us: “We’re experiencing a significant pick up in outstandings."

Fitch Ratings has consolidated a number of key rating drivers into updated master rating criteria for residential MBS backed by newly originated and seasoned residential mortgages. The latest report replaces the July 2013 RMBS criteria, and while no material changes have been made to the overarching process, a few tweaks have been made. The important rating drivers that were incorporated include...

“We’ve got approximately $72 million [of HARP refinance business that can be done] in this metropolitan area," said FHFA director Mel Watt about Chicago. "People won’t come in and say I want that money.”

New GSE repurchase requirements are now in effect, including the “MI stand-in” option, which Fannie defines as “the full mortgage insurance benefit that would have been payable under the original mortgage insurance policy if the mortgage loan liquidates.”

However, compared to the same quarter a year ago, loan production at Wells took it on the chin, falling a bloodcurdling 59 percent.

The agencies securitized $122 billion of purchase mortgages during the second quarter of this year, a 16.6 percent sequential increase.

At the very least, MI firms must have $400 million in capital, and $500 million if the company is start-up mortgage insurer.

We know of some veteran mortgage bankers who believe the “fix and flip” housing market is getting overheated. One lender told us he fears a severe correction could hit California…

Thanks to lousy origination profits posted over the past six months, mortgage bankers increasingly are boosting earnings through servicing-released arrangements, causing a mini-boom in flow transactions. “You might say we’re back to a normal operating environment where originations are cash-flow negative,” which is forcing lenders to book profits through MSR sales, said Jeff Levine, managing director of Houlihan Lokey, an investment banking firm. But Levine is...