Correspondent lenders and mortgage brokers took slightly less severe declines in origination volume in early 2017 than was seen in the retail channel, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. All three production channels were down sharply as total first-lien mortgage originations tumbled 33.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016. The retail segment saw the biggest decline, dropping 34.6 percent to an estimated $221.0 billion. Retail production typically features...[Includes four data tables]
The Trump administration has revived a controversial proposal to tap FHA lenders to help pay for technology upgrades at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD is among nine federal agencies facing significant cuts in their discretionary budgets, al-though guarantee commitments for FHA’s single-family mortgage insurance program and Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities programs were kept at their previous fiscal levels, $400 billion and $500 billion, respectively. The White House budget plan incorporates...
An uptick in mortgage interest rates has reduced rate-term refinance volume but demand from borrowers for cash-out refis and home-equity loans appears to remain relatively strong. “When we look at the landscape for home-equity extraction, we see potential tailwinds from loan-to-value ratio and credit curing combined with slightly less stringent lending standards helping bolster borrower demand,” analysts at Wells Fargo Securities said in a report last week. Borrower LTV ratios have been helped...
Fannie Mae recently completed its first single-family rental securitization deal with a large institutional investor and the Urban Institute said demand for SFR financing is likely to grow. The $1 billion deal with Invitation Homes was announced in January as a pilot program. The Dallas-based company is the largest single-family rental operator in the U.S. and has a portfolio of about 50,000 homes that it acquires from foreclosures. As investors increasingly rely on leverage to earn an acceptable rate of return, these kinds of transactions are expected...
MBA's Stevens once again slams those in favor of a GSE “recap and release” plan, saying this group consists “primarily [of] stock speculators who are most concerned about personal profits” rather than the future of the U.S. housing system.”
Meanwhile, although GSE risk sharing seems popular in some circles, FHFA itself admitted recently that some of this coverage has come at premium cost to Fannie and Freddie.
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