Production of new first-lien home mortgages fizzled in the first quarter of 2017 as the bottom fell out of the refinance market and home sales slumbered, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. An estimated $385.0 billion of new first-lien mortgages were originated in the first three months of the year, a 33.6 percent downturn from the fourth quarter of 2016. It likely did not mark the end of the world, however. For starters, the fourth quarter of last year surprised on the upside – at $580.0 billion, it was the second-highest quarterly volume in the previous four years. And the start of 2017 was...[Includes two data tables]
Nonbank mortgage firms increased their servicing portfolios by 3.0 percent during 1Q17, more than double the 1.3 percent increase in total Fannie/Freddie servicing during that period.
JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon recently called for national mortgage servicing standards as one key reform that will significantly increase the availability of mortgage credit to qualified borrowers. “Mortgage servicing is a particularly complex business in which the cumulative impact of regulations has dramatically increased operational and compliance risk and costs,” costs which get passed on to borrowers, he said in his annual letter to shareholders. However, “The most promising opportunity in mortgage servicing is to adopt uniform national servicing standards across guarantors, federal and state regulators, and investors,” Dimon noted. And Congress doesn’t have to get involved to address this. “In particular, the U.S. Treasury is well-positioned to lead key players in the mortgage industry (the CFPB ...
Investors Unite: “We’re encouraged to see that MBA has changed its position on both of these issues and we also note that in their [sic] paper, MBA acknowledges the role of the Federal Housing Finance Agency … in stabilizing the companies during the conservatorship.”
The average daily trading volume in agency MBS reached $207.8 billion in March, a mere 2.66 percent gain compared to the month prior and a sign that investors are in a holding pattern these days, trying to decipher both the stock market and geopolitical events. According to figures compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, average daily trading volume jumped 9.7 percent compared to the same month a year ago. In January 2017, $229.8 billion in product changed hands daily. Meanwhile, a recent decline in rates means...
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