Falling mortgage rates helped spur a modest increase in refinance activity during the first quarter of 2016, but not enough to offset a slowdown in other parts of the securitization market, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking. A total of $318.34 billion of residential MBS and non-mortgage ABS were issued during the first three months of the year, a 3.6 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. It was the lowest amount of new issuance since the second quarter of 2014 and put the market 8.1 percent behind the level reached in the first quarter of last year. Non-mortgage ABS issuance was...[Includes three data tables]
As the non-conforming secondary market continues to grapple with headaches surrounding TRID errors and scotched jumbo deals, another storm may be brewing: whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are buying loans that – if tested properly for violations – would reveal flaws. The good news for the lending industry is that the government-sponsored enterprises are not now conducting routine post-purchase file reviews for technical compliance for TRID errors. The GSEs now are just checking to make sure the new consumer disclosures, which merge the requirements of the Truth in Lending Act and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, are being used. Still, that has not prevented...
Since the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s March filing to transfer lawsuits initiated by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders to a new court, a number of plaintiffs have filed motions opposing the transfer, arguing that the cases are substantially different from one another. FHFA said it was looking to prevent future “copycat” cases and ensure a more consistent ruling across the board by having all of the cases heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia instead of scattered in different jurisdictions throughout the country. On April 6, the attorneys for plaintiffs David Jacobs and Gregory Hindes said...
Housing policy experts at a Washington, DC, forum this week were generally supportive of renewed efforts to address the quagmire in which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been stuck for over eight years, but there was less evidence of movement to expand the credit box. A group of high-profile policy experts led by Urban Institute Senior Fellow Jim Parrott recently tried to re-ignite the mortgage reform effort by calling for the merger of the two government-sponsored enterprises and providing an explicit government guarantee for the new entity’s mortgage-backed securities with private capital taking the first loss. Barry Zigas, director of housing policy at the Consumer Federation of American and one of the co-authors of the paper, said...
There was a modest 1.8 percent increase in refinance business, and refi loans accounted for over half (52.1 percent) of GSE business in the first quarter – the first time refi activity exceeded purchase lending since early last year.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw a slight decline in their single-family mortgage business during the first three months of 2016 – in fact, it was the slowest quarter in nearly two years – according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The two government-sponsored enterprises issued $172.97 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter of this year, a 3.4 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2015. It was the slowest three-month volume since the second quarter of 2014, and the fourth-lowest output since the GSEs were put in conservatorship back in 2008. The slowdown stemmed...[Includes three data tables]
Although interest rates have been trending downward for much of the year, it hasn’t stopped mortgage firms from selling one of their most prized assets: mortgage servicing rights. According to a new tally from Inside Mortgage Finance, almost $27 billion in MSR auctions have been announced since March 1, with some bulk deals sized as high as $6.2 billion dollars. At least 16 offerings have been announced...
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