The unexpected decline in mortgage rates this year has moved a significant portion of the agency MBS market into the zone where it’s worthwhile for borrowers to refinance, according to a new analysis of agency MBS data by Inside MBS & ABS. As of the end of December, some 24.4 percent of loans backing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae MBS had mortgage rates ranging from 4.01 percent to 4.50 percent. Altogether, $1.500 trillion of existing single-family mortgages were in that bucket. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, the average offering rate for 30-year fixed-rate conventional mortgages this week was...[Includes one data table]

One of those GSE watchers is Bose George of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, who told us: “I see no reason for the administration to negotiate in any meaningful way with the plaintiffs..."

Holdings of subprime and Alt A mortgages by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to decline, though there’s a sharp divergence in terms of the government-sponsored enterprises’ guarantees of nonprime loans and mortgage-backed securities. The GSEs were exposed to a combined $147.34 billion in purchased/guaranteed nonprime mortgages as of the end of 2015, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets ... [Includes one data chart]

Originators that fund billions of dollars each quarter use futures and options to hedge their pipelines. It’s the smaller players that may have encountered secondary-market charges.

All three mortgage-production channels saw significant declines in volume during the fourth quarter of 2015, but the retail business fared significantly better, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Correspondent production fell 25.5 percent from the third to the fourth quarter of last year, compared to the overall 15.4 percent drop in mortgage originations over that period. The correspondent channel typically yields a higher share of purchase mortgages than either retail or wholesale-broker production, so it was relatively more impacted by the decline in purchase-mortgage lending. Still, correspondent production for all of 2015 was...[Includes four data tables]

Guaranty-fee income increased in 2015 at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac despite the fact that average g-fees on new business acquisitions were down slightly. The two government-sponsored enterprises reported a combined $17.33 billion in net income for all of last year, a 20.9 percent drop from 2014. However, g-fee income at the two GSEs was up 8.2 percent from 2014 to 2015, and continued to account for a growing share of their income as their investment portfolios shrank. G-fee income did not climb...

The odds are currently zero that Congress will find a legislative solution to the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year, which is causing anxiety for the man charged with being both conservator and regulator to the government-sponsored enterprises: Mel Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Moreover, there is a growing concern among mortgage bankers that severe interest swings to the downside could cause a large net loss at Freddie in the first quarter of this year, a loss so large it will force the GSE to ask the U.S. Treasury for a draw on taxpayer funds. And it will happen...

Private MIs finished third in agency refinance loans, partly because the Fannie/Freddie program for refinancing underwater borrowers continued to slow down.

Fairholme is feeling the heat from investors over poor performance, with Berkowitz noting the fund’s returns have “put us in the dog house.”

Meanwhile, Fairholme’s case against the government is still pending and Berkowitz said from a legal standpoint, “We’re getting closer to the finish line…”