Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized $59.07 billion of single-family loans with private mortgage insurance coverage during the third quarter of 2015, reflecting the increase in purchase-mortgage production, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. The flow of PMI-insured loans to the government-sponsored enterprises’ mortgage-backed securities program was up 12.3 percent from the second quarter, and it was likely the biggest such volume since the housing market collapsed in 2008. The data come from loan-level MBS disclosures, which Fannie started providing in 2013. The increased volume of privately-insured mortgages came...[Includes two data tables]
In the past year and a half, banks have started holding an increasing share of conventional conforming mortgages in portfolio instead of securitizing them through the government-sponsored enterprises. Industry analysts suggest GSE guaranty fees are the reason. In the first half of 2015, 91.6 percent of the estimated $442 billion in originations of conventional conforming mortgages were included in mortgage-backed securities. In 2013, 97.0 percent of the estimated $1.17 trillion in conventional conforming originations were securitized, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. “Securitizing conforming mortgages in agency MBS has become...
Private investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock are raising concerns about the expansion of risk-transfer activity at the two government-sponsored enterprises, warning that it should not be viewed as the answer to housing reform. The credit-risk transfer programs are often cited as a path to housing finance reform because they bring new private capital to the mortgage business, laying off some of the risk held by the GSEs and, ultimately, by taxpayers. “Some have suggested...
Actual GSE sales volume for the top five was down 2.2 percent from the second quarter, but overall Fannie/Freddie business was down slightly more, 3.8 percent.
The mortgage refinance business began losing steam in the third quarter, but purchase-mortgage lending helped sustain agency single-family MBS production during the period, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae combined to issue $351.70 billion of single-family MBS during the third quarter of 2015, a slight 0.3 percent decline from the previous period. Even with the slowdown, year-to-date agency MBS volume of $976.40 billion had already topped the $929.49 billion in gross issuance for all of last year. The bright spot was...[Includes two data tables]
Wall Street remains concerned about the level of standardization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operations in a single-security environment where investors would be expected to treat them as completely interchangeable. The Structured Finance Industry Group this week reiterated its concern about the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s plan to avoid “complete alignment” of the two government-sponsored enterprises’ operations. In a May 2015 update on the single security, the FHFA said it would carefully assess business decisions that could lead to different prepayment speeds, but that buy-out and removal policies at the two GSEs are essentially the same. That isn’t...