The two best things about the mortgage origination market in the fourth quarter were that it meant 2014 wasn’t as bad as once feared, and that refinance demand had picked up. But a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking reveals two other positive trends: the jumbo and home-equity markets continued to gain strength in the final three months of 2014. Lenders originated an estimated $67 billion of jumbo mortgages during the fourth quarter, up 3.1 percent from the previous period. Home-equity production bounced 5.0 percent higher, to an estimated $21 billion. Neither gain was...[Includes two data charts]

Internal differences among Democrats and Republicans – let alone the strong differences between the two parties – have prevented Congress from resolving the conservatorship of the two government-sponsored enterprises, according to industry analysts. At the ABS Vegas conference this week sponsored by the Structured Finance Industry Group and Information Management Network, two people with intimate knowledge of matters in the House and Senate pointed to inter-party issues regarding GSE reform. Andrew Olmem, a partner at the law firm of Venable and a former Republican chief counsel and deputy staff director at the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs until 2013, noted...

RoundPoint Mortgage, a servicer with more than $41 billion of receivables on its books, is entertaining offers for the entire company, according to industry officials briefed on the matter. Moreover, servicing advisors contend that several large bulk servicing portfolios are ready to hit the market in what should turn out to be a busy late winter/early spring for both buyers and sellers of mortgage servicing rights. In a recent public disclosure, Ocwen Financial said...

A 50-year tradition is now kaput: The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago has cancelled its annual bank structure conference...

Stan Middleman, chairman of CHMI, told IMFnews that having agency approvals will allow the REIT to leverage servicing rights...

Treasury counselor Michael Stegman noted that policymakers on both sides of the aisle are dissatisfied with the current status quo regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Marina Walsh, vice president of industry analysis for MBA, said, “We don’t have enough information to do a thorough analysis of the proposal.”

The MountainView package is top heavy with California product. The identity of the seller was not provided.

But that reticence could be slipping. As the week opened, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury was at 1.94 percent, the highest it has been in several weeks.

Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie produced $85.18 billion of new single-family MBS during the month of January.