Originations of jumbo mortgages rose sharply during the second quarter of 2015, including loans in high-cost housing markets that are eligible for agency mortgage-backed securities, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. During the second quarter, the market produced a whopping $127.6 billion of home mortgages that exceeded the $417,000 benchmark conforming loan limit, a 33.1 percent increase from the first three months of the year. Jumbo mortgages accounted for 28.7 percent of second-quarter originations, the highest ratio since “emergency” high-cost limits were set back in 2008. Most of the jumbo production was...[Includes three data tables]

Now that interest rates have stopped falling – at least, for now – the servicing acquisition market has shifted into high gear with talk of a steady stream of both flow and bulk transactions through the remainder of 2015. “This could turn out to be one of the best quarters of the year for sales,” said Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group, Denver. “If it’s not the best, it could be close.” Tom Piercy, managing member of Interactive Mortgage Advisors, noted...

Institutional investors are beginning to have major doubts about certain mortgage stocks, reducing their positions in companies such as PHH Corp. and Ocwen Financial as they struggle to present convincing evidence that better days are ahead – especially with 2016 just months away. Ocwen, in particular, has been savaged by investors over the past 18 months, its share price falling from an all-time high of $60 to $5.66. This past summer, Ocwen’s share price stabilized somewhat before getting clobbered early this week after disclosing that it expects to post a loss for all of 2015. For many investors it has...

Back in the early years after the financial crisis, Fannie and Freddie accounted for 60.0 percent or more of primary-market originations...

Over the past few years, Flagstar has been a selective seller of mortgage servicing rights, lopping off packages as large as $40 billion.

Technology, like MBS, can be complicated. Just read the new FHFA report…

Bank of America still leads the industry in buybacks with $539 million on a year-to-date basis, or 28.5 percent of the total for all banks.

In 2Q, the GSEs earned $8.8 billion combined. Multiply that by four (quarters) and then three (years) and you get $105.6 billion.

SIFMA argues that the FHFA has to take a more active role in keeping GSE programs aligned so that differences in prepayment speeds do not emerge.

Charles Schwab Bank was the biggest investor in consumer ABS with $12.49 billion at the midway point in the year.