Americans were too busy refinancing and shoveling snow to get new home-equity loans during the first quarter of 2015, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis reveals. Mortgage lenders did an estimated $19.5 billion of home-equity lending during the first three months of 2015, based on new commitments for home-equity lines of credit – by far the most active part of the HEL market – plus originations of closed-end seconds. That was down 7.1 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. Despite the slowdown in the first quarter, home-equity production was...[Includes three data tables]
The six, including Sen. Mark Warner, D-VA, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, are seeking additional information on such things as the role mortgage insurers play in credit risk...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $74.10 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during May, down 8.0 percent from April, a new Inside the GSEs analysis reveals. The purchase-mortgage market picked up some last month, but not enough to offset a sharp 15.7 percent drop in the volume of refinance loans securitized by the GSEs. Purchase-mortgage business was up 7.2 percent from April and reached a combined $28.25 billion – the highest monthly volume since the end of last year’s homebuying season in October. For the first five months of 2015, purchase-mortgage activity totaled $105.15 billion, up 19.0 percent from the same period last year. Most of the big gain in overall GSE business has come from refinancing, which is up 94.4 percent on a...(charts included)
The dreary state of the prime jumbo mortgage securitization market will continue for the short term but there’s a silver lining around the bend, according to an analysis by rating agency DBRS. Despite last year’s downturn, the jumbo prime market has seen steady growth in the last five years. In 2010, Sequoia Mortgage ended the drought in the non-agency MBS with a $478.1 million deal backed by newly originated prime jumbo loans. There have been...