With rates rising almost 75 basis points since the election, more MSR packages should hit the market in the next few weeks.

The one weak spot in the mortgage market during the third quarter was in traditional jumbo originations, a trend that was reinforced by a significant increase in production of agency mortgages in high-cost markets that exceeded $417,000. An estimated $101.0 billion of non-agency jumbo home loans were originated during the third quarter, down 1.9 percent from the previous quarter. At the same time, production of conforming-jumbo mortgages – loans greater than $417,000 that were securitized by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae – jumped 27.7 percent from the second to the third quarter. Some of the disparity is...[Includes three data tables]

President-elect Donald Trump this week officially nominated former Republican primary rival Dr. Ben Carson to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development – a move that elicited mixed responses from industry and government quarters. Carson, a pediatric neurosurgeon, eclipsed possible contenders for the HUD job, including Scott Brown, former U.S. senator from Massachusetts; Ed DeMarco, former acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency; Rick Lazio, former Republican congressman from New York; Blaine Leutkemeyer, another Republican lawmaker from Missouri; Brian Montgomery, former FHA commissioner and HUD assistant secretary; and Pamela Patenaude, president of the Terwilliger Foundation for Housing America’s Families. Carson’s nomination is...

The third quarter saw a sharp increase in refinance originations that appeared to give a bigger boost to government and conventional-conforming production than the jumbo market got.

Of the $292.98 billion in non-agency jumbo mortgages originated in 2015, 3.1 percent were in areas where the loan balance would have been eligible for delivery to the GSEs under the loan limits set to take effect in January.

Despite the uptick in rates, warehouse providers appear to be happy (for now) and, like their nonbank clients, most expect the competition to suffer and not them.

Freddie Mac posted a 45.9 percent market share for November – 10.2 percentage points higher than in the previous month…

New production of agency single-family MBS in November was down 8.2 percent from the previous month, according to a preliminary Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae issued a combined $134.70 billion of single-family MBS in November, the lowest monthly total since July. A decline wasn’t unexpected: the housing market is on the downslope of its seasonal trend and rising mortgage interest rates are taking some of the steam out of the refinance market. What is a little unusual is...[Includes two data tables]

Shortly after being nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to be his Treasury secretary, investment banker Steve Mnuchin midweek dropped a bombshell on the mortgage market: Ending the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a top priority. For the most part, the mortgage industry cheered the news, believing that at the very least, Mnuchin would preserve the federal guaranty on existing MBS and into the future. In fact, the market seems to be betting on it. But now comes...

Democrats in the House Financial Services Committee raised concerns last week about how the Department of Justice will handle MBS-related charges against Deutsche Bank with President-elect Donald Trump set to take office. The Democrats called for strong oversight by eight inspectors general involved with regulators of the financial services industry, noting potential conflicts due to Trump’s business interests. “While federal ethics rules require nearly all government employees to recuse themselves from matters that affect their outside financial interests, these rules do not apply...