This lender said finding good appraisers can sometimes be a challenge and predicted that eventually appraisals on such mortgages could cost upwards of $1,000…

Standard & Poor’s rated some $84.64 billion of non-mortgage ABS issued in the U.S. during the first nine months of the year, making it the top rating service in the segment, according to a new ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. S&P was well represented in all the major ABS sectors, with its strongest showing in credit card ABS, where it rated 73.4 percent of 2015 issuance based on dollar volume. Fitch Ratings was...[Includes two data tables]

The securitization of non-agency, nonprime residential loans appears to be heating up as 2015 draws to a close, but bond sizes continue to be – expectedly – quite small. Then again, that’s not the point of these deals, lending executives and investment bankers involved in the market, argue. The idea is to set the table by issuing securities backed by loans that fail to meet the qualified-mortgage test in the hope that, down the road, bond sizes will increase. Earlier this month, according to a report by Bloomberg, Lone Star Funds issued...

Industry analysts are generally optimistic that most of the large consumer ABS sectors will probably see a stable, positive year in 2016. However, they’re not very gung-ho about what kind of a year the government-backed student loan space is going to have. Analysts at Wells Fargo Securities think that consumer ABS should offer good relative value next year, based on solid credit fundamentals and robust structural protections. “We expect spreads to tighten in 2016 as the primary market recovers and the yield curve flattens along with Federal Reserve tightening,” they said in a recent outlook. “Spreads are likely to stay volatile and event-driven.” Further, “Weak demand and poor liquidity have been...

Black Knight Financial also said that despite the reintroduction of Fannie’s and Freddie’s 97 LTV product, the FHA/VA continues to dominate low downpayment lending.

“Turn times are slower and processing times are longer,” said David Frase of Southwest Bank.

Two investment banking firms – Interactive Mortgage Advisors and MountainView Servicing Group – have at least $17 billion (combined) in mortgage servicing rights auctions in the works, a sign that the sector is heating up as the year draws to a close. Several other advisory firms have announced deals in the past few weeks, including The Prestwick Group and Mortgage Industry Advisory Corp. Also, sources contend that investment banker Houlihan Lokey is busy as well, though company officials there declined to comment for this story. Mark Garland, president of MountainView, said...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have seen modest growth in programs launched early this year to serve downpayment-challenged borrowers, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of loan-level data on agency mortgage-backed securities. Ginnie Mae has accounted for 94.5 percent of purchase mortgages with loan-to-value ratios ranging from 95.1 percent to 97.0 percent that were securitized by the three agencies during the first 11 months of 2015. Because LTV data is not available for all loans in Ginnie MBS, the agency’s actual share of these high-LTV loans is likely somewhat higher. Fannie and Freddie have established...[Includes one data table]

“There is a ton of competition out there right now,” said one warehouse manager who works for a top-five firm.

More evidence that the government has a hard time holding on to victories in subprime-related mortgage cases...