Lenders are accounting for an increasing share of home purchase financing as investors decrease their largely cash buying. Purchases by first-time homebuyers are rising, helped by FHA financing. “First-time homebuyers rarely buy homes with cash and with their increasing participation in the housing market, we expectedly see the proportion of cash-financed transactions falling,” said Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys. The non-cash share of financing for home purchases increased...

Some industry participants are concerned that they’ll have to contend with new disclosure-related compliance overlays from secondary market investors.

“The short-term outlook remains dismal,” said Quincy Tang, a managing director and head of U.S. residential MBS at DBRS.

The slowdown in securitization is partly due to the lag between origination and MBS issuance, but there are other factors not related to timing...

Some 90 lenders contributed mortgages to the Redwood MBS, led by First Republic Bank with an 11.7 percent share.

Following a four-month trial and nine days of deliberations, a New York jury acquitted Abacus and two of its senior officers...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency needs to be more forthright about its plans to expand the credit-risk transfer activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. In a letter sent to FHFA Director Mel Watt this week, the six senators said the agency’s public guidance on the program “lacks specificity, metrics and long-term direction.” Watt and other FHFA officials have talked about risk transfers by the two government-sponsored enterprises, but most of the description of the program is somewhat vaguely outlined in the agency’s strategic plan and the so-called 2015 scorecard. The bipartisan group, which includes Sens. Mark Warner, D-VA, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, urged...

A large decline in interest rates in the past year created millions of refinance opportunities for lenders, according to industry analysts. However, prepayment risk on MBS backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae appears to be decreasing as interest rates increase. As of the end of April, 7.0 million borrowers were likely to both qualify for and benefit from refinancing, according to Black Knight Financial Services. That was up from 4.5 million potential refi borrowers a year ago as interest rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages declined by 70 basis points in that time, according to Freddie’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey. “This is...[Includes one data table]

Securitization rates for newly originated home mortgages remained at historically low levels during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis. The ratio of new MBS issuance to primary-market mortgage originations was just 71.6 percent during the first quarter. That’s down from 75.4 percent for all of last year and the record high of 88.8 percent back in 2009. The slowdown in securitization rates is...[Includes one data table]

Beginning June 15, rating services involved in MBS and ABS will be subject to increased disclosure standards from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rating services expect to make a number of changes to comply with the final rule that was issued last August, with some concerns about the usefulness of the increased disclosures. The SEC is requiring nationally recognized statistical rating organizations to disclose rating histories, make changes to rating methodologies and disclose details on findings by third-party due diligence providers, among other issues. Moody’s Investors Service noted...