Covered bond investors are taking a more flexible view of ratings and other characteristics associated with these investments, according to a survey conducted last month by Fitch Ratings. Continuing a trend discovered during last years survey, the results reveal that investors are increasingly willing to innovate, not only in terms of bond characteristics, but also in terms of rating, analysts at Fitch said. For example, a remarkable 91 percent of investors declared...
The volume and market share of non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security issuance increased significantly in 2012 compared with other post-crisis years. However, volume remains well below activity seen even before the 2005 boom in non-agency MBS issuance. Some $3.46 billion in non-agency jumbo MBS were issued last year, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance MBS Database, more than four times the volume issued in 2011. Redwood Trust issued six deals last year totaling ... [Includes one data chart]
After including a significant amount of ARMs in its first deal of 2013, Redwood Trust relied largely on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages for its second non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security of the year, according to presale reports released this week. The $666.13 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2013-2 is set to receive a triple-A rating with characteristics largely similar to other recent issuance from the real estate investment trust. While ARMs accounted for 21.0 percent of the dollar volume of SEMT 2013-1 ...
Rule for Selling Government Mortgages to Fannie Mae Updated. Eligibility for delivery of mortgage loans backed by FHA, VA and the Department of Agriculture is now available on a negotiated basis only, Fannie Mae announced in a recent update to its Selling Guide (Announcement SEL-2013-01). The change is effective for all government loans, including whole loans sold to Fannie on or after May 1, 2013, and government loans in mortgage-backed securities with issue dates on or after May 1. Genworth to Delink Struggling Mortgage Insurance Operations from Holding Company. Genworth Financial plans to ...
Stringent appraisals have hindered home sales, limiting purchase-mortgage originations and constraining home prices, according to real estate agents responding to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. Appraisers counter that they are accurately pricing homes and cite burdensome regulations along with new requirements from lenders trying to avoid buybacks. In certain circumstances, appraised home prices have been set well below listing price, frustrating sellers that have received multiple offers. Appraisals continue to cause problems as the market is trying to recover value, but tight appraiser guidelines are not keeping up with the agreed sales prices between buyers and sellers, according to a real estate agent in Michigan. The sales-to-list price ratio has trended...
ReadyCap Commercial LLC, a startup based in Irvine, CA, issued its first loan approval a few days ago, and hopes to issue a commercial MBS by the fall. The companys forte is what it calls low balance commercial mortgages, including multifamily, office, industrial and retail properties. Its loan size menu ranges from $500,000 to $5 million, company CEO Steve Skolnik told Inside MBS & ABS. Skolnik, who until last June headed commercial services at Aurora Bank FSB, is...
During the next 12 to 24 months, investors should expect robust growth from the historically fragmented single-family real estate-owned-to-rental market as it emerges into an institutional asset class, according to analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. The KBW report noted that despite the markets traditionally limited funding source of capital retail or smaller institutional investors its horizons are expanding. Investor interest has increased...
Much attention over the last few years has centered on how best to help revive non-agency mortgage securitization. But recent advances in technology have enabled whole loan trading to emerge as a viable alternative that is filling some of the void left in the marketplace by less securitization. At least in the U.S. residential debt market, we are seeing a much larger market for the trading of whole loans, said Wyck Brown, president of Denver-based BlackBox Logic, a provider of loan-level data aggregation, analytics and consulting services. Large whole loan blocks can ...
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac combined did more business in single-family mortgage-backed securities issuance in 2012 than in any year since 2003, with a growing share of their business coming from small and mid-sized lenders, according to an Inside The GSEs analysis. The two GSEs pumped out a staggering $1.266 trillion in new single-family MBS in 2012, a 48.1 percent increase over their total production in 2011. It marked the biggest annual output by Fannie and Freddie since the all-time record of $1.912 trillion nine years earlier.
The federal judge in charge of overseeing the multiple lawsuits filed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency against non-agency mortgage-backed securities issuers for allegedly misrepresenting deals that were sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rebuffed yet another motion by one of the banks to shut down the legal action. Last week, Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Manhattan rejected a motion to reconsider her December decision allowing the FHFA to proceed on behalf of the GSEs with most of its fraud claims against Ally Financial. On Dec. 19, the judge denied most of Allys motion to dismiss, including the defendants request that the court strike the demand for punitive damages, finding there were sufficient factual allegations in the FHFAs complaint to move forward with its fraud complaint.