Real estate investment trusts that focus on investing in residential MBS continued to see declines in their portfolios during the second quarter, but their earnings outlook may have improved somewhat this week, analysts say. Residential mortgage REITs held a combined $327.3 billion of single-family MBS as of the end of the second quarter, according to a new market analysis by Inside MBS & ABS. That was down 5.4 percent from the previous quarter, and it was the third straight quarterly decline since REIT MBS holdings reached a high of $374.2 billion in September 2012. REIT MBS holdings are...[Includes one data chart]

Now that PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust has put together its first jumbo MBS, can a security collateralized by non-performing loans be far behind? “We’ve looked at it,” said a company spokesman. “We’d like to do one down the road, but we’re not there yet. For us, it will happen when the execution of NPLs is more economical.” One thing is...

The decline in refinance mortgage lending that began in early 2013 continued into the third quarter, with refi originations moving to their lowest level in two years. According to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis, refinance mortgage production fell 12.9 percent from the first quarter of 2013 to the second, with an estimated $332.0 billion in new originations for the period. Refinance production has continued to decline since the end of June. Securitization of refinance loans by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae declined...[Includes three data charts]

It’s no secret that it’s now a seller’s market for mortgage servicing rights, even for legacy portfolios that are suffering from high delinquency rates. But that isn’t stopping outside cash from plowing into the receivables game. “There continues to be a lot of money out there seeking to invest in the MSR market,” said Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group, Denver. Over the past two years, upwards of $1 billion has been raised...

An estimated 86.4 percent of new mortgage originations were packaged into MBS during the first half of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. Despite some growth in the non-agency jumbo market, primary market lenders remain focused on production that they can safely securitize through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. Securitization rates generally climb...

Commercial banks and savings institutions held a total of $1.528 trillion in residential MBS in portfolio as of the end of the second quarter, down 2.1 percent from the end of March, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside MBS & ABS. Combined bank/thrift investment in MBS has been under steady pressure since the Federal Reserve resumed buying massive amounts of new agency MBS. The second-quarter decline brought the industry’s total MBS portfolio to its lowest point in two years. The one area where banks and thrifts have beefed up...[Includes two data charts]

Home Loan Servicing Solutions is preparing to issue a $350 million servicer advance receivable ABS, according to a presale report issued late last week by Standard & Poor’s. With the deal, $5.3 billion in mortgage servicer advance ABS will have been issued this year, according to the rating service. S&P has been the dominant rating agency in servicer advance ABS. Erkan Erturk, senior director of global structured finance research at the rating service, said issuance of servicer advance ABS is on track to reach the $7.0 billion in issuance S&P predicted at the beginning of the year. HLSS Servicer Advance Receivables Trust Series 2013-T6 received...

Banks, investors and their allies opposed to the City of Richmond, CA, using eminent domain to seize underwater mortgages, refinance and repackage them for sale to other investors were scheduled to have their first hearing in court at week’s end. Current investors, through trustees Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank AG, have sued in U.S. District Court to block the plan. Parties in Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, as Trustee, et al., plaintiffs, vs. City of Richmond, California, a municipality; and Mortgage Resolution Partners LLC, defendants, Case No. CV-13-3663-CRB, were to appear Sept. 12 and Sept. 13, before Judge Charles Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce jointly submitted...

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago will issue Ginnie Mae MBS backed by mortgages originated by member financial institutions, the two entities announced jointly this week. The new conduit product, called the MPF Government MBS, is an offshoot of the Chicago FHLBank’s Mortgage Partnership Finance program. The new product is intended to provide smaller mortgage lenders that lack direct access to the secondary mortgage market another option for their customers. Lenders will be...

Fannie Mae is starting to market a risk-sharing mortgage-backed security that would require investors to bear some of the financial risk if mortgages default. The company, which is reportedly getting ready to launch a “road show” to debut its new risk-sharing mortgage bond within the next two weeks, is following up on Freddie Mac’s $500 million Structured Agency Credit Risk bond, which the GSE priced in July. The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Strategic Plan calls for both Freddie and Fannie to establish loss-sharing arrangements, in which private investors bear some or all of the credit risk.