The latest jumbo mortgage-backed security from Two Harbors Investment is set to have the lowest credit enhancement levels of any deal issued this year, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Strong performance and underwriting characteristics along with repeat issuance appears to have helped decrease credit enhancement requirements for the transaction. The $241.06 million Agate Bay Mortgage Trust 2015-3 received a preliminary AAA rating ... [Includes one data chart]

Mortgage brokers played an increasingly important role in the conventional conforming market during the first quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Mortgage brokers were responsible for $23.8 billion of single-family mortgages securitized by the two government-sponsored enterprises during the first three months of this year. That was up 16.0 percent ... [Includes two data charts]

JPMorgan Mortgage Acquisition Corp. is an “above average” aggregator of jumbo mortgages, according to a rating issued last week by Moody’s Investors Service. “JPMMAC’s strengths include the financial strength of its parent company and extensive controls which ensure consistent production quality,” the rating service said. Chase’s jumbo conduit operation buys closed loans from approved sellers and doesn’t originate mortgages. Of the approximately 9,800 jumbos ...

The refinance program for performing, underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages staggered to a five-year low during 2014, but government officials are thinking about keeping it on life support for another year. The Home Affordable Refinance Program is slated to expire at the end of 2015. Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency has barnstormed around the country trying to drum up business, activity in the program has fallen steadily since ... [Includes two data charts]

In 2014, Freddie Mac securitized $6.983 billion of re-performing mortgages, double what it did the year prior, and a sign that this niche market is heating up. As for Fannie Mae’s participation in “re-performers,” that’s a different matter entirely. The government-sponsored enterprise has yet to stick its toe in the water, though a spokesman for the company told Inside MBS & ABS that “it’s something we continue to evaluate.” But just how hot might the sector get ...

Mortgages with credit scores exceeding 740 continued to dominate the conventional conforming market in 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last year. High-score borrowers accounted for 62.0 percent of loans securitized through the two government-sponsored enterprises in 2014. They accounted for an even bigger 66.2 percent of purchase-mortgages loans ... [Includes one data chart]

MBS investors – so far – are losing little sleep over the effect plunging oil prices might have on the market, even though delinquency rates in Texas are beginning to creep up. In some quarters of the industry, the fear is that a major (and further) correction in the energy sector will lead to massive layoffs in states dependent on oil, and that mortgagors, in time, will go delinquent on their loans. In turn, MBS and servicing rights that have a heavy concentration in ...

Signing up participants has been somewhat slower than Ginnie Mae expected since the launch of its Issuer Operation Performance Profile tool, or Issuer Performance Scorecard, in February. In a recent outreach call to issuers, Ginnie officials said they have signed up 70 issuers but still need another two-thirds of issuers to participate in the performance scoring process. They cited no reason for the slow progress of issuer registration. The IOPP tool will ...

The two main types of representation-and-warranty frameworks used in jumbo mortgage-backed securities can both effectively protect investors, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Each framework presents different risks, and industry participants suggest that other aspects of deals carry more importance for investors. Jumbo MBS issued in recent years have largely included either an open-ended rep-and-warrant framework or a prescriptive framework ...

Security issuances backed by FHA and VA loans totaled $267.6 billion in 2014, with several large states accounting for a significant share of FHA/VA originations. An estimated $158.1 billion of FHA-insured loans, including modified loans, were securitized last year, with purchase home loans comprising most of the transactions. Approximately $30.0 billion of FHA refinance loans were securitized as well. The FHA MBS had an average loan-to-value ratio of 92.3 percent and a debt-to-income ratio of 40.1 percent. The average FICO score was 672.3, which was indicative of first-time homebuyers and borrowers with slightly tainted credit. First-ranked California, Texas (#2) and Florida (#3) combined for a total of $48.0 billion, which represented 30.3 percent of FHA loans in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities in 2014. Fourth-ranked New York reported a total of $6.7 billion while ... [ 2 charts]