Thanks to rising home values and lower delinquencies, investors are gobbling up subprime MBS, causing prices to rise.

The Obama administration has mounted a public relations push, including a recent White House social media buzz, pushing for the HARP 3.0 program.

The bipartisan Senate legislation being drafted to finally resolve the conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac attempts to meet the needs of a lot of interests in the mortgage finance industry, including small lenders, Wall Street, the multifamily business and even, potentially, current owners of common stock issued by the two government-sponsored enterprises. A discussion draft of the bill, the Secondary Mortgage Market Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013, outlines a broad plan for shutting down Fannie and Freddie and replacing them with a new entity – the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp. – that is intended as a transition to a fully private mortgage market. A copy of the draft legislation, which is primarily the work of Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA, was provided to Inside Mortgage Finance. The draft bill includes...

Banks large and small are increasing their originations of non-agency jumbo mortgages, according to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Finance. Demand for the mortgages in the secondary market has increased significantly recently, giving banks another option besides holding the loans in portfolio. An estimated $54.0 billion in non-agency jumbos were originated in the first quarter of 2013, up 14.9 percent from the first quarter of 2012. Fourteen of the top 20 non-agency jumbo lenders increased their originations during that period, including Bank of America and Chase, which each increased their jumbo originations by about 66 percent. Agency jumbo production – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA business over the traditional $417,000 conforming loan limit – was...[Includes three data charts]

Nationstar Mortgage has been an active issuer of debt this year. The nonbank continues to scour the market for servicing acquisitions.

The top contributors to the new Redwood Trust jumbo deal include George Mason Mortgage, Cole Taylor Mortgage, W.J. Bradley Mortgage Capital and PrimeLending.

Conix Inc. is in the market with an MBS backed by nonperforming mortgages. Could other deals be far behind?

Wells Fargo was the top-ranked non-agency jumbo lender in the first quarter with $9.67 billion, nearly double the next closest lender.

Ellington Management under new mortgage chief Steve Abreu may go on a purchase tear, rolling up companies.

EverBank Financial is preparing to issue a $303.30 million non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security, according to a presale report issued by DBRS this week. The MBS has similar characteristics to the $307 million jumbo security EverBank issued in March. DBRS cited strong reps and warrants on the deal, including automatic reviews for seriously delinquent loans, mandatory arbitration and no sunset provisions. However, the rating service said EverBank’s limited securitization history and ...