Nationwide, mortgage originations fell by 4.8 percent during the first quarter of 2013, but a lot of that decline took place at the industrys biggest lender, Wells Fargo, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. Mortgage originations totaled an estimated $500.0 billion during the first three months of the year, down from $525.0 billion during the fourth quarter of 2012. It still ranked as the fourth strongest quarter in new loan production since the mortgage market tanked back in 2008, and originations in early 2013 were up 19.0 percent from the same period last year. But most of the indicators are...[Includes two data charts]
Bank of America earlier this year finally settled its long-running dispute with Fannie Mae over buyback demands, an agreement that may help open a window to the government-sponsored enterprise that has been limited to refinance loans. During the first quarter of 2013, BofA sold $6.52 billion of mortgages to Fannie all of them refinance loans. The company hasnt sold purchase-money mortgages to the GSE since early 2012, when the two broke off new transactions that didnt involve refinancing of existing Fannie loans serviced by the bank. In fact, BofA only sold...