Naysayers have been predicting the demise of publicly traded mortgage real estate investment trusts for two years now and have been consistently disappointed. It’s hard to say whether things will be different this time around. According to figures compiled by Inside MBS & ABS, it appears that most REITs have been intentionally reducing their MBS holdings over the past several quarters, preparing for the day when bond prices finally fall. At Sept. 30, 16 publicly traded REITs held...[Includes one data chart]

Mortgage securitization rates continued to trend lower through the first nine months of 2014 as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac captured a smaller share of the conventional conforming market. A new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals that 70.4 percent of home loans originated during the first nine months of the year were packaged into MBS. For all of 2013, the securitization rate was 78.5 percent, and it reached as high as 84.4 percent in 2009, the first year following the financial meltdown. A key factor is...[Includes one data chart]

Supporters of the non-agency residential MBS market will have plenty of heavy lifting to do next year, as they face an anticipated increase in volatility for some deals and a continued dominating presence in the broader market by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, among a host of challenges. But at least there’s some degree of regulatory certainty for the market now, and it’s likely that opportunities will emerge for savvy investors to snap up some extra yield, according to a consensus of Wall Street analysts who cover the space. Analysts at Fitch Ratings expect to see the continuation of a slow recovery for the non-agency MBS space in 2015. “The recovery in primary U.S. RMBS issuance remains anemic as the industry continues to face challenges including continued government-sponsored enterprise dominance, more attractive financing alternatives such as whole-loan sales, new mortgage regulation, and a weak AAA investor base,” Fitch analysts said in a 2015 outlook piece. Also, despite the industry’s renewed efforts led by the Structured Finance Industry Group to resolve the absence of necessary structural reforms after the financial crisis, progress is...

According to Inside Mortgage Finance, among the top 15 jumbo originators eight are nonbanks.

New Penn also reorganized its origination channels, consolidating wholesale and correspondent, while adding a mini-correspondent business line.

Jumbo mortgage lending and securitization remained one of the bright spots in the home-loan business during the third quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. A total of $81.8 billion in mortgages exceeding the traditional $417,000 conforming loan limit were produced during the third quarter, up 15.4 percent from the second quarter of 2014. Total mortgage originations were up 11.3 percent over the same period. Total jumbo activity included...[Includes three data charts]

CalCap is about to enter the Phoenix market and is considering other western states as well.

Ocwen Financial, whose stock has been clobbered this year, recently increased the base salary of its chief financial by $50,000...

However, NAR found that the willingness to actually originate non-QMs declined significantly across a number of different product types...

Industry advisor Joe Garrett said in a client note he knows of a lender that had its pre-approval letter scrutinized by the CFPB.