Nonprime mortgages held by the government-sponsored enterprises continued a gradual decline in the first quarter of 2017, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac held nonprime mortgages with a total unpaid principal balance of $133.89 billion at the end of the quarter, down 5.3 percent from the end of 2016 and down 22.1 percent from the first quarter of last year. The holdings are largely ... [Includes one data chart]

Lack of basic information and knowledge about the application process and concern about rising interest rates are reasons why most homeowners are reluctant to take out home-equity lines of credit to meet their financial needs, according to a study by mortgage solutions provider Digital Risk. A company survey of 1,038 homeowners found that 21 percent have no clue what a HELOC is, while 45 percent did not even know how to apply for one. Sixty-five percent said they ...

Can the financially troubled and regulator-challenged Ocwen Financial survive? It’s not an unfair question given its most recent travails and this week’s news that it struck a $425.0 million transaction “in principle” to sell some of the cash flows on $117 billion in mostly non-agency servicing rights to New Residential Investment Corp. As the weekend approached, analysts that follow the company were speculating that Ocwen is going through what looks like a controlled liquidation, selling off assets – mostly the cash flow stream on its servicing portfolio – and buying time while it fights regulatory sanctions in 31 states. The company is...

Recent signs of life in the nonprime securitization market have lifted the hopes of participants from coast to coast, but a potential snafu could be in the works in the form of strong investor demand for whole loans. According to some participants, recent whole-loan bids have been as high as 104. “That’s for newly originated non-qualified mortgages,” said one manager who spoke under the condition his name not be used. The implication is...

Among the handful of lenders that provide relatively early reporting of their jumbo origination activity, production was down significantly in the first quarter of 2017 compared with the previous quarter, according to an analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Officials at the lenders noted that seasonal factors contributed to the slowdown along with an increase in interest rates. And the lenders stress that originations are likely to rebound. First Republic Bank funded $2.52 billion ...

An affiliate of Lone Star Funds is set to issue the largest nonprime mortgage-backed security backed by post-crisis originations. The deal will be nearly twice the size of the previous record holder, which was also issued by Lone Star. Most of the mortgages in COLT 2017-1 Mortgage Loan Trust were originated by Lone Star’s Caliber Home Loans, along with a 22.0 percent share for loans originated by Sterling Bank and Trust. The deal received preliminary AAA ratings from DBRS, Fitch Ratings ...

Ventana Home Mortgage recently launched mortgage conduit operations based in part on rights that were acquired from WinWater Home Mortgage. The lender said it is focusing on acquiring non-qualified mortgages from correspondent lenders, with plans for issuing non-agency mortgage-backed securities.Ventana is a subsidiary of Window Rock Capital Partners. Neat Capital recently launched its mortgage lending platform, with a focus on ... [Includes six briefs]

The most common motivation for borrowers (and nonborrowers) in opting for a reverse mortgage was “to gain extra income for everyday expenses” and “paying off mortgage debt,” according to an Ohio State University study on reverse mortgage motivations and outcomes. Published in the latest issue of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research, the study said both motivations reflect previous findings that reverse mortgage borrowers are likely to be “house rich” and cash poor.” The study used survey information collected as part of the Aging in Place (AIP) study, which looked at borrower motivations for seeking a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage as well as reasons for not getting one. The primary data set consisted of 1,761 senior households that received counseling for a HECM loan between 2006 and 2011 and responded to the ...

The market for new nonprime mortgages includes some options for borrowers, allowing for income verification via bank statements for borrowers with moderate credit scores or somewhat stringent underwriting for borrowers with exceptionally low scores. And loans to borrowers with scores around 700 have features that fall between the two offerings. Originations of nonprime mortgages remain suppressed compared with the pre-crisis heyday for subprime loans and Alt A mortgages. However, the market has slowly started to gain traction in recent years thanks to Lone Star Funds. An affiliate of Lone Star is...

A total of $13.38 billion of non-agency MBS was issued during the first quarter of 2017, a sharp 67.1 percent jump from the final quarter of last year, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis and ranking reveals. Although most of the major segments posted solid increases, the scratch-and-dent market was the star of the show. The $8.09 billion of these deals issued in the first three months of the new year represented 60.5 percent of total production and it more than doubled the fourth-quarter total. The top two issuers of non-agency MBS – Chimera Investment and Cerberus Capital – earned...[Includes three data tables]