Redwood Trust late this week unveiled a three-year agreement with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago whereby the real estate investment trust will purchase residential “high balance” loans from any member of the entire FHLBank system. The loans will be originated by members of the FHLBank system. Those lenders will then sell the mortgages to the Chicago FHLBank as part of the Mortgage Partnership Finance Program, which will then upstream the product to Redwood. The loans will have balances above the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan limit of $625,500.

Production of “agency jumbo” mortgages fell sharply in the first quarter of 2014 and is likely to drop even more as new FHA loan limits show up in endorsement data. According to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA saw $10.5 billion in single-family business with loan amounts exceeding the traditional agency limit of $417,000 during the first quarter of 2014. That was down 30.6 percent from the fourth quarter. It was also the lowest three-month volume since the fourth quarter of 2008, not long after dramatically higher “emergency” loan limits were put in place by the agencies. In comparison, originations of non-agency jumbo loans fell...[Includes three data charts]

WinWater Home Mortgage, a New York-based conduit managed by several Wall Street veterans, is ready to market its first jumbo MBS, but has also made inquiries about non-prime transactions as well, according to traders and lenders familiar with the company. WinWater plans to issue a $249.47 million jumbo MBS, according to a presale report released late this week by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. Not only is the bond WinWater’s first deal, it represents the first new issuance in the sector since late April when Credit Suisse came to market. The average combined loan-to-value ratio on the deal is...

Strong appetite from lenders for jumbo mortgages wasn’t enough to overcome the overall decline in mortgage production in the first quarter of 2014. Jumbo originations declined by 21.4 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2013, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. And the estimated $44.0 billion in jumbos originated in the first quarter was down by 31.3 percent compared with the same period in 2013. The non-agency jumbo sector has gained some market share during that time as overall production has declined even more. Jumbos accounted for 18.7 percent of total originations in the first quarter of 2014, a level not seen since 2004. Wells Fargo remained...[Includes one data chart]

Lenders that dabble in loans that don’t pass the qualified-mortgage test are going to be very selective about which borrowers they accept, and the loans are most likely to be held in portfolio, according to speakers at a recent industry conference in New York City. “We have used our balance sheet to retain non-QM loans in certain situations,” said Russell Brady, an assistant vice president at Elevations Credit Union. “This can make sense, but you have to do it in a controlled way with all the controls in place,” he said during a panel at the Secondary Market Conference sponsored by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The QM limit of 43 percent on debt-to-income ratio is...

Wells Fargo received some attention this week when officials at the bank reiterated that Wells doesn’t offer interest-only home-equity lines of credit to borrowers with less than $1.0 million in assets. While the bank first announced the change in November and has suggested that other lenders should follow suit, plenty of other banks still offer IO HELOCs despite concerns about borrowers’ ability to repay the loans. IO HELOCs are particularly desirable for borrowers as they offer lower payments and more flexibility than HELOCs that require payment of principal and interest or closed-end second liens. Banks have taken a closer look at HELOC originations in recent years as IO HELOCs originated before the financial crisis are set to turn 10-years old, hitting their end-of-draw periods. At that time, HELOC borrowers are required to make principal payments significantly higher than the monthly IO payment previously owed on the loan. Officials at Wells said...

Endorsement of FHA-insured reverse mortgages rose in the first quarter of 2014, although lenders say it may just be trailing figures reflecting the lag time between closing and approval for FHA insurance. Home Equity Conversion Mortgage guarantees totaled $4.0 billion in the first quarter, up 16.4 percent from the end of the fourth quarter in 2013 and up 4.1 percent from the same period last year, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Home purchase accounted for 92.7 percent of HECM volume but only 14.5 percent were fixed-rate. Initial principal amount at loan origination totaled $2.4 billion. The 16.4 percent increase was more likely due to the fact that a huge number of reverse mortgages closed in November and December were not insured by FHA until January, said Josh Moran, vice president of wholesale lending at Live Well Financial. Some lenders who delayed reporting to ... [1 chart]

The FHA is reportedly considering reinstating “spot” loans in condominium projects that were not on its approved development list to boost FHA-insured condo lending. Spot loans are currently prohibited, but the FHA is said to be reevaluating the product because of reports of first-time homebuyers having difficulty in obtaining FHA financing for condo unit purchases and seniors seeking reverse mortgages to tap the equity in their units. The National Association of Realtors is trying to break the impasse between the FHA and reluctant board of directors of condo projects that do not have FHA certification to resolve the financing issue. FHA-insured condominium lending has dropped to $884.4 million in the first quarter of 2014, down 70 percent from the $2.98 billion in total originations reported in the first quarter of 2013, according to Inside FHA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Even as the NAR tries to ...

Ginnie Mae has prohibited the pooling of Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans that provide for future draws at a fixed rate of interest starting June 1, 2014. The agency said servicers that are committed to advance funds to borrowers at a fixed rate could become seriously undercapitalized if interest rates rise from the time of origination. “The impact of negative spreads between a fixed note rate and future prevailing rates could be exacerbated in such loans, and endanger the servicers’ capacity to meet their HMBS (HECM mortgage-backed securities) obligations, which require the issuer to maintain the capacity to advance funds as required under the HMBS program,” Ginnie explained in a recent memo to issuers. Program requirements include the funding of draw requests from borrowers and buying all related participations out of pools when the outstanding principal balance of the related HECM loan reaches 98 percent of the maximum claim amount, Ginnie noted. Borrower requests for ...

Aurora Loan Services, once a huge player in the non-agency subprime and Alt A market, has agreed to resolve a class-action lawsuit alleging it duped distressed borrowers into paying monthly fees on nonperforming loans that were already destined for foreclosure. The $5.3 million settlement will be split among 15,000 California borrowers who signed bogus loan-workout agreements with the false hope of curing their deficiencies and keeping their homes. Borrowers claimed that Aurora had misled them into thinking that their foreclosures were on hold while they were being considered for loan modification. In reality, however, Aurora’s policy was...