Demand for jumbo mortgages was expected to decline due to various provisions included in tax reform legislation but applications for jumbos didn’t dip in early 2018, according to CoreLogic. The analytics firm tracked loan applications in high-cost areas, concentrated in California and the northeast. Applications for purchase mortgages in the first quarter of 2018 were compared with trends seen in the prior four years. “We didn’t observe any meaningful change in purchase loan application ...

Reverse mortgage lenders started out strong in the first three month of 2018 with a 19.2 percent increase in Home Equity Conversion Mortgage production from the previous period. HECM endorsements totaled $5.4 billion in the first quarter, with purchase reverse loans accounting for the bulk of originations, 81.9 percent. First quarter production was up 18.5 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, HECM mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $2.97 billion for the quarter, down from $3.25 billion in the prior quarter, Ginnie Mae data showed. The top five HECM originators in sequential order – American Advisors Group, Reverse Mortgage Funding, One Reverse Mortgage, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, and Synergy One Lending – accounted for $1.66 billion, or 30.8 percent, of total production during the first quarter. American Advisors maintained its top ranking with $841.4 million of HECM loans, which ... [Charts]

Mortgage production indicators were down almost across the board during the first quarter of 2018, but the jumbo market posted some of the biggest declines of all. [Includes three data charts.]

Home-equity lending stumbled in early 2018, although borrower demand and lender interest both seem relatively strong, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. [Includes three data charts.]

The amount of home equity outstanding hit a record in 2017, surpassing the previous peak seen in the run up to the financial crisis. Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York note that equity extraction by borrowers has been limited by tight underwriting standards.

Industry trade groups are shopping lists of FHA priorities following last week’s Senate confirmation of Brian Montgomery as FHA commissioner and assistant secretary of housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. On May 23, the full Senate voted 74-23 to clear the former FHA commissioner for a return engagement after resolving a partisan block on all of President Trump’s nominees for top positions at HUD. Twenty-five Democrats joined 49 Republicans in approving Montgomery. He served as FHA commissioner under both the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. Montgomery was nominated initially in September 2017 and was approved by the Senate Banking Committee on Nov. 28 by an 18-5 vote. Under Senate rules, his nomination was returned to the president at the end of 2017. Montgomery was re-nominated in early January and was again approved by the ...

Originations of jumbo mortgages declined across channels in the first quarter with the retail channel gaining market share, according to survey results analyzed by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Jumbo originations reported by survey respondents declined by 30.4 percent from the fourth quarter of 2017 to the first quarter of this year. The survey data, gathered by Inside Mortgage Finance, included $40.4 billion of first-quarter jumbo originations, roughly two thirds ... [Includes one data chart]

The purchase-mortgage share of jumbo originations increased in 2017 on an annual basis, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The loans accounted for 63.6 percent of the $317.29 billion of jumbos originated in 2017, up from a 53.5 percent share the previous year. The emphasis on purchase mortgages varied among the top jumbo lenders. Purchase loans accounted for 69.4 percent ... [Includes three data charts]

Issuers of non-agency mortgage-backed securities continued to bring a variety of deals in May. JPMorgan Chase and Redwood Trust are set to issue separate prime non-agency MBS and nonprime MBS is on the way from Deephaven Mortgage and Lone Star Funds. Both Chase and Redwood continue to include mortgages eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises in their issuance. Such loans will account for essentially half of the $650.5 million issuance ...

Mortgage brokers and their wholesale funders gained some share in the FHA/VA market during the first quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis. Survey data collected by Inside Mortgage Finance show that all three production channels took big hits in FHA/VA volume in early 2018. The $49.11 billion in government-insured lending reported by participating lenders was down 20.7 percent from the previous quarter and 10.8 percent below the volume the group generated in the first three months of 2017. Correspondent production remained the biggest source of FHA/VA loans, accounting for 53.5 percent of the survey sample in the first quarter. But production through this channel was down 22.2 percent from the previous three-month period, a slightly larger decline than seen overall. Four of the top five lenders in the group have strong correspondent platforms, especially ... [Chart]