Ginnie Mae’s anti-churning efforts have narrowed the spread between Ginnie and Fannie Mae mortgage-backed securities, prompting executives to say things are almost back to normal. In an interview with Inside FHA/VA Lending this week, Michael Bright, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Ginnie Mae, said the market and investors have responded positively to the agency’s efforts to resolve the churning and prepayment problems. “The Ginnie spread has fallen almost half a point and our securities have become more liquid,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re giving investors CPRs (constant prepayment rates) that they can model.” Bright said he cares less about the overall level of prepayment speeds. What he truly cares about is ensuring that when an investor purchases a Ginnie security, the prepay speed is correlated to changes in the interest rates and not the ...

FHA streamline refinancing fell significantly in 2017 from the previous year, according to an Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis of agency data. Lenders closed 2017 with $37.4 billion of FHA streamline refi loans, buoyed by a 12.2 percent increase in origination in the fourth quarter. However, business was down a whopping 34.5 percent year-over-year. The segment ended the first quarter strongly with, $13.05 billion, but faltered over the next nine months. Streamline refinancing accounted for 15.8 percent of total FHA originations in 2017. Twelve states, led by California, each reported FHA streamline refi originations in excess of $1 billion last year. The Golden State closed the year with $8.05 billion of FHA-to-FHA refis, which accounted for 21 percent of all FHA loans in the state last year. The highest FHA streamline refi-producers after California were, in sequential order, ... [Charts]

FHA insured approximately $1.9 billion of ineligible mortgage loans made to borrowers with delinquent federal debts or who are subject to federal administrative offset for past-due child support payments, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general. Approximately 9,500 loans were ineligible because the sources used by lenders to identify ineligible borrowers lacked sufficient information to raise red flags. In addition, FHA failed to guide lenders adequately in reviewing child support payments, the IG said. Federal law prohibits loans, loan guarantees or insurance to delinquent federal debtors, including those with delinquent child support subject to administrative offset, until the delinquency is resolved. Auditors drew a statistical sample of 60 loans from 13,927 FHA-insured loans that closed in 2016 and analyzed data on their related borrowers in the ...

Issuance of non-agency mortgage-backed securities with prime jumbo loans and expanded-credit mortgages flourished in the first quarter of 2018, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Combined, $6.28 billion of such securities was issued, more than double the activity in the first quarter of 2017 and up 24.6 percent from the fourth quarter of last year. Some $4.23 billion of prime jumbo MBS was issued during ... [Includes one data chart]

Angel Oak Capital Advisors issued a $328.76 million nonprime mortgage-backed security this week, its biggest so far. Its previous high was a $210.45 million offering in July. DBRS and Fitch Ratings assigned AAA ratings to Angel Oak Mortgage Trust I, LLC 2018-1. The deal included credit enhancement of 35.6 percent on the senior tranche, somewhat lower than previous issuance from Angel Oak. Fitch said Angel Oak has strong underwriting and risk management practices, which ...

The first jumbo mortgage-backed security from loanDepot is set to close April 6. After a span where the nonbank contributed to jumbo MBS issued by other firms, loanDepot set up its own securitization shelf. The $299.83 million Mello Mortgage Capital Acceptance 2018-MTG1 was stocked with non-agency jumbos along with conforming jumbos eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. The deal received AAA ratings from DBRS and Moody’s Investors Service with ...

JPMorgan Chase is preparing to issue a non-agency mortgage-backed security stocked entirely with loans eligible for sale to the government-sponsored enterprises. While Chase has long included GSE-eligible loans in its non-agency MBS, the deals generally also include non-agency jumbo mortgages. The mortgages in the $313.56 million deal largely look to be conforming jumbos. The loans have an average balance of $527,877. Fitch Ratings noted that the collateral attributes of the pool are ...

Nonbank wholesale lenders rolled out a variety of non-agency products in recent weeks, including prime jumbo mortgages, non-qualified mortgages and nonprime offerings. Newfi Lending launched Sequoia Porfolio Plus, a program where all underwriting and exceptions are handled in-house. Steve Abreu, Newfi’s CEO, said the new offering combines “the best of jumbo and non-traditional borrowing options.” The program allows for loan amounts of up to $2.0 million, credit scores ...

Newfi Lending has rolled out a new non-agency jumbo loan program for its wholesale mortgage broker partners aimed at high-asset borrowers who are difficult to qualify. The program, Sequoia Portfolio Plus, is designed as a go-to alternative for creditworthy borrowers who could not qualify for conventional jumbo loans due to a less-than-stellar credit history. Sequoia combines the best of jumbo and nontraditional borrowing options, explained Newfi CEO Steve Abreu ...

Originations of jumbo mortgages declined across the three production channels in 2017, with retail posting the biggest decline, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of survey responses to affiliated publication Inside Mortgage Finance. The survey respondents reported $234.21 billion in jumbo originations, down 18.0 percent from 2016, which represented about 79.4 percent of the total jumbo market. Among respondents, retail production ... [Includes one data chart]