Issuers of Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities pushed a record $435.80 billion of government-insured loans through the program during 2015, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis and ranking. Last year’s total Ginnie MBS issuance topped the previous record of $429.50 billion issued during 2009. The $435.80 billion total for 2015 includes securitization of FHA home-equity conversion mortgages and other single-family loans guaranteed by FHA, the VA, and the Department of Agriculture rural housing program from Ginnie pool-level MBS data that are not truncated. Production in 2015 hit its high-water mark in the third quarter with $128.23 billion in issuance, and then fell 18.0 percent in the final three months of the year. Purchase mortgages continued to account for most Ginnie business in 2015, 58.0 percent of the agency’s forward-mortgage securitizations. But a huge factor in the ... [ Charts ]

The first rated securitization backed by nonperforming Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans contains strong, credit-positive features that outweigh the credit risk associated with nonperforming loans, according to a Moody’s Investors Service analysis. The effect of some of these positive features on the performance of Nationstar HECM Loan Trust 2015-2, however, depends on whether Nationstar Mortgage remains as servicer for the transaction, said the rating agency. Nationstar has a servicer rating of B2/Stable from Moody’s and is also the transaction’s sponsor. Nationstar issued NHLT 2015-2 in November 2015 and by the end of December, the first remittance report showed strong initial performance. Credit enhancement to the Aaa (sf)-rated notes increased by 1.69 percent in the first month of operations, Moody’s noted. “As long as Nationstar continues to be the ...

Four nonprime MBS backed by newly-originated residential loans came to market during the last four months of 2015, but none of deals were rated, a situation that could change in the new year. In a recent interview with Inside MBS & ABS, John Hsu, head of capital markets for Angel Oak Capital, said his company hopes to get a rated deal done in 2016, believing such a milestone would help move the nascent market forward. “We need...

A strong first half of 2015 helped the issuance of jumbo mortgage-backed securities top the volume seen in 2014, according to a new analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. But as the year progressed, issuance slowed and industry analysts don’t expect much of an increase in volume in 2016. Some $12.08 billion in jumbo MBS were issued in 2015, up 25.4 percent compared with 2014 but not enough to match the $13.12 billion in 2013 issuance. And jumbo MBS activity ... [Includes one data chart]

Angel Oak Capital Advisors issued a nonprime mortgage-backed security on Dec. 17 tied to loans with an unpaid principal balance of $150.35 million. It was the fourth – and largest – nonprime MBS issued in 2015. Angel Oak Mortgage Trust 2015-1 included a $120.28 million senior tranche, a $15.04 million mezzanine tranche and two subordinate tranches totaling $15.04 million. The deal was issued by Angel Oak’s Greenleaf Income Trust II and was not rated. Officials at Angel Oak said ...

Affordable housing advocates are calling for changes to the mortgage interest deduction allowed for federal taxes. Interest on up to $1.0 million in principal is currently deductible. The National Low Income Housing Coalition recently published a report supporting its call for the cap on the mortgage interest deduction to be lowered to loan balances of $500,000 and below. “There is no policy rationale for the federal government to continue to subsidize the portion of mortgages that ...

FHA lenders funded $12.3 billion in new Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans during the first nine months of 2015, up a hefty 22.2 percent from the same period in the prior year, according to Inside FHA/VA Lending’s analysis of agency data. Likewise, HECM endorsements increased 17.3 percent to $4.5 billion in the third quarter from $3.9 billion in the prior quarter. This was the highest HECM endorsements have been since the second quarter of 2013, when they totaled $4.1 billion. Purchase loans accounted for 85.8 percent of all HECM originations over the nine-month period. The majority of borrowers favored adjustable-rate HECMs over fixed-rate HECMs, which accounted for only 14.8 percent of HECM transactions. In addition, the initial principal amount at loan originations totaled $7.3 billion, up from $4.6 billion midway through 2015. The volume increase is attributable to program changes implemented ... [1 chart]

Greenleaf Income Trust this week priced a $135 million non-agency, nonprime MBS, the largest such offering since the housing bust. It marks the second nonprime MBS sold in the past week, and the fourth deal of the year – all of them sold as private placements with no ratings. Mike Fierman, managing partner and CEO of Angel Oak Companies, which is affiliated with Greenleaf, told Inside MBS & ABS he’s pleased with the outcome of the security. “We had broad investor participation and the transaction was oversubscribed.” Fierman said...

The supply of home mortgage debt outstanding increased by 0.5 percent during the third quarter of 2015, following a similar modest gain during the previous period. A total of $9.952 trillion of single-family mortgage debt was outstanding at the end of September, according to a Federal Reserve report released late last week. It represented a second consecutive quarterly increase, something the mortgage servicing market has struggled to accomplish during the long contraction that started back in 2008. Most of the increase came...[Includes one data table]

Subservicing shops increased their portfolios to $1.50 trillion during the third quarter, a 6.4 percent sequential gain, as mortgage originators continued to rely on such specialty vendors, according to exclusive survey figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance. Compared to a year ago, subservicing volume was up an impressive 28.2 percent. At Sept. 30, roughly 15.8 percent of all outstanding residential mortgages were being processed...[Includes one data table]