Riding a wave of heavy purchase-mortgage activity, Ginnie Mae issuers produced a record $128.23 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter of 2015, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis. The third-quarter figure, which includes FHA home-equity conversion mortgage MBS, was up 6.5 percent from the second quarter of this year. The previous record was $125.68 billion, set back in the third quarter of 2009. Loan-level MBS data, which do not include HECMs and have truncated loan amounts, show hefty gains in purchase-mortgage activity that more than offset sharp declines in refinance business. The flow of FHA purchase mortgages jumped 37.7 percent from the second to the third quarter, and VA purchase mortgages were up 37.9 percent over the same period. Meanwhile, refinance volume fell ... [ 2 charts ]

Loan origination data for 2014 that were released last week by federal regulators show that the conventional mortgage market was considerably bigger than previously estimated – and that production levels this year are rising. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data show that lenders covered by the law’s reporting requirements originated $969 billion of conventional purchase and refinance loans last year. About $232 billion of that amount came in loans exceeding the county-level conforming loan limits in effect for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac last year. The remainder, $737 billion, represents...[Includes two data tables]

The supply of residential MBS in the market grew tepidly in the second quarter of 2015, but not enough to increase the overall securitization rate for home mortgages. A total of $6.335 trillion of single-family MBS were outstanding at the end of June, a slim 0.1 percent increase from the previous quarter. The supply of MBS has been bouncing slightly higher and lower over the past six quarters, without gaining much traction. With total home mortgage debt outstanding climbing by 0.4 percent during the second quarter, the share of securitized loans fell...[Includes two data tables]

Mortgage origination volume was down sharply in 2014, but not by as much as previously thought, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released this week by federal regulators. A total of $1.242 trillion of single-family purchase and refinance loans were originated during 2014, the HMDA data reveal. That was down 29.5 percent from the 2013 HMDA total, although purchase-mortgage lending was up slightly in both the government-insured and conventional markets. HMDA first-lien purchase and refi originations came...[Includes one data table]

The supply of home mortgage debt outstanding started growing again during the second quarter of 2015, thanks to relatively strong growth in retained portfolios, according to an Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of new data from the Federal Reserve and other sources. The Fed reported late last week that $9.901 trillion of single-family mortgage debt was outstanding as of the end of June. That was up 0.4 percent from March and represented the biggest supply of mortgage servicing since the third quarter of 2013. The servicing market had been shrinking...[Includes two data tables]

Mortgage securitization rates in 2015 are still low compared to last year, but some of the decline is likely due to the lag between primary market origination and MBS issuance. For the first six months of the year, new MBS issuance represented 73.8 percent of total originations, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis. That’s down from a 75.4 percent securitization rate for all of 2014. Securitization rates are...[Includes one data table]

Last week, Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions was slated to issue a roughly $150 million security backed by nonprime mortgages, an event that promised great things for both the company and the non-agency market. But then nothing happened, or so it appears. Two weeks after confirming to Inside MBS & ABS and another news organization that a new nonprime security was definitely ready to price, the company – and its underwriter, Nomura Securities – has suddenly stopped talking about the deal, both publicly and privately. One source who has held meetings with executives at both firms said...

Originations of interest-only mortgages increased at a number of lenders in the first half of 2015, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. The federal qualified mortgage standard does not allow interest-only terms, and IO production declined after the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau QM rule went into effect. Lately, however, many lenders seem to be getting more comfortable with the product. A group of 15 lenders had...[Includes one data table]

Bank and thrift holdings of home-equity-related loans declined in the second quarter of 2015 compared with the previous quarter, according to a new ranking from the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. Among the top 10 banks and thrifts in HEL business, only two increased their holdings in that span, led by U.S. Bank. Banks and thrifts had $962.74 billion in holdings of home-equity lines of credit, HELOC commitments and closed-end second liens at the end of the second quarter of 2015, down 1.2 percent from the previous quarter. HEL lending is up sharply this year, but new originations haven’t been enough to outpace declines in home-equity portfolios at most banks. U.S. Bank had...[Includes one data table]

Select Portfolio Servicing is among the firms that demonstrate the highest standards in overall servicing ability, according to Fitch Ratings. The rating service released an assessment of Credit Suisse’s servicer last week, noting that SPS is a key component of Credit Suisse’s conduit operations. SPS handled an $86.04 billion portfolio as of the end of the second quarter of 2015, according to Fitch. The vast majority of the firm’s servicing involves non-agency mortgages, both vintage loans and newer mortgages included in jumbo mortgage-backed securities. Some 13.6 percent of SPS’s servicing volume at the end of June was classified as third-party servicing. The company has been servicing...