Ginnie Mae issuance for the first nine months of 2014 totaled $207.5 billion as government-backed purchase-mortgage activity picked up in the third quarter, according to an analysis of agency data. New issuances rose 19.8 percent from the second quarter. FHA loans accounted for $116.9 billion of new Ginnie Mae issuances while VA and the Rural Housing Development funneled $75.9 billion and $14.2 billion, respectively, of new loans into Ginnie Mae pools. Mortgage securities backed by home-equity conversion mortgages are not included. Purchase mortgages totaling $140.6 billion comprised the bulk of new issuances over the nine-month period while the share of refinances totaled $49.8 billion. Modified loans accounted for $17.1 billion. Most of the FHA and VA loans originated during the first nine months came through the ... [ 2 charts ]

FHA to Extend Short Refi Program. The FHA has announced its intent to extend its Short Refinance Program for borrowers in negative equity positions. A mortgagee letter will be issued soon to announce the extension. Feedback Period extended for Draft Servicing Section of Proposed Single Family Handbook. The FHA is extending the comment period for the draft servicing section of the Single Family Housing Policy Handbook through Nov. 14, 2014 to allow stakeholders additional time to study and comment on the proposed section. The original deadline date was Oct. 17. CFPB Updates Reverse Mortgage Guide. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently updated its reverse mortgage guide on its website to account for recent changes made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to its Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. The updated guide highlights new limits to ...

MountainView, a firm known mostly for the market it makes in mortgage servicing rights, is branching out into non-QM lending, but company officials cautioned that its effort will start small. Moreover, a spokesman for the firm clarified that loans acquired through its new “Peak Program” will meet the ability-to-repay rule requirements, including the non-QM loans. “We expect...

Credit unions have been slowly expanding their share of new mortgage originations for the past decade, but in 2014 the industry crossed a symbolic threshold, according to a new Inside MortgageFinance analysis of call-report data. For the first time, the credit union industry owns a double-digit share of new originations. The industry originated $30.0 billion of home mortgages during the second quarter – or 10.2 percent of the $295.0 billion in total mortgage originations for the period. Back in 2004, credit unions accounted...[Includes one data chart]

Mortgage lenders originated an estimated $17 billion in new home-equity loans during the second quarter of 2014, a 30.8 percent increase from the previous period, according to a new market analysis and ranking by Inside Mortgage Finance. But the volume of outstanding home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages held in portfolio by depository institutions – the biggest players in the HEL market – continued to dwindle. Banks, thrifts and credit unions reported a total of $540.4 billion of HELOCs on their books at the end of June, down 0.9 percent from March, along with a 1.5 percent drop in closed-end seconds. It continued...[Includes three data charts]

The Treasury Department is considering working with an issuer to sell a non-agency MBS that would serve as a benchmark transaction, according to agency officials. The goal of the issuance is to attract investors to the sector and create a standard term sheet for issuers. “The Treasury is thinking about facilitating one or more benchmark transactions,” Michael Stegman, counselor to the Treasury Department for housing finance policy, said this week at the ABS East conference produced by Information Management Network in Miami Beach. He said...

JPMorgan Chase and Two Harbors Investment are preparing to issue two new jumbo mortgage-backed securities. The $483.56 million JPMorgan Mortgage Trust 2014-IVR3 is set to receive AAA ratings from DBRS and Kroll Bond Rating Agency. The deal includes a number of unique characteristics, including consisting solely of adjustable-rate mortgages and having representations and warranties that DBRS deemed as weak. The majority of the loans in Chase’s planned MBS are seven-year ARMs ...

Moody’s Investors Service is working on revamping its process for rating new non-agency mortgage-backed securities, including allowing issuers to use the same loan-level model used in Moody’s rating process. “We are providing an unprecedented level of transparency through publication of our model,” Navneet Agarwal, a managing director of residential MBS at Moody’s, said last week during a webinar hosted by the rating service. In August, Moody’s published a request for comment on its proposed ...

Originations of higher-priced mortgages increased significantly in 2013 compared with the previous year, according to an Inside Nonconforming Markets analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data released this week. The market share for higher-priced mortgages also more than doubled in 2013 compared with the previous year, but the loans continue to account for a small portion of total originations. Some $35.18 billion in higher-priced mortgages were sold in 2013, up from ... [Includes one data chart]

The performance of home-equity loans held by banks and thrifts remains strong but concerns have been raised about home-equity lines of credit originated before the financial crisis. Banks and thrifts reported $998.63 billion in total home-equity business at the end of the second quarter of 2014, including retained HELOCs and closed-end seconds, and unused HELOC commitments, according to the Inside Mortgage Finance Bank Mortgage Database. Total HEL business declined ... [Includes one data chart]