Appetite for jumbo mortgages among big banks has limited issuance of non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed securities in recent months. And analysts suggest that the next increase in the guaranty fees charged by the government-sponsored enterprises could shift even more production to bank portfolios instead of into non-agency MBS. Certain big banks continue to offer interest rates on jumbos that are below rates on comparable mortgages with conforming balances. For a 30-year fixed-rate non-agency jumbo with ...

Redwood Trust issued its latest non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security last week, two days after presale reports on the deal were published. It was a quick turnaround for the real estate investment trust, as jumbo MBS investors have generally had at least a week to mull investing in deals before they close. The mortgages in the $346.32 million Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2013-11 also had an exceptionally young weighted-average loan age of 0.5 months, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency ...

Credit Suisse issued its latest non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed security at the end of August, about one month after the previous issuance from the investment bank. Mortgages in the latest security, the $399.77 million CSMC Trust 2013-7, were seasoned an average of three months, according to DBRS. The mortgages have a weighted average interest rate of 3.875 percent. All of the mortgages have 30-year fixed-rate terms, and one has a 10-year interest-only feature. The deal received AAA ratings with ...

Correspondent lenders whose mortgages end up in non-agency jumbo mortgage-backed securities could be required by issuers to retain a portion of the risk from the issuance, according to the net risk-retention rule proposed last week by federal regulators. As with the risk-retention rule originally proposed in 2011, the new proposal allows security sponsors to require certain originators to retain risk on securitized assets. Issuers of non-agency MBS subject to risk-retention requirements would be ...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is phasing out the Saver and Standard loan products under the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program in favor of a new reverse mortgage that limits the amount of money a borrower can draw at closing to 60 percent of the value of the home. The fixed and adjustable HECM Standard and Saver options will still be available until Sept. 29, said HUD. The revised principal limit, pricing and disbursement policies for the new HECM product will become effective on Sept. 30. The revised HECM guidance also ...

Although agency originations and refinance activity continued to dominate residential mortgage lending during the second quarter of 2013, a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis and ranking reveals that both those components were losing steam. In fact, the only product category to show growth during the period was the jumbo market, where originations increased by 9.3 percent and reached their highest quarterly volume – an estimated $59 billion – since the third quarter of 2007. On a year-to-date basis, jumbo originations were up 17.7 percent from the first half of last year. Agency production still accounted...[Includes two data charts]

No one in the mortgage industry expects that subprime lending will revive much unless it’s the subprime of yesteryear where equity was a key factor in determining whether a borrower should get a loan. The handful of subprime (“hard money,” call it what you will) lenders active today require hefty down payments in the range of 30 percent. The most successful subprime lender in terms of money raised is Citadel Loan Servicing of Irvine, CA, the brainchild of Dan Perl, which raised ... [Includes three briefs]

FHA lenders have gradually stretched to originate loans for borrowers with more modest credit scores in recent quarters, although these borrowers typically are better positioned to keep up with their payments, according to an Inside FHA Lending analysis of data released by the agency. The average credit score for single-family loans endorsed in the second quarter of 2013 was 693 – the lowest such average in nearly four years. This is partly the result of a shift toward more purchase-money mortgages, which generally have ... [1 chart]

Parties to trustee lawsuits challenging a city’s use of eminent domain to deal with foreclosures are gearing up for a face-off at an injunction hearing Sept. 13 in federal district court in San Francisco. The city of Richmond, CA, the defendant in the lawsuit, has suffered setbacks in the last few days and has yet to make good on its threat to initiate eminent domain proceedings after investor trustees rejected its offer to purchase distressed mortgages for restructuring. Wells Fargo and Deutsche Bank, acting as trustees for a group of ...

The reverse mortgage lending industry is working with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to implement two policy changes that would strengthen the FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program. One policy change involves the development of a new HECM option that combines features of the fixed-rate, full-draw HECM Standard and the HECM Saver, according to Peter Bell, president and chief executive officer of the National Reverse Mortgage Lenders Association. HUD eliminated the standard 30-year, fixed-rate HECM in April because ...