Increases to guaranty fees charged by the government-sponsored enterprises along with cross-subsidization policies could prompt bank lenders to shift more of their originations from the GSEs to portfolio. According to a report released last week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac charged an average g-fee of 60 basis points for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in 2014, up from 55 basis points the previous year and ...

For the non-agency market, the impact of anticipated action by the Federal Reserve on short-term interest rates depends on whether interest rates on mortgages also increase, according to industry analysts. Industry participants continue to wait for the Fed to increase the federal funds rate and ponder the impact higher rates will have on originations and performance. “The effect of an interest rate increase on new residential mortgage-backed security transactions will ...

Servicers involved in national settlements are largely in compliance and making progress toward completing their loss-mitigation requirements, according to reports released in the past two weeks. Joseph Smith, the monitor of a settlement involving non-agency mortgage-backed securities that requires JPMorgan Chase to complete $4.0 billion in credited loss mitigation, said that as of the end of 2014, Chase was credited with $3.32 billion in relief ...

The Treasury Department didn’t meet key elements of federal guidelines for cost-benefit analysis when considering changes to the non-agency Home Affordable Modification Program that were implemented in November, according to the Government Accountability Office. In a report released last week, the GAO conceded that the Treasury isn’t required to follow cost-benefit guidance from the Office of Management and Budget when making changes to HAMP ...

Home prices remain below their peak levels and mortgage interest rates are well below where they were prior to the financial crisis. However, mortgage originations since 2008 have been significantly below the levels seen in years prior as tight underwriting standards have limited production. “Home prices are still very affordable by historical standards, despite increases over the last three years,” the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center noted in a recent report. “Even if interest rates rose to 6.00 percent, affordability would be at the long term historical average.” Black Knight Financial Services added...

Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions was hoping to make a big splash this year by being the first lender to securitize newly originated nonprime mortgages since the housing bust. It now appears those plans are on hold. According to officials who said they have been briefed on the situation, the Atlanta-based Angel Oak is now shopping around a roughly $100 million package of nonprime loans, many of which were originated over the past year. One investor said...

Originations of jumbo mortgages along with retention of some conforming loans helped bank and thrift holdings of first liens grow in the first quarter of 2015, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Banks and thrifts held $1.78 trillion in first liens in portfolio at the end of the quarter, up 0.9 percent compared with the fourth quarter of 2014 and a 2.4 percent increase compared with the first quarter of last year. The portfolios ... [Includes one data chart]

While issuance of jumbo mortgage-backed securities is the strongest it’s been in the aftermath of the financial crisis, industry analysts suggest that it will be years before activity in the non-agency MBS market returns to levels anywhere near what was seen before the financial crisis. “The short-term outlook remains dismal,” said Quincy Tang, a managing director and head of U.S. residential MBS at DBRS. The factors that have limited issuance ...

Originations of adjustable-rate mortgages declined in the first quarter of 2015 as interest rate trends continued to incentivize many borrowers to select fixed-rate mortgages. Some $41.0 billion in ARMs were originated in the first three months of 2015, according to estimates by Inside Nonconforming Markets, down 10.9 percent from the previous quarter and down 6.8 percent from the first quarter of 2014. Many of the mortgages are ... [Includes one data chart]

Lenders offering nonprime loans that do not meet the qualified-mortgage standard have run into difficulties generating volume because weak secondary-market demand has made pricing on the loans unattractive to borrowers. Jeff Lemieux, until recently a vice president at Bayview Asset Management, said volume in nonprime non-QMs is extremely weak across the industry. “The consumer is resistant to the pricing,” he said. Lemieux said credit-impaired borrowers feel that ...