In an unusual development for a top mortgage lender, BofA announced that it would no longer report any information about its mortgage banking operations.
Pershing Square Holdings, one of the largest institutional investors in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac common stock, is doubling down on its investment in the two mortgage giants. But it’s taking a different tack, buying up junior preferred stock rather than increasing its holdings of common. The change in strategy was mentioned in the firm’s annual report to shareholders and comes at a time when the chances of housing-finance reform look nil for 2018. How much PSH paid for the junior preferred is unknown. According to the annual report, “Our preferred stock represents approximately 21 percent of our total investment in Fannie and Freddie, or about 1 percent of net assets.”
There was a healthy flow of mortgage servicing rights during the first quarter of 2018, but it’s unclear whether this year will match the prodigious transaction volume recorded in 2017. Transfers of single-family agency servicing rights totaled an estimated $121.76 billion in the first three months of 2018, according to an exclusive Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities data from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae ... [Includes three data charts]
The nation’s largest depositories posted weak origination results for the first quarter – noticeably weaker than some of the top-ranked nonbanks they compete against. According to an analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends, market leader Wells Fargo suffered a 19.5 percent sequential origination decline while its three closest bank competitors – JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, and Bank of America – fared even worse. The number two-ranked JPM ... [Includes one data chart]
The relatively low homeownership rate seen after 2008 has been pinned on the burden of student-loan debt, among other factors. It turns out that borrowers with student-loan debt actually have higher homeownership rates than other consumers, according to a working paper published recently by the Federal Reserve. The Fed researchers combed through federal student-loan databases and tax returns, including mortgage-related filings. They found that student-loan debt ...
Though technology has lagged in the nation’s housing and mortgage financing markets compared to other industries, players in those markets are now bridging the gap in response to their customers’ growing demand. Consequently, more mortgage companies are deploying new technologies, changing market dynamics and consumer behavior as well as laying the foundation for future advances, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service. The digitization of loan ...
The lack of consideration of renters’ positive monthly payments is constraining the number of potential borrowers eligible for purchase mortgages, according to an analysis by the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. The HFPC found that rental payment history is “highly likely to be predictive” of mortgage performance. However, credit scores used by mortgage lenders largely don’t track renters’ records of on-time payments. The analysis was funded by the National ...
Wells Fargo ranked as the top purchase-mortgage lender in 2017 both in retail originations and production through third-party originators, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of survey data. The company relied more heavily on its correspondent platform last year, posting a 16.9 percent increase in purchase-mortgage acquisitions over its 2016 volume. On the retail side, Wells’ purchase-mortgage originations were down ... [Includes one data chart]
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