Mortgage-banking income was down on both sides of the business in the fourth quarter of 2016, although the downturn in servicing may be more a matter of unusual results at two large firms. An Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings releases from 13 publicly traded mortgage lenders shows production-related income – including origination fees and secondary market gains – fell 25.1 percent from the third quarter to the fourth. The group earned a combined ... [Includes one data chart]

Single-family business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell sharply in the first quarter of 2017 and the wholesale-broker channel bore much of the brunt of the decline. The two government-sponsored enterprises issued $218.2 billion in new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter, a 27.1 percent drop from the final three months of 2016. But a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals that the supply of mortgages originated ... [Includes two data charts]

Banks and thrifts repurchased $813.1 million of single-family mortgages during the fourth quarter of 2016, an 8.2 percent decline from the previous period, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. It wasn’t the lowest quarterly repurchase volume on record – that distinction belongs to the fourth quarter of 2015 at $735.6 million. But the final three months of 2016 brought the full-year total to $3.27 billion, and that was the lowest ... [Includes one data chart]

Quicken Loans has exhibited strong, consistent profitability in recent years while some other major nonbanks have faltered, according to Moody’s Investors Service. A report the rating service recently published offers a rare glimpse into the profitability of Quicken, Provident Funding Associates and Stearns Holdings, three private nonbanks. They are among nine nonbanks in the mortgage industry that have corporate ratings from Moody’s. “Quicken has strong profitability due to ...

While conventional residential lenders try to figure out how to cut costs in what likely will turn out to be a down year for originations, nonprime firms are headed in the opposite direction – growth. Angel Oak Companies, Atlanta, the largest nonprime lender of 2016 with $700 million of production, this week announced the promotion of four senior managers and plans to double its sales force, which presently numbers 52 account executives. “We’ve already added 16 ...

Whether a potential homebuyer has a bachelor’s degree plays a significant role in the applicant’s ability to obtain a mortgage, according to research funded by Fannie Mae. The analysis suggests that the higher-education variable wasn’t much of a factor before the financial crisis, but a borrower’s level of education is a factor in post-crisis originations. Researchers at the University of Southern California probed data from a survey of households conducted by the Survey Research Center at ...

The amount of equity U.S. homeowners could access rose by almost $570 billion in 2016, reaching $4.7 trillion last year, thanks to an extended streak of home price appreciation. This was the highest level of “tappable” equity seen since 2006, according to a new report from Black Knight Financial Services. Perhaps just as impressive, an eye-popping 44 percent of refinanced mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2016 were cash-out refis, the highest level in eight years ...

“Our ability to maintain or grow our servicing business may depend, in part, on our ability to acquire servicing rights from, and/or enter into subservicing contracts with, third parties,” the company said in an SEC filing.

Residential loan production picked up steam in March after a tepid January and February, while originators – both banks and nonbanks alike – kept a close eye on expenses in an effort to maintain positive cash flow. Bill Dallas, CEO and president of Skyline Home Loans, Calabasas, CA, said his company funded $650 million in the first quarter, a modest 5.8 percent decline from the same period a year ago. Roughly 75 percent of Skyline’s production was purchase loans, the exact opposite of what the company did in the year-ago quarter. “Over the past five months, since the election, the landscape has been...

Most lenders are usually shy when asked whether they would like to go public. But not Better Mortgage, a barely one-year-old “digital” mortgage lender that could triple loan production this year to $1.5 billion. “Yes, we’d like to go public,” company founder and CEO Vishal Garg told Inside MortgageFinance. “This company should be owned by the public.” As for when, that’s a different matter. The last time a nonbank mortgage lender sold...