EverBank has relied on its correspondent jumbo business to help prop up loan origination volume in 2014 at a time when agency production figures have fallen way off 2013 levels. In fact, during the third quarter of 2014, 52 percent of the company’s $2.30 billion of new mortgage lending were jumbos. Jumbo production – most of it coming through EverBank’s correspondent program – was up 55 percent from the third quarter of 2013, when it accounted for 28 percent of the bank’s total mortgage originations ...

Residential production volume may not be much better next year, but that isn’t stopping certain growth-minded lenders from hiring loan officers. According to a survey conducted by affiliated newsletter Inside Mortgage Finance, 71 percent of mortgage companies plan to hire LOs – in varying degrees – over the next six months. Just 29 percent of respondents said they plan to cut staff. While a number of large commercial banks have pulled back from the mortgage industry in different ways ...

The number of residential properties that are seriously underwater declined to 8.1 million in the third quarter of 2014 from 9.1 million in the first quarter, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. Another 8.5 million properties were on the verge of resurfacing. Dan Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said it is not yet time to celebrate. He said 8.1 million underwater properties still represent 15 percent of all mortgaged properties with an estimated $1.4 trillion in negative equity ...

Top mortgage sellers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appear to be focusing even more on lower-risk mortgages, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of loan-level mortgage-backed securities data. Some 62.9 percent of loans delivered in the third quarter had credit scores of 740 or above, up from 61.9 percent in the second quarter and 60.5 percent in the first three months of the year. The data exclude mortgages with loan-to-value ratios exceeding ... [Includes one data chart]

Wells Fargo's origination market share keeps dropping, but is still more than double that of its closest competitor, JPMorgan Chase.

Once word leaks out that a mortgage company is a takeover target, many LOs start weighing their options, contacting competitors who tried to recruit them in the past.

Roughly a month ago, ClearVision founder Jon Maddox announced his retirement to Pacific Union senior management.

Guild's McGarry also said the company will not be closing on any more transactions in 2014.

Total mortgage complaints have been trending downward since they peaked at 15,239 in the first quarter of 2013.

Another positive for the production market is a new willingness on the part of certain warehouse banks to finance the production of non-QM loans.