The Chinese Year of the Horse welcomed the FHA with a hard kick in the head as total originations fell 20 percent in January from December 2013. Even as rising interest rates slowed refinancing activity last year, the expected increase in purchase-mortgage lending barely materialized and, in fact, appears to be dropping off. Lenders reported $8.7 billion in new originations in January, down from $10.9 billion in December and $23.7 billion from a year ago. Most were fixed-rate mortgages and 77.1 percent were purchase transactions. Three of the top five FHA lenders – Quicken Loans, JPMorgan Chase and LoanDepot – reported purchase origination totals below 40 percent. Top-ranked Wells Fargo and Bank of America each reported 64.0 percent of total FHA originations as purchase transactions. Wells Fargo closed the month with $519.0 million despite a ... [2 charts]

It may be temporary, but residential mortgage debt outstanding fell in the fourth quarter. For buyers of servicers that means less product is available (in theory).

The more detailed 'needs-to-improve' list includes Bank of America, CitiMortgage, Nationstar Mortgage, Ocwen Loan Servicing, Select Portfolio Servicing and Wells Fargo.

Observers note that Barclays Bank is in the process of settling on a recent large NPL auction as well.

Freddie Mac has begun reviewing servicing-related violations of its program rules, issuing notices of defect for certain violations, mostly related to the conveyance of properties to the GSE with title problems.

One warehouse executive, requesting anonymity, said usage rates for the fourth quarter and the first two months of 2014 “have been very low.” He gave a range of 20 percent to 50 percent.

“Cheap is the goal now,” said Chuck Klein, a managing partner at Mortgage Banking Solutions, Austin, TX. “I’m seeing many mortgage-banking firms that want to buy, and they’re looking at either smaller firms or branches.”

Even though the Johnson-Crapo bill has no future outside of the Senate, one thing is certain regarding Fannie and Freddie: the two will continue to earn a ton of money going forward.

According to exclusive figures compiled by Inside Mortgage Finance, once Fifth Third departs, there will be just two depositories in the top 10: Flagstar and U.S. Bank.

Mortgage repurchases peaked in 2009 at $34.276 billion, fell to $31.811 billion in 2010 and $20.943 billion in 2011, and then dropped to just $12.966 billion in 2012.