Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac saw significant increases in single-family mortgage business during the third quarter of 2014, and they relied less on their top sellers, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Together, the two government-sponsored enterprises issued $183.2 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities during the third quarter. That was up 29.1 percent from the previous quarter. Most of the gain came from a 31.7 percent jump in ... [Includes two data charts]

Between now and yearend, it should be a seller’s market for mortgage servicing rights, as long as the seller isn’t trying to unload legacy or “high-touch” product. Legacy deals – at least large ones – continue to be a non-entity in the market as buyers are focusing on smaller MSR packages tied to relatively new originations. One recent legacy deal that was scuttled entailed the sale of roughly $800 million in Ginnie Mae MSRs by Ocwen Financial. Industry advisors familiar with the situation aren’t sure why ...

Although linked to higher likelihood of defaults for first mortgages, piggyback second liens do not necessarily mean bad results for the associated primary loan. However, subsequent second liens have had mixed results over certain time periods. “The empirical results for subsequent second liens are much more nuanced and, in many ways, more interesting than the piggyback results,” concludes Andrew Leventis, principal economist at the Federal Housing Finance Agency ...

The labor participation rate in the United States continues to lag, especially for the youngest potential homebuyers. If it continues to drift downward, as a recent paper by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland suggests, that could push the homeownership rate down to 62.5 percent, and result in an additional 20 percent to 25 percent decline in purchase-mortgage production, according to a recent review by analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “The conclusion we draw from the age breakouts of ...

Big banks have become much less reliant on principal-reduction loan modifications in the past year, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The shift does not appear to be due to improvements in loan performance because delinquency rates were essentially unchanged. Some 5.0 percent of the nearly 70,000 loan modifications completed in the second quarter of 2014 by eight servicers tracked by the OCC included principal reduction ...

The mortgage industry is trying to make its way against demographic, economic and regulatory crosscurrents, with its future pretty much hanging in the balance, according to Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman-Elect Bill Cosgrove. Speaking to attendees of the MBA’s regulatory compliance conference in Washington, DC, early this week, Cosgrove raised some demographic issues that are troubling. “Today’s consumer is evolving in rapid fashion. The age of the first-time homebuyer ...

Banks, thrifts and credit unions reported $540.4 billion of HELOCs on their books at the end of June, down 0.9 percent from March.

Although 114 servicing workers are losing their jobs in Nebraska, the lender/servicer will add as many servicing positions in the Dallas area over the next six months.

While higher-priced lending is on the rise, pricing on these originations isn’t nearly as high as it was in the subprime boom.

Fitch does not single out any servicers by name, but it’s common knowledge that both Ocwen Financial and Nationstar Mortgage have thousands of servicing-related workers housed in India...