Based on mortgage results reported thus far, the first quarter was a nasty time for new originations for both the megabanks and some of the regionals, with non-depositories reporting slightly more benign production figures. Market leader Wells Fargo posted a hefty 38.9 percent one-quarter drop in mortgage originations. Second-ranked JPMorgan Chase reported a slightly less severe 23.0 percent drop in home loan funding. Citigroup, which a few months back made a strategic decision to deemphasize its role in home lending, suffered a 32.1 percent drop. Then there’s...

Private capital needs to return to the mortgage market to make the market less dependent on taxpayers, according to JPMorgan Chase. The company dedicated portions of its latest annual report to call for a number of changes that could increase non-agency lending. According to Chase, a “healthy” non-agency mortgage-backed security market hasn’t resumed eight years after the financial crisis because housing finance reform and other securitization standards ...

Small banks reduced the share of non-qualified mortgages they originated in 2016, but some nonbanks are expected to significantly increase their activity in the sector. Non-QMs accounted for 9.0 percent of the mortgages originated by participants in the American Bankers Association’s annual real-estate lending survey. Some 159 banks were surveyed by the trade group and about 76.0 percent of the participating institutions had assets of less than $1.0 billion. In 2015 ...

A steep drop in VA-backed securities issuance in the first quarter of 2017 suggests that Ginnie Mae’s efforts to curb serial refinancing of VA loans are working, according to agency officials. Speaking on a panel at the annual VA Lenders Conference in Kansas City, MO, this week, Ginnie executives said that a change in pooling requirements for streamlined refinance mortgages appears to have curbed a destructive appetite for refinancing new VA loans within six months of closing. The practice has caused faster prepayments in Ginnie mortgage-backed securities pools and smaller payouts to investors. VA refi volume fell 42.7 percent from the previous quarter (see chart on page 2), contributing significantly to the 32.2 percent decline in total VA loan securitization during the period. John Getchis, senior vice president at Ginnie Mae, said he does not think the churning trend will continue because the ...

When it comes to selling Ginnie Mae mortgage servicing rights the past two years, it’s been mostly a bear market, but all that may be changing soon. At least that is what sellers and their merger and acquisition advisors hope. Mark Garland, executive vice president of MountainView Financial Solutions, Denver, said that of late, “We have seen a few Ginnie trades go off at a level closer to full value.” Garland told Inside FHA/VA Lending that he expects this trend to continue with prices tightening over the summer “provided rates hold and [prepayment] speeds stay largely in line with expectations.” And if that happens, there could be an increase in the ability of FHA/VA lenders to securitize excess cash flows. But that’s getting a little ahead of the equation. Over the past 24 months, the Ginnie MSR market has been difficult for two reasons: the fear of lawsuits/sanctions tied to FHA lending, and fast ...

Single-family rental operator Invitation Homes expects to enter into its previously announced $1 billion financing agreement with Fannie Mae sometime in the second quarter, using the net proceeds to pay down loans racked up while issuing MBS. According to an update provided in a new 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Invitation – which went public earlier in the year – will “repay all remaining amounts outstanding under our mortgage loan relating to the IH1 2014-1 securitization and approximately $529.0 million of our mortgage loan relating to the IH1 2014-2 securitization.” Grubstaked by The Blackstone Group, IH has been...

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]

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 ...

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...