The Blackstone Group this month filed its long awaited initial public offering document on its Invitation Homes unit, a pioneer in single-family rentals and securitization of these assets. The 1,300 page Form S-11 is chock full of financial details on the real estate investment trust, including the revelation that the company continues to lose money. Through the first nine months of 2016 – the latest available data – Invitation Homes posted a net loss of $51.6 million compared to a $121.7 million loss in the same period a year earlier. The numbers and commentary in the filing indicate...

With interest rates up 75 basis points since the election – and staying there, at least for now – residential production is likely to slip in the quarters ahead, leading to layoffs, especially at firms that focus on refinancings. “It’s coming,” said industry consultant Don Henig, a former top sales executive for loanDepot, a top-10 ranked originator. “Maybe we haven’t seen too many layoffs quite yet, but just look at volume numbers and do the math.” Henig added: “Right now, a lot of shops ...

The recent run-up in mortgage rates appears to have suppressed short-term home purchase expectations among prospective homebuyers, who nonetheless otherwise feel optimistic about the housing market over the longer term, according to new data from government-sponsored enterprise Fannie Mae. Fannie’s latest Home Purchase Sentiment Index (HPSI), released earlier this week, dipped 0.5 points to 80.7, the fifth consecutive monthly decline. The index is down ...

While mortgage interest rates remain at historic lows, an increase of even one percentage point is not going to have a dramatic effect on affordability and any negative homebuyer response to rising rates is likely to be short-lived, according to a new Redfin survey. Even if mortgage rates climb to 5 percent, homebuyers would lower their expectations and shop for less expensive homes, said 49 percent of the 827 Redfin real estate agents who responded to the survey. Redfin conducted ...

Black Knight Financial Services is developing a mortgage-specific credit score that could be more useful for lenders than traditional credit scores. It’s not clear how much traction the score will gain, considering that Fair Isaac’s FICO score remains the dominant metric for assessing the creditworthiness of mortgage borrowers. Wesley Winter, a senior modeler at Black Knight, said a traditional credit score may not be the best predictor of mortgage default. “The FICO score is trying to ...

Banks and nonbanks alike are expected to unveil sizable mark-ups on the asset value of their mortgage servicing rights for the fourth quarter, with the general consensus being that increases will range from 20 to 25 basis points. One servicing advisor, requesting his name not be used, said he has some clients that will book gains of 30 to 35 bps, though he indicated this won’t be the norm. “In general, it’s going to be a huge move,” he said. This source made...

The portfolio holdings of first-lien residential mortgages at banks and thrifts continued to increase during the third quarter of 2016, according to a ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Banks and thrifts held $1.93 trillion in first liens at Sept. 30, up 1.6 percent from the previous quarter and a 3.9 percent increase compared with the third quarter of 2015. Originations and acquisitions of mortgages – both jumbos and non-jumbos ... [Includes one data chart]

Ginnie Mae guaranteed a total of $507.46 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in 2016, its biggest annual volume ever, according to a new analysis and ranking by Inside FHA/VA Lending. That was up 16.4 percent from the agency’s previous record of $435.80 billion set in 2015. (Those figures include MBS backed by FHA home-equity conversion mortgages, which are not included in the table below or in the rankings on pages 3-5.) In 2016, Ginnie guaranteed $497.03 billion of MBS backed by traditional forward mortgages, also a record, which was up 16.9 percent from the previous year. The biggest factor in last year’s record-setting production was the boom in VA lending, particularly VA refinance loans. Issuers securitized a record $203.03 billion of VA loans last year, up 33.0 percent from the 2015 total. Some 54.3 percent of those loans were refinance transactions. Total VA refi loan ... [4 charts]

The FHA this year will focus mainly on the completion and implementation of the Defect Taxonomy to help lenders easily identify and categorize loan defects found in FHA-insured loans. At least that was the plan announced by the outgoing Obama administration. The agency urged lenders to be on the lookout for detailed information about Defect Taxonomy and other process improvements in the coming months. “As we begin to implement these changes and transition from current processes, some lenders may experience a temporary decrease in loans selected for review,” the FHA noted in Lender Insight, which updates lenders on the latest rulemakings and policy changes. Announced in June last year, Defect Taxonomy is part of the Blueprint for Access, which embodies three core concepts: identifying a defect, capturing the sources and causes of a defect, and assessing the ...

United Shore Financial Services of Troy, MI, has agreed to pay $48 million to resolve allegations of FHA-related fraud, adding to the more than $7 billion in settlements and judgments the Department of Justice has collected since 2009. United Shore, parent company of United Wholesale Mortgage and Shore Mortgage, was accused of improperly originating mortgages and falsely certifying compliance with FHA requirements. Originated between Jan. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2011, the loans eventually turned bad, resulting in significant losses to the FHA insurance fund. The complaint did not specify the number and total amount of the bad loans United Shore originated or the size of FHA’s losses on those loans. United Shore was charged with violation of the False Claims Act, becoming the latest financial institution to join a growing list of FHA lenders that have opted to settle, rather than litigate, ...