Mortgage origination and sales continued to rack up hefty earnings during the third quarter of 2016, but a rebound in servicing profits had an even bigger impact on the bottom line, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of earnings reports from 13 major public companies. With a combined $189.5 billion in mortgage originations during the period, the 13 firms reported $2.38 billion in production and secondary-marketing income. That was up ... [Includes one data chart]

Loan origination and secondary marketing pushed profits to a four-year high during the third quarter of 2016, according the latest Mortgage Bankers Performance Report released by the Mortgage Bankers Association. The average mortgage-banking entity earned $3.492 million in net income after adjustments during the third quarter, the MBA reported. That was up 42.8 percent from the previous period and represented the highest average profit since the fourth quarter of ...

Mortgage insurance stocks have been rallying the past month, climbing to 52-week highs, thanks in part to the “Trump rally” and the belief that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a future after all. Six short months ago, the sector was in the tank with investors fearing that another cut in FHA premiums would erode their market share. The premium cut didn’t happen, and there’s a growing belief that the incoming Trump administration will favor the private sector – and not the FHA – taking on more risk ...

The rise in mortgage rates after the November election gave many lenders the blues, triggering a plunge in near-term expectations for loan demand as well as a big drop in anticipated profit margins over the next three months, according to the latest lender survey from Fannie Mae. Forty six percent of respondents expect profits to decrease. Lenders’ profit margin outlook now is the worst in three years, according to the government-sponsored enterprise. “Lenders reported a significant net negative ...

Lenders that deliver loans to agency buyers and non-agency buyers could benefit from standards developed by the Structured Finance Industry Group and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization. SFIG detailed the data standardization effort in a green paper released last week. The Wall Street group noted that a lack of accepted standards can lead to confusion and disagreement between counterparties and service providers, particularly when data are calculated or ...

The Federal Reserve late last week reported a modest 0.6 percent increase in the volume of single-family mortgages outstanding during the third quarter of 2016, the fifth straight quarterly gain in a market finally recovering from the housing meltdown. Still, at $10.123 trillion, the supply of mortgage debt outstanding was $1.118 trillion below the level it reached at the end of 2007. Most of the growth in the third quarter came...[Includes two data tables]

“Mortgage originations get crushed,” according to the latest forecast from Freddie Mac’s economic and housing research group. A number of industry analysts have adjusted their originations forecasts as interest rates on mortgages have increased recently and could climb higher next year. “Mortgage market activity will be significantly reduced by higher mortgage rates, especially refinance originations, which are likely to be cut in half,” said Sean Becketti, Freddie’s chief economist ...

The share of borrowers who want to use a mobile device as part of the mortgage shopping and origination process has increased significantly in the past year, according to survey results from Fannie Mae. The demand for mortgage-related activities completed via cell phones should prompt action from lenders, according to Steve Deggendorf, a director of market insights research at Fannie. “Lenders such as Quicken and Sofi have already begun to reflect the mobile demands of ...

Commercial banks and savings institutions gently nudged their valuations of mortgage servicing rights slightly higher in the third quarter as higher interest rates reduced prepayment expectations. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call reports shows banks put a fair market value of $36.17 billion on their MSR assets at the end of the third quarter. That works out to 0.93 percent of the principal balance of $3.879 trillion of loans serviced for others, up from ... [Includes one data chart]

The FHA this week announced higher “floor” and “ceiling” loan limits for forward and reverse mortgages for 2017, pushing loan limits upward in certain metropolitan statistical areas by as much as $162,500. The loan-limit changes will take effect on Jan. 1, spurred by rising median home prices. The Case-Shiller Home Price Index for September reported that home prices increased 5.5 percent year-over-year, driven by a tight supply of homes for sale, especially in the West. Each year, FHA recalculates its loan limits based on 115 percent of the median house price in the area. For counties located in MSAs, the loan limit is calculated based on the highest-cost county within the MSA. Under the 2017 changes, FHA will raise its nationwide “floor,” or low-cost area mortgage limits, for one-unit properties to $275,665 from $271,050, a difference of $4,615. In high-cost areas, the loan-limit ceiling for a ... [ 2 charts ]