In April, Wells Fargo was the top seller of mortgages to Fannie and Freddie with $9.02 billion, followed by Quicken Loans and JPMorgan Chase…

In the new Trump budget, the White House takes an ax to the USDA’s rural single-family housing direct loan program.

Entering a future downturn with “extensive short-funded, long-asset positions would be imprudent,” said FHFA Director Mel Watt.

PHH Mortgage continues to ooze losses as well…

Meanwhile, although GSE risk sharing seems popular in some circles, FHFA itself admitted recently that some of this coverage has come at premium cost to Fannie and Freddie.

How well do you know your mortgage counterparties?

Since Watt’s recent testimony, GSE speculators like Pershing Square and Fairholme have been mostly quiet.

The low trading volume is an indication that liquidity is drying up, but it also reflects a decline in new agency MBS being created.

In a number of cases, GSE seller-servicers cleaned up pipelines of pending or disputed buyback demands.

The purchase-mortgage business showed some green shoots in April, but not enough to offset another drop in refinance activity, according to a new Inside The GSEs ranking and analysis. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac securitized $31.84 billion of purchase mortgages last month, a 12.2 percent increase from March. It was the third straight monthly gain in purchase-mortgage volume, bringing year-to-date activity to $123.46 billion, a 13.6 percent improvement over the same period in 2016. Purchase mortgages accounted for over half of GSE business in April for the first time since August of last year. But the refinance side of the business fell again in April, to just $25.49 billion. That was down 17.8...