House buyers are increasingly using mortgage financing when purchasing homes, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance HousingPulse Tracking Survey. The shift has been prompted in part by a decline in the investor share of home purchases. Some 69.9 percent of homes purchased in April were completed with non-cash financing, up from a 69.7 percent share the previous month and 68.5 percent in April 2013, based on three-month moving averages. Tom Popik, research director of Campbell Surveys, said...
Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency has backed away from radically reducing the government sponsored enterprises’ role in the mortgage market, some non-agency lenders believe more of the conventional market might be up for grabs if the FHFA overhauls GSE guaranty fees and loan-level pricing adjustments. There isn’t likely to be much market opened up based on loan amount; FHFA Director Mel Watt has ruled out any change in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits. But the FHFA is actively engaging the industry and will be seeking formal comment on guaranty fees and LLPAs. Under current LLPAs, if a borrower has a low FICO score, low downpayment or other “risk factors,” they pay...
Seven lenders reported net losses during the first three months of 2014, but 12 of the firms showed stronger results than they had in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Taken as a barometer of industry activity, Wells Fargo's prediction is hardly good news for a business that is facing an ugly 40 percent decline in fundings this year.
Loan modifications that reduce principal and interest payments by at least 10 percent perform significantly better than other mods, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The Mortgage Bankers Association continues to trim its production forecast for 2014 as the year progresses. Still, some lenders are hopeful and most of them are nonbanks.
S&P rated seven of the 11 non-agency MBS issued in the first three months of 2014, or 78 percent based on dollar volume, according to Inside MBS & ABS.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will ramp up their risk-sharing transactions significantly in 2014, and may see a somewhat expanded share of MBS issuance, under a new conservatorship plan announced this week by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. The revised “scorecard” also tweaks the project to develop a common securitization platform. The FHFA said it wants each of the two government-sponsored enterprises to structure transactions that transfer some portion of the credit risk on $90 billion of residential MBS this year, three times the level they were directed to reach last year. Both companies appear to be well on the way to meeting this requirement. Freddie late last month announced...
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