Business is booming at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac thanks to a healthy surge in refinance activity, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis of mortgage-backed securities issued by the two government-sponsored enterprises during the first quarter of 2015. Fannie and Freddie issued a total of $189.92 billion of single-family MBS during the first three months of the year. That was up 5.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2014, and it marked the biggest output for the GSEs since the third quarter of 2013. Early 2015 was leaps and bounds ahead of the pace set during the same period last year, which marked a 14-year low in mortgage production. All of the oomph came...[Includes three data charts]

Most analysts are confident that private mortgage insurance companies will not see their ratings downgraded due to increased competition from the FHA as well as new capital requirements for private MIs proposed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. But Zacks Investment Research, a research firm that ranks and rates investment products for investors, went against the grain and downgraded MGIC Investment Corp. by two notches due exactly to those reasons. While private MIs have been gaining market share in the last couple of years, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. and its business competitors will find...

Residential originations for the group fell 45.7 percent from 2013, indicating that profit margins shrank slightly more than production volume.

According to a March forecast, Fannie Mae estimates that $1.239 trillion of residential loans will be funded this year.

Mid-range credit scores – from 700 to 739 – accounted for 21.3 percent of Fannie and Freddie business last year.

Meanwhile, according to interviews conducted by IMFnews with certain warehouse consultants, profits have been quite good during the first quarter...

Mortgage companies repurchased or provided indemnification to Fannie and Freddie on some $4.046 billion of mortgages during 2014.

Loan modification tactics varied based on whether a mortgage was serviced for Fannie/Freddie or was non-agency in nature.

The refinance program for performing, underwater Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages staggered to a five-year low during 2014, but government officials are thinking about keeping it on life support for another year. The Home Affordable Refinance Program is slated to expire at the end of 2015. Although the Federal Housing Finance Agency has barnstormed around the country trying to drum up business, activity in the program has fallen steadily since ... [Includes two data charts]

Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee have introduced legislation that would provide private and government risk-share coverage to all mortgages, create a single MBS and decommission Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Introduced by Reps. Jim Himes, D-CT, John Delaney, D-MD, and John Carney, D-DE, the bill would require Ginnie Mae to run an MBS program that combines private capital with government re-insurance in lieu of the current federal ...