Industry representatives and policy wonks diverge in their opinions about whether federal financial regulators will put out a final rule or another proposed final rule as the next step in the long-delayed risk-retention rule for asset securitizers. The qualified residential mortgage designation – which would exempt non-agency MBS from the five percent risk-retention requirement – has been one of the biggest controversies. According to Politico, the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to hold up a final deal because its staff thinks a minimum downpayment requirement for QRM would better protect investors. Under the latest version of the rule, the QRM definition would be synched...

Unlike a lot of other housing-market data, the MBS figures are not seasonally adjusted, though they are seasonally affected.

"The ECB has a real problem on its hands," said Barry Habib, who runs MBS Highway, an analytics firm that offers lenders advice on when to lock rates.

Lenders that upstream product to the megabanks through correspondent loan sales are beginning to worry that because profits were so weak during the first quarter – or nonexistent – they might be cut off as sellers. Moreover, lenders fret that some of the largest players might shut the door on them for a different reason: they can’t deliver enough volume in an origination-challenged market. Speculation has focused...

Progressive policy groups and low-income housing advocates ramped up their calls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to honor their legislatively mandated affordable housing commitment to finance the National Housing Trust Fund, and industry observers speculate that the government-sponsored enterprises’ regulator is inclined to reverse course … when the timing is right. Two weeks ago, a letter spearheaded by the Center for American Progress with a dozen co-signers renewed calls to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mel Watt to lift the GSE funding moratorium and begin channeling funds to the National Housing Trust Fund and the Capital Magnet Fund. Notably absent from Watt’s first major policy speech as FHFA director last month was...

New originations of both refinance loans and purchase mortgages fell sharply from the fourth quarter, with the biggest slump in the refi market, according to a new Inside Mortgage Finance ranking and analysis. An estimated $104 billion of refinance loans were originated in the first quarter, down 45.6 percent from the end of 2013. Compared to a year ago, refi production was down 76.2 percent. Refinance originations hit a cyclical high at the end of 2012 and early 2013, averaging nearly $440 billion per quarter, and it’s been going down steadily since then. With interest rates dropping in recent weeks, some mortgage observers say...[Includes one data chart]

With interest rates dropping in recent weeks, some mortgage observers say there’s a chance that the refi market could rebound.

And it doesn't appear that Millennials are willing to give you much to save for a mortgage downpayment either.

One warehouse executive, speaking under the condition his name not be used, said “Luckily for us, compared to January, things are great.”

In the first quarter, among the top ten, the biggest correspondent production gainers were Nationstar Mortgage and Stonegate Mortgage, both nonbanks.