Purchase mortgages securitized by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie in the first quarter of 2014 were down by 76.3 percent compared with the first quarter of 2013.
The CFPB needs to up its game and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its supervisory activities, according to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Office of Inspector General, the IG for the bureau. “Specifically, we found that the CFPB needs to improve its reporting timeliness and reduce the number of examination reports that have not been issued, adhere to its unequivocal standards concerning the use of standard compliance rating definitions in its examination reports, and update its policies and procedures to reflect current practices,” the OIG said. The report contains 12 recommendations designed to assist the CFPB in strengthening its supervision program, one of which is to monitor the timeliness of examination reporting against the requirements the agency...
The first three months of 2014 represented the strongest quarterly ABS issuance number since the third quarter of 2009, when $53.27 billion of new deals were issued. It was up a modest 1.7 percent from the strong start in 2013.
HMBS Quarterly Issuance Down by 30 Percent. Issuance of securitized Home Equity Conversion Mortgages remained low as HMBS issuers created only $510.1 million in new HMBS pools during March, the third lowest total in almost five years, according to the latest market analysis by New View Advisors. This brought HMBS issuance in the first quarter of 2014 to $1.7 billion, the lowest quarterly total in nearly five years, said NVA. By comparison, HMBS issuance totaled $2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013 and $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2014. 1Q14 has the lowest HMBS issuance since 2Q09, when the program was at its infancy. In March, 86 HMBS pools consisting of 41 original issuances and 45 tail pools were issued. Original HMBS issuances refer to a pool of HECM loans securitized for the first time, while tail HMBS issuances are pools created from the uncertificated portions of HECMs that have ...
Overall FHA production fell significantly in all 50 states in 2013 apparently due to mortgage insurance premium increases and policy changes that made it difficult for even qualified borrowers to obtain an FHA-insured single-family loan. FHA volume by state dropped 27.5 percent in the fourth quarter to $35.8 billion, from $49.4 billion in the previous quarter, with all states showing varying percentages of decline during the period. Year over year, production by state declined by 9.2 percent, data showed. Total FHA originations were $211.3 billion for 2013, with the first quarter ending strongly with $63.7 billion. Production, however, lost steam over the next three quarters. Among the top five FHA states, Virginia suffered the largest quarterly drop, 35.2 percent, in FHA volume. California was the top FHA producer state with $35.2 billion for a ... [2 charts]
The Mortgage Bankers Association is urging the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide a transparent process by which interested parties could request a recalculation of the FHA loan limits and present supporting evidence. By statute, maximums for FHA loan limits in high-cost areas were reduced to $625,500 from $729,750 at the beginning of the year for one-unit residential properties, the same maximum loan limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for similar properties in high-cost areas. The MBA said HUD made further reductions in FHA FY 2014 loan limits in approximately 300 counties and county equivalents across the country, with many experiencing significant reductions. The trade group believes these changes were not required by statute. To the extent that the loan-limit reductions in those areas were discretionary, the MBA strongly urged HUD to moderate its ...
FHFA Director Mel Watt may have something to say soon on the topic of Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac loan level price adjustments, commonly known as LLPAs. As for the GSE 'Scorecard'...
The price of agency MBS has been rising since early April, which can only mean good things for publicly-traded real estate investment trusts that own the asset class. However, REIT share prices haven’t improved much of late, with some companies such as Annaly Capital Management continuing to trade closer to their 52-week lows than their highs. Late this week, for instance, Annaly – one of the largest MBS investing REITs – was trading at $11.30 compared to a 52-week high of $15.98 and a low of $9.66. But better days may be...
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