Reverse mortgage lenders started out strong in the first three month of 2018 with a 19.2 percent increase in Home Equity Conversion Mortgage production from the previous period. HECM endorsements totaled $5.4 billion in the first quarter, with purchase reverse loans accounting for the bulk of originations, 81.9 percent. First quarter production was up 18.5 percent from the same period last year. Meanwhile, HECM mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $2.97 billion for the quarter, down from $3.25 billion in the prior quarter, Ginnie Mae data showed. The top five HECM originators in sequential order – American Advisors Group, Reverse Mortgage Funding, One Reverse Mortgage, Liberty Home Equity Solutions, and Synergy One Lending – accounted for $1.66 billion, or 30.8 percent, of total production during the first quarter. American Advisors maintained its top ranking with $841.4 million of HECM loans, which ... [Charts]

Issuance of mortgage securities backed by USDA loans dropped during the first three months of 2018. Approximately $4.03 billion of rural housing loans with a USDA guarantee were delivered in Ginnie Mae MBS during the first quarter, down 18.3 percent from the previous quarter. Agency data also showed an 11.7 percent decline in USDA securitization volume from the same period a year ago. Rural housing loans accounted for 1.5 percent of all loans securitized in Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae pools and 2.8 percent of loans with private or government-backed mortgage insurance. Purchase loans comprised the bulk of USDA loans that were delivered into Ginnie MBS pools. PennyMac knocked Freedom Mortgage out of first place with a total of $753.3 million in securitized USDA loans despite a 10.4 percent decline in production. Freedom Mortgage accounted for $523.3 million of USDA loans pooled in ... [Charts]

Wells Fargo ranked first among non-agency jumbo originators, followed by Chase and Bank of America…

Bank buyers of MSRs favor packages that are at least $2 billion in size…

Servicing brokers such as Mark Garland, Steve Harris and Tom Piercy are seeing new entrants to the MSR-buying market…

Consultant Joe Garrett: "Salesmen don’t get paid less just because the company didn’t do well..."

Ginnie Mae has restricted three issuers from putting VA mortgages in standard multi-issuer MBS pools as it continues to police the ranks for alleged churning activities.

All three agencies saw gains from April volume with Fannie posting the biggest increase…

If you’re looking for a barometer on reform legislation passing, just take a peek at the share price of Fannie and Freddie common.

Ginnie said it is issuing these time-sensitive restrictions “in the interest of providing additional clarity and transparency to Ginnie MBS investors…”