With Republicans now in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, Hensarling plans to make even more cuts to regulations for rating services.

Piper analyst Kevin Barker and his team estimate that so far in 1Q17, the average refi volume is down 26 percent from fourth quarter levels.

California mortgages account for the large chunk of collateral at 41.2 percent. Texas is a distant second at 10.4 percent.

Bradd Gold of Au Consulting LLC noted that in the year prior to their federal takeover, Fannie and Freddie sold $10 billion of GSE junior preferred.

Redwood CEO Marty Hughes said pricing for jumbo MBS is currently strong, with execution on issuance better than execution for whole loan sales.

Average credit scores in the FHA program drifted slightly lower, while climbing 1.9 points for VA loans.

Meanwhile, selling Ginnie Mae receivables is still a difficult task…

Moody’s said many of the contributors to the MBS are small, regional entities that lack the sophistication of larger, more established originators.

“Since reaching a trough in mid-2013, the rebound in household debt has been led by student debt and auto debt, with only sluggish growth in mortgage debt,” said one New York Fed official.

Once the GSEs turned it around and showed a whiff of profit the speculators pounced and bought the shares on the cheap...