Payoff removals fell 0.4% from July to August, and by 2.8% for FHA loans. The VA program, which sees much heavier refinance activity, recorded a 1.9% increase in payoff removals, edging up to its highest level of the year.

AmeriHome, according to its S-1, earned $275.0 million during the first six months of 2020, slightly less than its combined profit for 2019 and 2018 ($279.5 million.)

Talk about liquidity: the document reveals with this master repurchase deal under its belt, Quicken now has “total funding capacity”of $27.5 billion.

There was a huge gain in the securitization rate for conventional-conforming loans, up from 73.0% in the first quarter to 86.2% in the second.

In the first half of 2020, Caliber posted net income of $275.3 million compared to a loss of $59.4 million in the comparable period last year.

As mortgage banking veteran Bill Dallas of Finance of America put it: “This is clearly a unicorn year for the industry — I’ve never seen anything like it.”

In other words, unless forced to, originators don’t need to cut rates to gain customers because they’re swamped...

The April-June cycle marked the first time since the end of 2016 that bank retail lending exceeded wholesale production. Then again, in the call-report world, wholesale includes both loan purchases through correspondent operations and originations involving mortgage brokers.

The impairment rate on non-QM MBS declined by 70 basis points in August even as enhanced unemployment benefits ended in late July.

Fun fact: With correspondent losing share, many small and mid-sized firms began selling directly to the GSEs...