“March 31 servicing marks were up significantly from where they were at Dec. 31,” said George Christo, executive vice president of The Prestwick Group.

On the plus side: revenues at Freddie increased 4.9% from the fourth quarter of last year...

The top three home lenders in the first quarter: Quicken Loans, PennyMac Financial Services and Wells Fargo. UWM and Freedom Mortgage were a close fourth and fifth, respectively.

Servicers also repurchased $20.22 billion of delinquent loans from Ginnie MBS in the first quarter, or 9.3% of total removals.

This early tally — five of the seven typically rank among the top 20 lenders in the nation — suggests the mortgage originations train was holding steady on the tracks, though anecdotal evidence suggests the steam is dissipating.

United Wholesale Mortgage ceded the top spot after it stopped originating jumbos in March 2020 due to volatility from the coronavirus.

Driving the improvement (no pun intended): the auto lending and leasing sector.

Sales of purchase loans with private MI coverage fell 21.7%, while Ginnie recorded somewhat more modest declines in FHA (16.0%) and VA (18.0%) volume.

The tide has turned on new loan applications, at least for now...

The combined overall delinquency rate for Fannie and Freddie dropped to 2.57% at the end of March...