Year-to-date issuance climbed to $2.468 trillion at the end of October and should top $3 trillion based on the current pace. As of this writing, there appears to be plenty of gas still left in the tank.
Black Knight tracks daily performance data on over 23 million mortgages covering more than 60% of the market. MBA’s survey encompasses 38 million loans from roughly 50 servicers.
But the strong results are likely to cause some blowback. Come Dec. 1, their seller-servicers face a 50-basis point “adverse market” fee on most new refis. With Fannie and Freddie registering such strong profits — and with the forbearance picture continuing to improve — the rancor that lenders feel on the issue is likely to worsen.
On Friday, Black Knight Financial released its forbearance tally, saying cases declined by 11,000 units for the seven-day period, ending October 20. Roughly, three million mortgagors remain in active COVID-related relief programs, the analytics firm noted.
“While 2003 was a bigger overall mortgage year than 2020 will be, the GSE portion of the market is larger and will likely push this into the biggest year for Fannie and Freddie ever,” said Dave Stevens, the former FHA commissioner.