The wholesale-broker channel appears to be gaining ground in the tightly competitive primary market in agency conforming mortgages. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals that broker originations accounted for 12.5% of single-family loans pooled in agency mortgage-backed securities during the first quarter of 2019. That represented a substantial leap of 1.3 percentage points from the broker share of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae ... [Includes two data charts.]

The mortgage market expects output to be flat this year, but digital mortgage lender Better.com said it could double its production to $2.5 billion. “We did about $1.3 billion last year, which is three times what we did in 2017,” the company’s President Jerry Selitto said.

loanDepot this week launched a digital mortgage product, mello smartloan, promising quick turn times for more than half of its loan applicants. The nonbank lender claims borrowers can now close their mortgages in just eight days.

As mortgage profits weaken, two banks that have had a foothold in residential finance for several decades are taking different paths. One, TIAA Bank, Jacksonville, FL, is exiting traditional retail but staying in the mortgage space. The other, Provident Savings Bank, Riverside, CA, is getting out entirely.

The agency purchase-mortgage market saw a higher share of first-time homebuyers in 2018 and increased reliance on conventional financing rather than government mortgage insurance. [Includes one data chart.]

The mortgage industry is bracing for a flat year in terms of volume due to higher mortgage rates, a slowing economy and weak loan demand. [Includes one data chart.]

Lenders that sell single-family mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became slightly more daring in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to an exclusive new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. [Includes two data charts.]

Private mortgage insurers continued to expand their presence in the flow of purchase-money mortgages into mortgage-backed securities issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae. In 2018, lenders sold $243.54 billion of purchase loans with private MI coverage to Fannie and Freddie, a sturdy 13.8 percent rise from 2017, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Private mortgage insurance accounted for 46.8 percent of agency ... [Includes two data charts]