Mortgage lenders posted a net gain of $1,675 per origination in the second quarter, the best quarter the industry has seen since the third quarter of 2016, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a recent report.

Weighing in on how to fix the qualified mortgage rule, smaller lenders have suggested a higher debt-to-income ratio cap.

Originations are booming but the government’s latest reading on mortgage employment wasn’t exactly encouraging. Still, interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Trends reveal that many shops are looking to hire.

TD Bank was the top volume gainer among residential lenders in the second quarter but barely made the top 50 volume ranking in the first half of the year. Moral of story: the bigger you are, the harder it is to post huge percentage gains.

Expiration of the GSE “patch” will shift more risk to private securities and away from Fannie and Freddie. But, according to CoreLogic, dismantling the loophole will impact millennial borrowers and retirees.

Residential lenders had a blowout second quarter, increasing loan production by almost 60%. Will the third quarter be just as good?

A borrower’s liquidity situation seems to be a better indicator of potential default than LTV or DTI ratios, according to the JPMorgan Chase Institute. The institute suggests that the use of emergency mortgage reserve accounts could help alter the DTI ratio standards for qualified mortgages.

Originations are strong in many markets but hiring by mortgage banking firms is not particularly robust. Meanwhile, some executives wonder privately whether the rate rally is getting long in the tooth.

Falling interest rates are sometimes a bad thing — case in point is Mr. Cooper and negative MSR marks. Also, it’s been somewhat quiet on the M&A front but perhaps a change is in the wind.

Some industry participants are questioning the accuracy of the MBA’s refinance application index, suggesting that Google search trends are a better gauge.