Commercial banks, savings institutions, credit unions and the Federal Reserve continued to buy agency MBS during the third quarter. Fannie and Freddie drove a 2.2% increase in residential MBS outstanding. (Includes two data charts.)
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae reported improvement in loan-performance rates in November. But early-payment defaults were up. (Includes data chart.)
New funding of home-equity loans rose in the third quarter as borrowers tapped into existing accounts, but banks generally shrank from writing new HELOC commitments. (Includes three data charts.)
Banks continued to retreat from the business of servicing home loans for other investors as nonbanks increased their MBS servicing by 6.6% in the third quarter. (Includes two data charts.)
Call-report data analyzed by Inside Mortgage Finance show that banks, thrifts and credit unions housed $371.4 billion of HELOCs on their balance sheets, down 3.1% from the second quarter.
Freedom Mortgage and PennyMac remained the top Ginnie MBS issuers in November, though their monthly production was down slightly. Quicken and Lakeview gained ground. (Includes two data charts.)
The top two REIT MBS investors shifted their portfolios during the third quarter without adding significantly to them, while other REITs grew their holdings aggressively. (Includes data chart.)