Retail platforms benefited the most from a huge increase in agency refinance business from the first to the second quarter. First-time buyers held on in a precarious housing market. (Includes two data charts.)
Banks and thrifts reported significant declines in mortgage originations and loan sales during the first quarter of 2020, but they ended the period with a huge pipeline of pending secondary-market activity. (Includes data chart.)
Timing is everything. The majority of the loans, 63.0%, went into forbearance status in April and many of these borrowers may have already made their May payment.
With one big exception — Freedom Mortgage — correspondent platforms saw declining production of FHA/VA loans in the first quarter. Retail was fairly steady, while wholesale-broker gained momentum. (Includes data chart.)
Roughly 10% of loans backing Ginnie Mae MBS at the end of May were in forbearance because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but over a quarter of them were still current. (Includes data chart.)
S&P, Moody’s and DBRS made the most of the surge in rated ABS issuance during the first quarter. Kroll and Moody’s managed to increase non-agency MBS ratings in a declining market. (Includes two data charts.)