Commercial banks held a combined $1.673 trillion of MBS at the end of the first quarter, maintaining their position as the largest investor class in the market...
The Federal Reserve reduced its holdings of agency MBS by $47 billion during the first quarter, but several other investor groups picked up the slack. Total MBS outstanding grew 0.4% during the first three months of the year.
It was the weakest reading on home-equity originations since early 2015, when production of closed-end seconds and new borrowing on home-equity lines of credit totaled an estimated $38.0 billion.
Home-equity lending fell 15% in the first quarter of 2019 as the total supply of HEL debt outstanding continued to shrink. Heavy cash-out refinancing was a factor.
The purchase-mortgage and refinance sectors saw nearly identical gains in Ginnie volume last month, with most of the refi increase in rate-term transactions.
Fannie posted the biggest increase over April MBS volume, while Freddie lagged behind. Purchase-mortgage business is on track for another annual climb.
Some of the sharp drop in non-agency jumbo securitization resulted from higher loan limits, but volume was buoyed by a large pool of seasoned loans sold to Freddie Mac.