New home-equity originations on home-equity lines of credit and closed-end second mortgages fell by 6.3 percent from the fourth quarter to an estimated $45.0 billion. However, that was up 18.4 percent from the first quarter of last year.

The three agencies produced $114.71 billion of new single-family MBS last month, a 5.3 percent increase from April’s volume.

Although purchase-mortgage lending is expected to pick up considerably in the second and third quarters, the refi market isn’t dead yet.

The banking industry sold $145.3 billion of home mortgages during the first quarter, a 5.1 percent decline from the previous period.

Fannie Mae’s Robert Schaefer said there is a “high probability” the mortgage giant will be part of an MI transaction later this year that addresses the “pain points” the GSE sees in the deeper MI concept.

There are about 75 correspondent buyers in the market today, but that figure will winnow down to about 60 as margins stay tight...

Wells Fargo reported an 11.7 percent increase in its conventional-conforming originations during the first quarter, but the company’s GSE loan sales fell 12.2 percent on a sequential basis – quite a differential.

The top retail producer in 1Q was Wells Fargo, the top table-funder United Wholesale Mortgage…

“We also have to pay more attention to third-party financing and third-party document custodians that new issuers are relying on,” Drayne added.

Although the CSS joint venture has a projected budget and multi-year budget plan, it is working with FHFA about when to release that information…