Wells Fargo was the top seller to the GSEs in the first quarter with $22.75 billion, followed by Quicken Loans ($11.33 billion) and JPMorgan Chase ($6.87 billion).

The gains in retail and broker share came at the expense of the correspondent channel, where total GSE sales fell 7.4 percent from the fourth quarter…

Some 59.6 percent of new issuance in the first quarter consisted of re-securitizations and deals backed by seasoned re-performing and nonperforming loans...

Private mortgage insurance firms adjusted their pricing in early 2016…

Early 2016 was the slowest market in a year for Ginnie MBS production...

In 1Q, the residential MBS sector was down 7.1 percent from 4Q15 with $277.05 billion in new issuance. It was the lowest output since the second quarter of 2014...

There was a modest 1.8 percent increase in refinance business, and refi loans accounted for over half (52.1 percent) of GSE business in the first quarter – the first time refi activity exceeded purchase lending since early last year.

This so-called agency “patch” was set up to last for seven years, or until 2021...

The link between loan sales and mortgage-banking income can be squishy…

Except for 2012, the biggest year in program activity, most of the loans originated under HARP had rates above today’s levels.