An unspecified number of counties would have been assigned lower loan limits, based on house price trends, but the FHFA weighed “other factors” and left them unchanged.

The biggest gain in bank MBS investment during the third quarter was in non-agency securities.

The increase in g-fees last year made all three loan-purpose categories more profitable.

Based on the run-rate of the first nine months, HEL production could top almost $67 billion in 2014, which would be the best year since 2009.

For the first nine months of 2014, the group reported $10.94 billion in net mortgage-banking income, a stunning 43 percent decline from the same period in 2013

Although Wells Fargo officially exited the broker market two years ago, it apparently still does a tiny amount of business through the channel.

In fact, it was the highest quarterly volume in new flow business for the MI sector since the second quarter of 2008.

The MBS gain was lopsided: Ginnie MBS issuance jumped 10.8 percent from September to October, while Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac suffered declines.

The nonbank expansion has eased over the past few quarters because once-hungry buyers of receivables such as Ocwen, Nationstar and Walter Investment are no longer gobbling up huge portfolios.

The biggest chunk of GSE business comes from mortgages with high credit scores and LTV ratios below 80 percent.