One positive trend for the mortgage insurance sector is that the growth in business during the second quarter was squarely in purchase mortgages and traditional MI loan-to-value ranges.

Marc Savitt, president of the National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, said he is seeing more lenders entering the wholesale channel. Most are nonbanks.

The most encouraging sign is that agency volume has been gaining pace. Production increased by 11.4 percent from May to June, with $76.48 billion in gross issuance.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued $141.83 billion of single-family MBS during the second quarter, an encouraging 9.4 percent increase from the dreary levels recorded in the first three months of 2014.

The sale of mortgages by banks took it on the chin in the first quarter. Lower originations is one explanation but are banks keeping more of their own production?

The most profitable business for Fannie and Freddie is loans with high credit scores and LTV ratios of 60 percent or less.

The home-equity origination market rebounded somewhat during 2013, but none of these loans are winding up in new securities.

Declining mortgage debt is good news for consumers, but not-so-good news for lenders. Then again, this trend can't last. Or can it?

The agency MBS market did grow by a slight 0.1 percent during the first quarter, but all of the credit goes to Ginnie Mae.

However, two of the largest home-equity lenders – Bank of America and Chase – both reported modest increases in production during the first quarter, up 3.1 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively.