It was the lowest combined output for the three agencies since February 2016, when just $80.49 billion of new MBS were issued.

It didn’t really matter much what part of the mortgage market lenders focused on in late 2018, production fell by roughly equal degrees in the major product groups, according to an exclusive new Inside Mortgage Finance analysis. [Includes two data charts.]

New production of single-family MBS started the new year on a downbeat, with combined issuance by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae slipping to $80.72 billion in January, ac-cording to a new Inside MBS & ABS ranking and analysis. [Includes two data charts.]

The agency purchase-mortgage market saw a higher share of first-time homebuyers in 2018 and increased reliance on conventional financing rather than government mortgage insurance. [Includes one data chart.]

Publicly-owned commercial banks and thrifts reported widespread declines in mortgage banking income during the fourth quarter, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. [Includes one data chart.]

Lenders that sell single-family mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac became slightly more daring in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to an exclusive new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. [Includes two data charts.]

Expanded-credit was the only corner of the market that grew last year – by an estimated $7.6 billion…

Over the same timeframe, agency MBS production by commercial banks, thrifts and credit unions fell 17.2 percent…

Meanwhile, the wholesale-broker share of FHA/VA purchase lending inched up to 13.3% in 2018, a 40 bps upward wiggle…

CRT deals have redefined the Fannie/Freddie business model…