Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac racked up $25.19 billion in combined net income in 2018, their most profitable year since 2013, when earnings were inflated by accounting rules for deferred tax assets. [Includes one data chart.]

FHA and VA business saw a modest uptick in market share during the fourth quarter of 2018, but last year was all about the surge of the private mortgage insurance industry. [Includes two data charts.]

In terms of new insurance written during 2018, the market leaders were Arch, Radian and MGIC…

Wells Fargo, Quicken Loans and PennyMac ranked first, second and third, respectively, in loan sales to Fannie and Freddie during January…

Much of the mortgage earnings damage took place at the top…

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.]