On a year-to-date basis, mortgage sales were down 63.6 percent from the first half of 2013.

The biggest chunk of purchase business for the GSEs were loans ranging from $200,000 to $300,000, which accounted for 29.4 percent of their business.

Lenders financed $11.9 billion of conforming-jumbo mortgages – loans greater than $417,000 – through Fannie, Freddie and the FHA during the second quarter.

Although the Federal Reserve has tapered its agency MBS purchases significantly, the central bank continued to grow its holdings during the second quarter.

Bank of America was once again the buyback king at the midway point in 2014.

A number of banks have been motivated to reduce their MSR holdings because of concentration limits imposed by the emerging Basel risk capital rules.

Mortgage lenders securitized $90.95 billion of single-family MBS through the GSEs and Ginnie Mae during August – the biggest monthly volume since September 2013, according to IM&A.

When it comes to new originations, the laggard in the government-insured group has been the FHA program.

Can former FHFA director Ed DeMarco affect the debate on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? Can anyone?

Since the collapse of the non-agency market back in 2008, Fannie and Freddie have generally accounted for over 70 percent of new MBS production.