In general, mortgage-related earnings were strong at the nation's banks in the second quarter, but clearly earnings "leakage" is underway. And yes, gain-on-sale is starting to slip.

Redwood Trust, not surprisingly, was the top jumbo MBS issuer in the first half of 2013, according to exclusive rankings from Inside MBS & ABS.

First-time homebuyers accounted for 33 percent of all GSE-securitized purchase mortgages in the first half, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both saw production slow during the second quarter, by 7 percent and 2 percent, respectively.

The two GSEs securitized $56 billion of home loans that included private MI coverage during the second quarter, a 12 percent jump from 1Q.

Agency MBS accounted for 98 percent of credit union investments in mortgage securities, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

Roughly $495 billion of residential MBS and non-mortgage ABS were issued during the second quarter of 2013, according to a new Inside MBS & ABS market analysis.

The silver lining in the 2Q numbers is a strengthening home-purchase market. Fannie and Freddie securitized $81.7 billion of home-purchase mortgages during the second quarter, their highest quarterly volume since the second quarter of 2009.

Japanese investors increased their holdings of agency MBS by $32 billion and even boosted their non-agency MBS investments by $1.4 billion.

Mortgage bankers continue to talk about declining refi applications but purchase money firms remain mostly optimistic about their prospects.