The new licensing requirement represents a major shift for the MBS market, with participants scrambling to either comply or avoid loans in the state. A challenge to the requirements appears likely.

The wildfires add new challenges to California’s growing property insurance and housing affordability crisis.

WaFd Bank is ending its mortgage origination activity; TD Bank is considering selling jumbo mortgages; some banks are still increasing their mortgage business; President Trump issues order on housing, freezes regulatory efforts.

TD held $42.98 billion of first-lien mortgages in portfolio as of the end of September.

Economic uncertainty will require mortgage companies to be more flexible in how they scale their operations.

The new PM Max program provides outsourcing services for MBS and ABS portfolios.

Property insurance challenges and rising home values could make it difficult for homeowners to rebuild after the California wildfires.

Expanded-credit MBS issuance rose 13.2% in the fourth quarter of 2024 while prime non-agency MBS volume was down 2.9%.

Nick Bhargava, co-founder and executive vice president of regulatory affairs at Groundfloor Financing, said the current lack of affordable housing inventory has caused real estate investors to look to fix and flip more properties.

KBRA said 24 of its rated RMBS transactions have more than 5% exposure to properties located in the counties affected by the LA fires.