Housing starts in the south were impacted by Hurricane Beryl though activity also declined modestly in some other regions in July.

UBS disclosed that it’s set to sell Select Portfolio Servicing, a major servicer of loans in non-agency MBS, to an unidentified buyer.

Sen. Jack Reed, D-RI, warned that credit-risk transfer issuance by banks could prompt a financial crisis. He asked the Fed to place limits on bank CRT activity.

A bank sought approval from the OCC to have a special purpose vehicle treated as a securitization for capital requirement purposes. The OCC demurred, noting that just because the transaction was an SPV didn’t make it an ABS.

The spring homebuying season helped to increase purchase-mortgage lending by 40% from the first quarter to the second. Still, the purchase sector lost some market share in the first half of the year as refi business percolates. (Includes five data tables.)

Interest rates on mortgages declined as the traditional homebuying season nears an end. Demand for purchase mortgages also continues to be limited by weak inventory of homes for sale and elevated home prices.

The servicing sales market has slowed this summer, but there are rumblings of activity. Freedom Mortgage, for instance, is peeling off a piece of its conventional portfolio. And a sale of SPS is in the works.

Correspondent and broker loans were more heavily weighted toward purchase mortgages in the second quarter compared with the retail channel.

Annaly Capital Management is set to issue its 12th expanded-credit MBS of the year.

Servicers have cited investments in technology to better track when a borrower might refinance, and investments in call center operations to complete the refis.