Foreclosures | Mortgages | Financing
Moving into the holiday weekend, new mortgage business turned sharply lower. After surging in the previous report, jumbo lending activity plummeted.
An indication of upcoming originations, the U.S Mortgage Market Index from Mortgage Daily and OpenClose, was 113 in the week ended Dec. 23.
The index, which is not adjusted for seasonal factors, tumbled 26 percent from a week earlier. But compared to the same week last year, it was up 3 percent.
From:: Financing
A trio of legal actions by the government are related to toxic residential mortgage-backed securities and include two settlements for more than $12 billion.
The actions were taken by the Department of Justice against three European financial institutions over their alleged roles in the issuance and sale of RMBS.
They are likely the last major RMBS actions to be taken as part of the Obama administration’s aggressive prosecution of banks blamed for the financial crisis.
From:: Financing
Weekly mortgage rates surged to the highest level in more than two-and-a-half years, and the outlook is for them to stay put.
Thirty-year note rates averaged 3.81 percent on all residential loans that were closed during the month of November 2016.
Mortgage rates climbed 5 basis points from the previous month, while they were down from 4.23 percent a year previous.
From:: Financing
Residential business held up at the Federal Housing Administration, with refinances accounting for a bigger share of endorsements. But monthly loan performance deteriorated.
FHA finished the first month of its fiscal-year 2017 with insurance in force on 8,460,037 single-family loans, home-equity conversion mortgages and Title I loans for $1.2538 trillion.
The agency’s book of business was 8,461,151 loans for $1.2518 trillion as of Sept. 30, 2016, while it stood at 8,410,847 insured loans for $1.2261 trillion as of Nov. 30, 2015.
From:: Financing
Although mortgage delinquency has deteriorated for three consecutive months, the number of loans in foreclosure fell to an almost 10-year low.
Residential loans that were delinquent at least 30 days or in the foreclosure pre-sale inventory numbered 2.761 million as of Nov. 30, 2016.
That was 55,000 more non-current loans than as of the end of the prior month. But it was 428,000 fewer units than as of the same point last year.
From:: Financing
The share of mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that are originated or serviced by non-bank companies has risen sharply in the last five years.
Non-depository firms that are unaffiliated with commercial banks originated less than 10 percent of single-family loans purchased by Fannie and Freddie in 2010.
But there has been a dramatic shift in loan originations for the government-sponsored enterprises, with non-banks generating nearly half of GSE business in 2015.
From:: Financing
Monthly business was modestly higher at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., as was the government-sponsored enterprise’s portfolio.
Freddie Mac’s total mortgage portfolio concluded November at $1.9948 trillion. The balance was up from $1.9891 trillion a month earlier.
The McLean, Virginia-based firm’s total portfolio also rose compared to the same date a year earlier, when the balance came to $1.9319 trillion.
From:: Financing
Even though interest rates on home loans have ascended to the highest level in more than two-and-a-half years, new mortgage applications still accelerated.
Loan applications during the week ended Dec. 16, as measured by the Market Composite Index, rose a seasonally adjusted 3 percent from the prior week.
Even when seasonal adjustments are not applied, new applications for residential loans still moved higher by 2 percent on a week-over-week basis.
From:: Financing
As U.S. residential lenders saw mortgage production soar on a quarterly basis, non-bank originators grabbed market share from their financial institution counterparts.
The country’s mortgage banking firms collectively originated $568 billion in home loans during the period that started on July 1, 2016, and concluded on Sept. 30.
Production accelerated from the previous three-month period, when the total was $488 billion, and the same quarter last year, when it was an upwardly revised $435 billion.
From:: Financing
Over the past year, average loan-to-value ratios and debt-to-income ratios are lower on mortgage originations, as is the accompanying risk.
The inaugural Housing Credit Index, a new measure of loan risk compared to 2001, came in at 48 as of the third quarter of this year.
That turned out to be lower than during the same three-month period last year, indicating that the level of risk on residential loans has fallen.
From:: Financing