Redwood Trust is preparing to issue an expanded-prime mortgage-backed security that will be somewhat smaller than others issued by the real estate investment trust. Sequoia Mortgage Trust 2018-CH3 will be a $417.0 million issuance, according to a presale report by Kroll Bond Rating Agency. In May, Redwood issued a $520.5 million expanded-prime deal and the firm issued a $444.3 million MBS in February. Mortgages in the deals are largely similar and the pending issuance has ...

Originations of higher-priced conventional mortgages increased by 20.1 percent on an annual basis to $36.01 billion in 2017, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets of data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. Higher-priced mortgages are loans that have an annual percentage rate higher than a threshold for the “average prime offer rate” on a comparable mortgage. First-lien mortgages with an APR ... [Includes two data charts]

In a recent comment letter submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Mortgage Bankers Association argued for changes to regulations in an effort to boost originations of non-agency mortgages. The trade group cited problems with Appendix Q of the ability-to-repay rule and called for the government-sponsored enterprise “patch” for qualified mortgages to be extended to jumbo mortgages. Appendix Q sets QM standards for non-agency mortgages that aren’t eligible for sale to the GSEs or government-insured

Borrower complaints about nontraditional mortgage products from nonbanks in California decreased in 2017, according to the state’s Department of Business Oversight. The California DBO said nonbank lenders and servicers received 12,963 complaints about nontraditional mortgages, down 11.1 percent from 2016. However, officials at the DBO cautioned against making comparisons between data for 2016 and 2017 because the number of ... [Includes two briefs]

The spring homebuying season fueled a relatively modest increase in production of Ginnie Mae single-family mortgage-backed securities during the second quarter of 2018, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending ranking and analysis. Lenders issued $98.66 billion of Ginnie MBS backed by forward mortgages during the April-May cycle. That was up 6.6 percent from the first three months of the year, but 2018 continued to lag behind the pace set in 2017 by 10.7 percent. Given current trends, annual Ginnie MBS issuance in 2018 could fall short of the $400 billion mark for the first time since 2014. The flow of FHA and VA purchase mortgages was up a solid 23.7 percent from the first to the second quarter, bringing the total for the first half of the year to $121.01 billion. However, that was down 4.7 percent from the same period in 2017. Ginnie securitized $75.02 billion of FHA purchase loans in the ... [Charts]

Holdings of first-lien residential mortgages by banks and thrifts increased in the first quarter of 2018, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Banks and thrifts held $2.025 trillion of first-lien home loans as of the end of the first quarter, up 0.5 percent from December 2017 and up 4.8 percent from March of last year. Trends varied somewhat among the 10 largest holders of first liens, with some posting large gains on an ... [Includes one data chart]

Credit Suisse issued a large prime non-agency mortgage-backed security this week with an unprecedented lack of disclosure: the single lender that provided loans for the deal wasn’t identified in presale reports. Fitch Ratings and Morningstar Credit Ratings placed AAA ratings on the $1.60 billion CSMC 2018-J1 Trust. It is the second largest post-crisis non-agency MBS backed by new originations. All of the loans in the deal were “acquired from a single originator in a bulk purchase ...

Several non-agency mortgage-backed securities closed before the end of the second quarter. A nonprime deal in the works from Verus Mortgage Capital could be issued early in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase closed two non-agency MBS in June: a $938.2 million issuance backed by loans from Chase and other originators and a $490.5 million deal backed by a variety of seasoned mortgages originated by First Republic Bank. Some 59.2 percent of the mortgages in the larger Chase deal ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac holdings of nonprime mortgage assets continued to decline in the first quarter of 2018, although changes in how the two government-sponsored enterprises report this data make comparisons to earlier periods difficult. Fannie reported $3.42 billion fair market value of its nonprime MBS holdings as of the end of March, though this appears to result from moving some of these assets from its available-for-sale portfolio to ... [Includes one data chart]

The issues behind the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s draft FHA condominium rules are “too complex” but lenders may expect a final rule in September, said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. Carson’s announcement of a release date for the long-anticipated condominium rules eases the mounting pressure on the secretary and the department to finalize the draft rules. On June 18, 54 senators and 120 members of the House signed a letter urging Carson to implement the changes in H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act, which would ease FHA requirements for financing condo purchases and refinancings. The bill was signed into law on July 29, 2016, and HUD published a proposed condo rule two months later. “We have been pushing it,” Carson said during a House committee oversight hearing this week. “It is a complex issue because when you are talking ...