Still, April MBS issuance by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell short of the anemic $47.0 billion issued in January of this year.

The first-quarter high-LTV refi market was down 37.1 percent from the fourth quarter and off a hefty 79 percent from the $51.4 billion of business the two GSEs did back in the first three months of last year.

During the first quarter of 2014, nonbank lenders accounted for 37.7 percent of originations, based on a market sample covering over three quarters of fundings during the period.

Who gave up market share to nonbank lenders? The biggest decline was among banks with over $1 trillion in assets: JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup.

Commercial mortgage securitization – including non-agency commercial MBS and multifamily securitizations by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae – declined by 22.1 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

Despite the ugliness of the first quarter, there are signs that loan production may finally be firming up.

The market share for the top five sellers to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac fell to 33.3 percent in the first quarter of 2014.

Originations by six major banks in the first quarter of 2014 fell by 27.9 percent compared with the previous quarter.

Purchase mortgages securitized by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie in the first quarter of 2014 were down by 76.3 percent compared with the first quarter of 2013.

The first three months of 2014 represented the strongest quarterly ABS issuance number since the third quarter of 2009, when $53.27 billion of new deals were issued. It was up a modest 1.7 percent from the strong start in 2013.