Mortgage brokers accounted for a record 14.8% of single-family business in the agency MBS market during the second quarter. Credit trends suggest sellers may have focused on the low-hanging fruit as production volume ramped up significantly. Read More

California remained the largest source of insured home loans securitized by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie in the second quarter, and it had relatively large concentrations of FHA and VA mortgages. Read More

Originations are strong in many markets but hiring by mortgage banking firms is not particularly robust. Meanwhile, some executives wonder privately whether the rate rally is getting long in the tooth. Read More

A borrower’s liquidity situation seems to be a better indicator of potential default than LTV or DTI ratios, according to the JPMorgan Chase Institute. The institute suggests that the use of emergency mortgage reserve accounts could help alter the DTI ratio standards for qualified mortgages. Read More

Fitch is concerned about the performance of commercial MBS backed by student housing loans, as it has been the largest contributor to overall multifamily defaults. Read More

Low revenues, high expenses and trend lines moving in the wrong direction are causing large bank-owned mortgage companies to underperform compared to independent mortgage banks in the retail space, according to a report by Stratmor Group. Read More

Falling interest rates are sometimes a bad thing — case in point is Mr. Cooper and negative MSR marks. Also, it’s been somewhat quiet on the M&A front but perhaps a change is in the wind. Read More