RMBS

Mortgage application activity declined in the week ending June 17 with both refinancing and purchase activity lower as mortgage rates crept higher.

The keynote speakers at this week’s American Securitization Forum 2011 annual meeting in Washington D.C. gave a bipartisan call from U.S. representatives to save the 30-year mortgage, saying that without this product a significant portion of homebuyers will not be served.

Single-family existing home sales fell 3.2% in May as April sales were revised downward and severe weather hampered homebuying in the Midwest.

A new ruling yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has commingled three mortgage lawsuits against Bank of America (BofA) into one big legal effort, with a Pennsylvania pension fund taking the lead.

The RMBS private-label market will continue to be stalled by the still-weakened housing market, according to a Standard & Poor’s report. The release also warned investors not to mistake a potential flurry of issuance in the coming months with a lasting recovery.

The residential loan market is looking a little better these days, according to a new forecast from Fannie Mae.

Wells Fargo & Co. decided to exit reverse mortgages after federal officials insisted it foreclose on elderly customers who were behind on property tax and insurance payments, a Wells executive wrote in an email to business contacts Friday.

The nation’s top three megabanks – Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase – saw their second lien production volumes swoon in the first quarter, according to new figures compiled by National Mortgage News and the Quarterly Data Report.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have taken a big chunk of the Jumbo mortgage market away from private investors since 2008 when Congress raised the maximum GSE loan limit to $729,750, according to researchers at the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Ginnie Mae issuers sold $25.6 billion of MBS into the secondary market during May, down almost 4% from the previous month, according to new figures released by the Ginnie Mae.