Underwriting

More depositories are getting involved in the securitized market and the competition is likely to add to expense management challenges of smaller balance loans.

Bank of America upped its forecast for non-qualified mortgage issuance, with investors, particularly insurers, buying these and other non-agency securities.

Rocket jumps first to raise 2027 conforming loan limits to $845,000, with Rate and CrossCountry matching; UWM's move still pending marking an early signal of IMB competitive positioning.

Bank of America Securities research shows this sector has had its best year since at least 2017, but some trends in the market point to a need for caution.

Non-QM securitizations hit $78B as lenders ease guidelines to capture unserved borrower demand, even as total impairments rise for the 10th time in 13 months to 6.27%.

The product expansion comes at a time when not just non-agency issuance is expected to have a record year, but other lenders are getting into wholesale.

As tech facilities push into lower income and rural housing markets, lenders navigate local growth without major impacts on home sales price trends.

On Aug. 14, over 30% of the loans sent to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from each company were scored using VantageScore 4.0.

Homeowners won't trade in their cheap mortgages so lenders keep finding other ways to reach that equity. Bond buyers keep showing up.

The company's affiliate has been issuing non-QM deals that include a small percentage of second liens, some of which also involve alternative documentation.

However, for the second quarter, increased home purchase mortgage activity contributed to an industry-wide 11% increase in agency securitizations, BTIG said.

Approximately 54% of homeowners looked to a second lien product to access their home's stored value in the first quarter due to the "lock-in effect."

Lenders at the MBA conference say non-agency is more than just non-QM — and those still treating it as a niche product are falling behind as it becomes a core part of the business.

The Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Credit Availability Index declined 0.4% to 107.9 in April after reaching a three-year high in March.

The latest government-sponsored enterprise changes include a more flexible sampling and a longer maximum term for some manufactured housing loans, respectively.

Hale Capital Management purchased Voxtur Analytics after a tumultuous past few years that included financial struggles, and rebranded it as Apex Analytics.

Nonagency underwriting is expanding but the public sector is a different story due to recent performance issues, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The company dropped the broker channel just months after Frank Martell became CEO; now that Anthony Hsieh is running things again, LoanDepot brought it back.

November rate locks fell seasonally but hit their strongest level since 2021, led by refis, while lenders shifted more loans to the GSE cash window.

Bill Pulte's X post has the industry excited that loan level price adjustments could change, but the impact would not be as beneficial as some think, KBW said.