Mortgages

Experts expect only a small uptick in distressed mortgages, either through default or inability to refinance, which will create some opportunity for debt buyers

The data also showed that more purchase loans were made to low- and moderate-income borrowers last year, but fewer refinances.

Demand was strongest at the high end of the market, which pushed loan amounts up for the fourth straight month.

Radnor Re will pay interest on the notes out of proceeds on coverage premiums on private mortgage insurance contracts for residential mortgage loans.

A spike in government-sponsored applications helped lead indexes to their largest gains in several weeks.

Changed borrower psychology and the severe housing inventory shortage dropped lending activity across the board, according to Black Knight.

Meanwhile, National MI has been increasing its new insurance written by slightly widening its credit standards.

More than two-thirds surveyed said they expect to make less money over the next three months as price reductions ramp up along with a market shift to purchases.

But March's overall late payment rate was 1.3 percentage points higher than one year ago, while the 90-day-plus rate was 2.3 percentage points higher.

Home prices grew at a record annual pace in April but indicators of a possible slowdown popped up in May, Redfin noted.

The four-week high in forbearance exits also helped drive the considerable drop in plans, according to Black Knight.

Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, the Banking Committee's top Republican, is talking up the prospects of a bipartisan deal to overhaul Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Democratic leaders sound less motivated to change the status quo for the government-sponsored enterprises.

Refinancings more than doubled the year-ago amount and made up for the slowed purchase activity, according to Attom Data Solutions.

The company provides a secondary market outlet for its retail and wholesale lending corporate sibling as well as for small balance commercial loans.

For the first time since the pandemic began, the share of borrowers who are 30 days or more late on their payment is below 5%, Black Knight found.

Average loan size also continues to increase, as demand remains high and costs in homebuilding materials rise this year.

Only 0.9% of mortgage borrowers are currently at least 90 days delinquent. That figure could rise as high as 3.8% once pandemic-related deferrals lapse — still well below the 6% mark reached after the Great Recession, according to research by the New York Fed.

Economic recovery should soar into the summer as vaccination rates climb and restrictions loosen up, but low inventory is likely to limit mortgage activity into the next year, according to Fannie Mae.

Issuance of capital market instruments aimed at protecting one government-sponsored enterprise from distressed mortgage credit events staged a relatively quick rebound in 2020, a new Federal Housing Finance Agency report shows.

With little transitional disruption, the bigger players on the non-agency side could gain a hefty share of non-owner-occupied mortgage volume as a result of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s caps on such purchases, a KBRA analysis finds.