Fitch

Starter home inventory is letting up, and the growth in supply seems to be more of a market shift than a temporary change, according to Zillow.

Late payments on loans backing commercial mortgage bonds continued falling at the start of the year, due to strong new issuance volume and continued resolutions for precrisis loans by special servicers, according to Fitch Ratings.

Residential mortgage-backed securities servicers are better able to weather a downturn and the resulting loan defaults today versus before the crisis because of their investments in technology and regulatory compliance, Fitch Ratings said.

Loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities originated after 2009 by nonbank lenders have a significantly higher default rate than those originated by banks, a Fitch Ratings report said.

Cascade Financial Services has become the only manufactured housing loan-focused servicer currently rated by Fitch, adding signs of a rebound in factory-built home financing that could lead to new private securitization.

Rating agencies are sparring over a new feature in a private-label RMBS that upends the relationship between senior and sub bondholders.

Wells Fargo’s first private-label mortgage securitization since the financial crisis doesn’t break any new ground — and that’s probably the point.

Commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquency rates are likely to continue to decrease for the rest of the year, as new issuances outpace maturing loans and precrisis loans continued to get resolved by special servicers, Fitch Ratings said.

The dollar volume of private-label residential mortgage-backed securities issuance this year is the highest it has been since the Great Recession, despite a decline in new originations.

Intensifying margin pressure could spur another wave of cost-cutting at nonbank mortgage lenders, unless other strategies, like consolidation or a mortgage servicing book that could increase in value, offset it.

Nonbank mortgage-backed securities servicers increase their exposure to agency loans as the housing market distances itself from last decade's crash, according to Fitch Ratings.

With better-than-expected performance of the underlying mortgages, Fitch Ratings cut its loss projections for seasoned government-sponsored enterprise credit risk transfer deals.

The future secondary mortgage market entities will receive high investment grade ratings, even as there is no clarity on their scope or form, Fitch Ratings said.

With the exception of the troubled retail sector, delinquency rates across property types supporting commercial mortgage-backed securities were flat to declining in February compared with January.

Growing competition may prompt commercial mortgage-backed securities issuers to accept higher loan-to-value ratios in their deals.

The $401.2 million COLT 2018-1 is the eighth overall securitization of non-qualified jumbo mortgages issued by the Lone Star Funds affiliate.

The impending bankruptcy of Walter Investment Management Corp. should not affect its subsidiary Ditech Financial's capability to service securitized mortgages, Fitch Ratings said.

That’s an about-face from the bank’s previous transaction, completed in October, which was backed by fixed-rate mortgages, nearly half of which were underwritten to standards for purchase by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

The $785 million transaction, 2017-C41, is backed by a pool of 52 loans with an average balance of just $15.1 million, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency; retail, hotel and office properties dominate the mix.

The deal, known as Bayview Opportunity Master Fund IVb Trust 2017-RT6, pools 2,745 current loans, of which nearly 58% have been clean for at least two years, and 55.2% have been modified.