In a joint letter sent late last month, Maxine Waters, D-CA, chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Sherrod Brown, D-OH, ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, raised serious questions about the legitimacy of Joseph Otting’s recent designation as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Mark Calabria, the White House nominee to be the next permanent director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, will get a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday, Feb. 14. The SBC released the hearing schedule for Calabria and other nominees late Thursday.
Sen. Mike Crapo, chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, stirred the GSE pot last week by issuing his outline on how to restructure the nation’s housing-finance system. While short on details, the blueprint appears to contain a little something for everyone. That just might make it a good starting point for bipartisan negotiations on legislative reform.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac issued a combined total of just $51.86 billion of single-family mortgage-backed securities in January, their lowest monthly production since February 2016. [Includes two data charts.]
The agency purchase-mortgage market saw a higher share of first-time homebuyers in 2018 and increased reliance on conventional financing rather than government mortgage insurance. [Includes one data chart.]
Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are scheduled to report fourth-quarter results next week and chances are the two will once again show strong earnings, but the black ink likely will pale a bit from the $6.7 billion they posted (combined) in the third quarter.
The mortgage industry is bracing for a flat year in terms of volume due to higher mortgage rates, a slowing economy and weak loan demand. [Includes one data chart.]
Publicly-owned commercial banks and thrifts reported widespread declines in mortgage banking income during the fourth quarter, according to a new analysis by Inside Mortgage Trends. [Includes one data chart.]
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