More needs to be done to incorporate affordable rental units into all geographic areas, according to Freddie Mac, which released a series of white papers last week focusing on the underserved multifamily housing markets. The GSE is publishing a total of eight papers as part of its duty-to-serve initiative to bring the issue of affordable apartments to the forefront. One of the papers explored how state housing finance agencies help guide low-income housing tax credit investment to high-income ...
New issuance of single-family MBS by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae took a predictable downward turn in October as seasonal factors weighed on the U.S. housing market and refinance activity continued to sputter. (Includes two data charts.)
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac officials are confident that the single-security will launch successfully in the to-be-announced market next June, although some market participants at last week’s Residential Mortgage Finance Symposium in New York still have some jitters.
A proposal issued by federal regulators last week to ease certain standards for capital and liquidity will likely prompt banks to reduce their holdings of MBS, according to industry analysts. The complex proposal could prompt a $65.0 billion reduction in bank holdings of MBS, according to estimates by the Federal Reserve and Wells Fargo Securities.
So far this year, publicly traded real estate investment trusts that specialize in mortgages have raised $4.8 billion by selling additional shares of stock, on par with what they did all of last year. Now, comes the big question: What are they doing with all that money?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported $6.72 billion in net income during the third quarter, down 3.5 percent from the previous quarter. The government-sponsored enterprises have also been actively whittling down their retained portfolios.