The president’s plan to maintain the implicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac MBS still leaves unanswered many questions that skeptics say are critical to the GSEs’ safe and sound exit from conservatorship.

Interest rates on mortgages are elevated, suppressing demand. Short periods of declines in interest rates have prompted surges in loan applications. The question remains: When will interest rates do down?

FHFA Director Bill Pulte plans to announce actions that will address the costs associated with credit scores. Mortgage trade groups are providing feedback, hoping to shape the effort.

The effort will start with new multifamily mortgages and could be expanded to single-family mortgages and to Freddie Mac.

The bank wants to be a force in warehouse finance. Last fall it hired industry veteran Donnie Martin to oversee the effort. The bank plans to finance nonbank mortgage companies by mid-summer.

The privately held Bayview reportedly has a “ton of capital” at its disposal, according to investment bankers.

Housing Secretary Scott Turner refuted the notion that the federal government would sell national park land for housing development.

Floods are the main driver of climate-related foreclosures, according to First Street. The firm said lenders consider climate as a risk factor.

The court on May 16 heard the government’s appeal against a preliminary injunction that prohibited it from laying off more than 1,400 bureau employees through a reduction in force process.

Nonbanks are especially vulnerable and at-risk in the absence of consistent federal regulation, according to panelists at the Conference of State Bank Supervisors’ mortgage symposium.