Fannie Mae’s Robert Schaefer said there is a “high probability” the mortgage giant will be part of an MI transaction later this year that addresses the “pain points” the GSE sees in the deeper MI concept.
The pace of GSE reform has been too slow, said Mortgage Bankers Association President and CEO David Stevens, who’s calling for faster implementation of the Common Securitization Platform and Single-Security. He’s worried that if the CSP platform has not made enough progress, it could face changes in planning down the line. He said the real estate finance industry should continue to push for faster implementation to make sure that any advances made cannot be reversed. “Additionally, the platform should be open to non-agency mortgage-backed securities so that long-term efforts for both private capital and GSE reform can take advantage of the benefits of its efficiency, data and consistency” Stevens added, while speaking...
Ditech and HLP Principal-Reduction Outreach. Ditech Financial and Hope Loan Port collaborated to find distressed homeowners eligible for the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s new principal- reduction modification program. The two parties said HLP’s platform “is designed to integrate HUD-approved non-profit housing counselors seamlessly and securely with Ditech’s mortgage servicing operations, enabling counselors to more easily help homeowners who may qualify for the program.” Freddie’s Third NPL Transaction of 2016. This week Freddie Mac announced a $783 million non-performing loan transaction featuring seven pools, including two extended timeline pools targeting smaller investors. The NPLs are currently serviced by Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC. FHFA Request for Comment. The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a request for comment this week for a host of technical...
Following a yearlong spree of nationwide outreach events and social media campaigns, the Federal Housing Finance Agency hosted its final webinar this week to encourage participation in the Home Affordable Refinance Program. HARP is set to expire on Dec. 31, but the agency is making a final push to reach out to some 325,290 borrowers it says are still eligible for refinance. While participation continues to dwindle since the program was introduced in 2009, FHFA said homeowners can still save $2,400 a year with a HARP refinance before time runs out. The agency shot down a couple of program myths and emphasized that being significantly underwater doesn’t disqualify borrowers from HARP and said...
The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General reported that the compensation resulting from six months of probes into criminal and civil investigations amounted to $3.6 billion. The bulk of the monetary damages awarded, more than $3 billion, was in civil settlements, while more than $480 million was from criminal fines, restitutions, forfeitures, and settlements. There were a total of 53 indictments, five trials, 73 convictions and 75 sentencings. Laura Wertheimer, inspector general at the FHFA, said when there’s not sufficient evident to refer a case for criminal charges, the FHFA will work to bring civil claims. One of those recent civil settlements was with Morgan Stanley, which agreed to pay a $2.7 billion penalty to resolve claims related to its mortgage-backed securities.
Financing for two- to four-unit properties has become difficult since the housing crisis and Laurie Goodman, codirector of the Housing Finance Policy Center, suggests the GSEs relax the loan-to-value ratios on those properties. When Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tightened LTV requirements based on higher default rates on two- to four-unit properties, Goodman said in a new report, the GSEs may have “overcorrected." Lending for these properties was 5 to 6 percent of all single-family lending prior to 2009, said Goodman, but has since fallen to 2 to 3 percent of origination share. She blames the GSEs’ current higher loan-to-value lending requirement.
The Single Security is on target for implementation in Freddie Mac’s platform in 2017 and is set to reach the second stage in 2018, according to officials speaking at the Mortgage Bankers Association secondary market conference last week. David Applegate, CEO of Common Securitization Solutions, the joint venture owned by the GSEs that is building the Common Securitization Platform, said in 2018 Fannie Mae will switch its to-be-announced business to the CSP and begin issuing Single Securities that will be fully interchangeable with Freddie Single Securities. The GSE plans to use the CSP for all of its new mortgage-backed securities issues, including non-to-be-announced products such as securities backed by adjustable-rate mortgages, said Renee Schultz, senior vice president of capital markets at Fannie.
Battered by a landslide of new regulations and the aftermath of an historic meltdown in the housing market, the mortgage industry also faces a dramatic shift in market demand from demographic changes and new generational attitudes. Although the overall U.S. homeownership rate has been sinking, the ownership rate for Hispanics actually went up in the fourth quarter of last year, said Marisa Calderon, executive director of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals ...
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