Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is calling on the Treasury Department’s Inspector General, as well as the Chairmen of the Senate Banking and the House Financial Services Committees to conduct an investigation and hold hearings about “misleading statements” made...

The sponsor of legislation that would make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac subject to the Freedom of Information Act’s government transparency provisions told Inside The GSEs this week he is optimistic his bill has a “real fighting chance” of passage in the House.Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-UT, said his bill, H.R. 463, The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Transparency Act of 2011, has “picked up momentum” following a hearing two weeks ago, and the headlines it produced, in which the GSEs’ regulator panned the bill as potentially harmful to Fannie and Freddie.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s home retention activity declined for the most part during the first quarter, according to the latest Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Foreclosure Prevention and Refinance Report.Total home retention efforts dropped to 143,977 during the first three months of the year, down 20 percent from the fourth quarter, while loan modifications in the period also declined to 86,201, down 28 percent.

Housing could be in for a double-dip recession that would have a significant impact on bank earnings, according to officials at Standard & Poor’s. Robert Shiller, a co-founder of S&P’s/CaseShiller Home Price Indices, said house prices could sink another 10 to 25 percent over the next five years. “We’re kind of at a tipping point now,” he said, speaking at a housing conference sponsored by the rating service this week. “Unemployment rates are up and housing prices are down.” The lower home prices evident in data from March 2011 could represent a...

In light of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s federal conservatorship status and the resulting control by the Treasury Department, the two GSEs are “effectively part of the government” and their operations should be reflected in the federal budget, according to the Congressional Budget Office.CBO has concluded that using a fair-value approach to estimate Fannie and Freddie’s subsidy costs is the best way to give Congress and taxpayers the most accurate accounting information.

Look for short sales to pick up in popularity as a more palatable alternative for homeowners and mortgage loan holders to get out from under a delinquent property. However, experts caution that these quick turnaround transactions also provide ample opportunity for mortgage fraud. What had once been used for more of a niche purpose for a small segment of the buyer’s market, short sales have shot up as the market’s gone down. In 2000, about 4 percent of Freddie Mac’s workouts were short sales, compared to nearly...

Quicken Loans has rolled out a new mortgage loan program that covers all closing costs if the original loan is refinanced with Quicken within seven years. The program is called “Rate Drop Advantage,” and in order to qualify, a borrower must close a mortgage loan with Quicken Loans by Dec. 31. If the borrower decides to refinance in the next seven years – 90 days after the original loan closes to 84 months after close – the Rate Drop Advantage program will...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has issued an interim final regulation with a request for comments on changes to its existing Freedom of Information Act regulations. In its notice, published in the May 23 Federal Register, the FHFA said it is updating its existing FOIA regulations to include the FHFA Office of Inspector General. The FHFA-OIG did not yet exist when the Finance Agency’s original FOIA regulations were issued in 2009.

In a move that might bring more certainty to the role of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems in the foreclosure process, Fannie Mae is requiring lenders to more clearly identify MERS-registered mortgages. The government-sponsored enterprise already requires lenders to report the MERS Mortgage Identification Number for mortgages originated with MERS as the nominee for the mortgagee or assigned to MERS. Then two weeks ago, Fannie announced several updates to its selling guide having to do with MERS-registered mortgages, one of which is...

Fannie Mae is tightening its loan modification requirements and calling on servicers to consider a loan modification only when a repayment plan is not appropriate to cure the delinquency. According to Announcement SVC-2011-03, issued April 4, the GSE has updated...