Fannie Mae is looking to make about 22 changes to its duty-to-serve plan and the Federal Housing Finance Agency wants input on four of them. Both Fannie and Freddie Mac released their duty-to-serve underserved markets plans for 2018-2020 in December 2017. DTS is aimed at financing for low- and moderate-income families.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both recently announced the winners of their latest nonperforming loan auctions, which included eight separate pools amounting to $2.4 billion. The largest sale was from Fannie and consisted of 10,300 loans totaling $1.88 billion divided among five pools, all won by MTGLQ Investors, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs.

Freddie Mac closed on a low-income housing tax credit sale late last week after reentering the market for the first time in a decade. Up until the fourth quarter of last year, the GSEs haven’t been allowed to participate in the LIHTC market since they’ve been in conservatorship.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency recently issued guidance to the GSEs and Federal Home Loan Banks on managing interest rate volatility and third-party provider relationships. The regulator wants firm policies in place to manage the risks posed by changing interest rates and cautioned that excessive interest rate risk can threaten liquidity, earnings, capital and solvency.

Fannie Mae recently sold its three Northern Virginia buildings as part of its plan to consolidate the 1.5 million square feet it has in office space in Virginia into one central hub. The buildings were sold to MRP Realty and Artemis Real Estate Partners. But Fannie will continue to occupy the buildings until its new 8,500 square foot headquarters at Reston Gateway, also in Virginia, is completed in 2022.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency published its 2019 annual performance plan last week for overseeing the GSEs and Federal Home Loan Banks next year. The performance plan supports the FHFA’s long-range strategic plan, and includes goals, performance measures and targets, and strategies to accomplish those goals.

Fannie Mae Gets Interim CEO. Fannie Mae announced this week that it has appointed Hugh Frater as interim chief executive officer. Frater's appointment will be effective on Oct. 16, 2018, subject to final approval from the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Mortgages originated by correspondent lenders and sold to aggregators accounted for a larger share of agency business in the third quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities disclosures. [Includes two data charts.]

The credit characteristics of FHA loans pooled in Ginnie Mae mortgage-backed securities have gotten significantly riskier since the beginning of 2017, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of Ginnie MBS data.

With single-family originations expected to decline in the next few quarters, most mortgage firms are keeping a close eye on costs, hiring only if they need to.