The servicing of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family mortgages remained heavily concentrated among a relatively small number of companies, but the market continued to gradually de-consolidate during the second quarter of 2015. An Inside The GSEs analysis of new Fannie and Freddie disclosures reveals that the top five players in the market serviced 46.8 percent of securitized single-family mortgages outstanding at the end of June. At the end of the first quarter, they serviced 47.6 percent of the market. Freddie business was more concentrated – 51.0 percent of Freddie servicing was held by the GSE’s top five companies. These percentages are based on the servicing of outstanding mortgage-backed securities where a servicer is identified in MBS...
Fannie Mae completed its second credit risk- sharing transaction with the reinsurance industry this week and last week Freddie Mac introduced two new Agency Credit Insurance Structure transactions that gives it coverage based on both first loss and actual losses realized in a reference pool of residential mortgages. Under the two ACIS transactions, Freddie took insurance policies that move most of the remaining credit risk associated with the two Structured Agency Credit Risk debt notes executed in early 2015 to insurers and reinsurers. The two policies cover up to a combined maximum of approximately $223 million of losses that Freddie incurs when homeowners default. This is the 9th ACIS transaction since 2013.
Housing finance and housing policy should be clearly separated, said Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-TX, speaking on a Bipartisan Policy Center GSE reform panel with Rep. John Delaney, D-MD, in Washington, DC, on July 16. “We should detach the financial piece away from the political process,” he said, adding that the market should determine how many houses and apartments to build, not the government. Neugebauer and Delaney agreed that reform needs to happen and that today’s housing finance system is largely controlled by the federal government. “The government’s role is to provide liquidity to the market and be more predicable like the banking system, which I’m a big supporter of,” said Delaney. “Then there’s the role of pricing risks, which I’m not a supporter of. The government has its roles mixed up.”
When dealing with celebrity clients – TV and film stars in particular – mortgage loan officers rarely interact directly with the star talent over the loan details. Instead, they deal with a celebrity’s business manager or another intermediary, according to Barry Habib, CEO at MBS Highway and a well-known mortgage trainer and motivational speaker. Habib should know – besides being a mortgage professional, he’s also an actor and producer, whose credits include ...
Consumer advocates are calling for reforms that would address servicers’ use of property preservation companies in instances where a home appears to be vacant and scheduled for foreclosure. In recent years, more than 250 lawsuits have been filed in at least 35 states against property management firms who were acting on behalf of servicers, according to Christopher Odinet, an assistant professor of law at the Southern University Law Center. In a paper published ...
While reform of the nation’s housing system and the government-sponsored enterprises languishes on Capitol Hill, three important GSE risk-sharing innovations could revolutionize housing finance independent of Congressional action, according to experts at the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Policy Center. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have guaranteed at least half of all new mortgage originations for the past eight years. The two GSEs’ critical role ...
Although some mortgage originators might brag – or even advertise – that they can close a loan in under 30 days, it’s not likely to happen, at least not in practice. According to interviews conducted by Inside Mortgage Trends over the past two weeks, a variety of factors can derail a closing – including many circumstances that an originator just cannot control. Such circumstances can include insufficient funds on the part of the borrower, scheduling mix-ups ...
The nation’s megabanks reported modest to strong growth in residential production for the second quarter, a likely harbinger of what might be a stellar showing by some of the nation’s nonbanks, which have been steadily gaining market share the past few years. According to a tally from Inside Mortgage Trends based on earnings reports issued this week, Wells Fargo was not only the market leader in originations with $62.0 billion in the second quarter ... [Includes one data chart]
Big banks have attracted considerable attention as they have reduced their footprint in the mortgage market. Although nonbank lenders and servicers have taken up most of the slack, a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals that small banks have been taking a bigger role in the industry. Commercial banks and thrifts have been building their holdings of unsecuritized home loans at a time when the overall supply of mortgage debt has been ... [Includes one data chart]
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