Offering “portable” mortgages could increase the potential for homeownership by eliminating the “resetting of the clock” that occurs every time a borrower moves, according to Jeffrey Lubell, director of housing and community initiatives at Abt Associates. A portable mortgage allows a borrower to keep his or her mortgage even if he moves to a different property, helping to build equity. The loans are available in Canada and Europe but haven’t caught on in the U.S. “Few policies would ...

Most of the mortgage fraud investigations in 2013 that involved industry professionals were about misrepresentations on loan documents, evidence that the market remains fertile for fraud, according to a new LexisNexis report. Focusing on proven incidences of fraud, the report found that the share of loans investigated in 2013 for misrepresentation on the credit report, credit history or references rose to 17 percent from 5 percent in 2012. Notably, property valuation fraud ...

Commercial banks and thrifts sold some $175.6 billion of home mortgages during the third quarter of 2014, a healthy 25.4 percent increase from the prior quarter, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. Despite the bump in loan sales and mortgage originations, the banking industry reported a modest 4.9 percent drop in mortgage-banking income during the third quarter. And there was relatively little left in the tank as the market ... [Includes one data chart]

The general consensus among those interviewed is that nonbanks will be more aggressive in their recruiting than depositories.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported further declines in repurchase activity during the third quarter of 2014, according to a new Inside The GSEs analysis of disclosure reports filed by the enterprises with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mortgage seller repurchases and indemnifications totaled just $543.1 million during the third quarter, a decline of 68.7 percent from the previous three-month period. It was the lowest quarterly repurchase volume since ... [Includes one data chart]

The Congressional Budget Office in December opened a new approach to GSE reform that could become a middle ground between GOP hardliners who want to entomb Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and lawmakers who want to keep some form of the current system. One way to reduce the GSEs’ footprint in the mortgage market would be to auction a limited supply of Fannie and Freddie mortgage-backed securities guarantees to the highest bidders, the CBO suggested ...

With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on solid financial footing in terms of earnings, some factions of the mortgage industry believe the two should be allowed to rebuild capital by retaining some of their profits. But getting there would require a hard push from the White House, and the approval of the Treasury Department, which controls the senior preferred stock of the two. In a recent letter to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin Watt ...

An attorney representing the Federal Housing Finance Agency called on a federal judge in Iowa to dismiss a third federal suit brought by affiliated entities challenging the terms of the 2012 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac net worth sweep. “There is gamesmanship going on here, your honor,” said Howard Cayne, an attorney with Arnold & Porter who is representing the FHFA in its motion for summary judgment. Investors say the net worth sweep, authorizing the Treasury to ...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency in December cleared the merger of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle and the FHLB Des Moines, which will create the largest FHLB by membership, serving 1,500 institutions in 13 states. The first voluntary merger in the FHLB System’s 82-year history has been approved by the boards of both FHLBs and must now be voted on by members of the two institutions, which will occur in January and February. “This is a critical milestone in the ...

The American Bankers Association is urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to withdraw its proposed amendments to membership eligibility in the Federal Home Loan Bank System, saying the proposal would make the liquidity provided by the 12 FHLBs subject to uncertainty and add regulatory burden to member institutions. The ABA, in a Dec. 19 comment letter, took particular exception to the measures requiring a member’s mortgage holdings be reviewed annually instead of ...