The government-sponsored enterprises should revise their representation and warranty policies, including setting a two-year sunset, according to the Urban Institute’s new Housing Finance Policy Center. The move could reduce underwriting overlays set by lenders and increase credit availability. “We would expect to see a small but perceptible widening of credit in the months ahead, but it’s going to be very small until we solve the rep and warrant issue and the regulatory uncertainty issue,” said Laurie Goodman, director of the HFPC, during an event to launch the center. As directed by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year established...

The private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP has spent $7.5 billion snapping up 40,000 distressed homes over the last two years to assemble the largest single-family rental business in the U.S. With the help of Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse, it could begin moving forward any day now with the sale of almost $500 million in bonds backed by lease payments from those properties, the first such real estate owned to rental securitization transaction ever put together. The firms have been fairly tight-lipped about the deal, which has been in the works for months, but tidbits have been leaking out in dribs and drabs. According to media reports, the deal will be backed...

The securitization of income-property mortgages in 2013 remains on track to be the best year since the financial market meltdown, but new issuance dropped sharply during the third quarter. A total of $33.16 billion of commercial MBS – including agency MBS backed by multifamily mortgages – were issued during the third quarter of 2013, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals. That was down 24.5 percent from the second quarter, but it brought year-to-date issuance to $123.89 billion, just shy of the total securitized in all of 2012. Commercial mortgage securitization through the first nine months of 2013 was...[Includes one data chart]

A total of $33.16 billion of commercial MBS – including agency MBS backed by multifamily mortgages – were issued during the third quarter of 2013, a new Inside MBS & ABS analysis reveals.

Expect an “across the board” reduction in Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s conforming loan limits sometime next spring, said Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, during a speech late this week. DeMarco telegraphed his loan limit decision for 2014 – which he will announce in late November – during remarks at a daylong conference sponsored by Zillow and the Bipartisan Policy Center. While the new limits will be announced in late November, the traditional timing of the announcement, the agency will give sellers six months to implement them. “Any reduction would be...

Bank of America is putting up a strong defense and plans on whittling down the settlement price in a Federal Housing Finance Agency non-agency MBS fraud case against the company, sources close to the matter told Inside MBS & ABS. One official close to the due-diligence team working for BofA said the regulator seeks a $13 billion payment to settle charges that the bank and two companies it bought during the housing meltdown – Countrywide Financial Corp. and Merrill Lynch – sold faulty nonprime MBS to the government-sponsored enterprises. This source, who spoke under the condition his name not be published, said...[Includes one data chart]

Investors shying away from new jumbo MBS have expressed strong interest in the risk-sharing transactions offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Demand for the transactions has been so high recently that some analysts are recommending that investors could see better returns from vintage non-agency MBS. Fannie Mae said about 75 investors initially bought into the $675 million in non-guaranteed bonds it offered, and Freddie Mac said about 50 investors initially bought into the $500 million in non-guaranteed bonds it offered. “The deal has been very well received...

Shellpoint Partners this week pulled the plug on its second jumbo non-agency MBS issuance of the year and will instead sell the mortgages as whole loans. Shellpoint Asset Funding Trust 2013-2 was initially offered as a $308.64 million deal in September. The company then reduced the offering to a $250.85 million securitization with a number of tweaks aimed at attracting investors. In the end, the company couldn’t structure...

Roughly 4,100 people have registered to attend the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association, which launches Sunday night in Power City USA.

Essent Group, a privately capitalized mortgage insurance firm, has announced plans to raise $286 million through the sale of 19.7 million common shares to fund the growth of its MI subsidiary. The initial public offering will be made at a price range of $13.50 to $15.50 per share, according to the company’s filing with Securities and Exchange Commission. Domiciled in Bermuda, Essent has been approved to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ESNT.” Essent Group is offering...