The agreement among Republicans, Democrats and the White House for the need to act and the heightened urgency to pass legislation before a potential shift in power after the mid-term elections could determine the outlook for housing reform legislation in 2014, according to analysts. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform efforts in Congress and investor lawsuits are helping shape the housing debate this year, and the recently issued Johnson-Crapo draft legislation is the bill to watch going forward, said Bloomberg Industries analysts this week. The profitability of the two government-sponsored enterprises in 2013 not only fueled...

At the end of 2013, the Fed’s holdings topped the commercial banking industry’s total MBS portfolio of $1.369 trillion, and it accounted for 26.6 percent of the $5.601 billion of agency single-family MBS outstanding at that time, according to Inside MBS & ABS.

When Fed Chair Janet Yellen was subsequently asked to define what the committee meant by the term “considerable time,” she replied that it is “hard to define” but “probably means something on the order of around six months.”

The OMB recently estimated that Fannie and Freddie will pump more than $179 billion into the Treasury over the next 10 years, assuming the two GSEs remain in operation and continue to pay dividends to the government.

Mark Garland, president of MountainView Servicing Group, said he likes the product, noting that the timing couldn’t be better: “There are a lot of guys out there who are strapped for working capital,” he added.

All the world loves the CFPB? Not in the mortgage space, it seems. Financial services consultant Joe Garrett said he has six mortgage clients that have undergone exams by the agency. To say the least, it hasn't been a happy experience.

Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, finally delivered this week their long-awaited mortgage reform bill that provides for a wind down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and create in their place a new mortgage insurance entity to act as a new federal backstop. The 442-page draft by the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee sets a five-year timeline to shut down the two GSEs, while creating the Federal Mortgage Insurance Corp., a utility that securitizes and guarantees mortgages.

Most industry observers expect it will be too tall of an order for Congress to finish the difficult task of enacting GSE reform in 2014 amid the high-stakes mid-term elections and with political control of the Senate up for grabs. However, some experts note that lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, may become more open to compromise and horse trading closer to the end of the year if it means getting legislation to the President’s desk rather than risk starting over next year with a potentially GOP-controlled 114th Congress.

Commercial banks and savings institutions increasingly saw more value in their mortgage servicing rights as 2013 came to a close, but they showed little interest in trying to get more. Banks and thrifts serviced $4.641 trillion of mortgage loans for other investors as of the end of 2013, according to an Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of call-report data. That was down 13.2 percent from the end of 2012, including a 2.7 percent drop in the fourth quarter ... [Includes one data chart]

With the first quarter of the year nearly over, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has yet to indicate when, or even whether, it will issue its 2014 Conservatorship Scorecard. The agency debuted its scorecard in early March 2012 under then FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco as a means to implement in fuller detail the Finance Agency’s “strategic plan” for a post-Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac secondary market.