Mortgage finance reform is getting more attention on Capitol Hill after Congress gave itself a few more months of breathing room on budget and debt issues, but industry observers say there is increased chatter from champions of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who insist that killing them outright would do the mortgage market more harm than good. “There seems to be a bipartisan commitment to encourage private capital support for the U.S. housing market while winding down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that hold dominant positions in the mortgage market,” noted analysts from Standards & Poor’s in a report last week. In the Senate, Sens. Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Mike Crapo, R-ID, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, continue...
Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington Thursday afternoon, FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco gave no hint how much of a reduction might be in store. He also took no questions from the audience.
The survey of almost 2,000 real estate agents found that lenders routinely extend their deadlines due to loan processing issues, causing problems for homebuyers
Based on their view that the requirements of the ATR rule and ECOA are compatible, regulators said they “do not anticipate that a creditor’s decision to offer only Qualified Mortgages would, absent other factors, elevate a supervised institution’s fair lending risk.”
The Federal Housing Finance Agency is requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to promptly notify the agency whenever they detect fraud “or other financial misconduct” with any business entity they have done business with during the past three years.
Marc Savitt, president of National Association of Independent Housing Professionals, a broker/appraiser trade group, noted that the short-term outlook for the sector looks difficult.
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