With mortgage interest rates touching 50-year lows, the volume of new business at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac struggled to gain positive traction during the third quarter, according to a new market analysis and ranking based on the Inside Mortgage Finance GSE MarketScope. The two government-sponsored enterprises churned out $177.2 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities during the three months ending in September. That was up 14.3 percent from the second quarter, but it still ranked as the second-lowest production level since financial markets tanked at the end of 2008. And it left GSE single-family business volume so...(Includes one data chart)
A majority of Americans say that they would be unable to pay their mortgage if they lose their jobs. According to a new Country Financial survey, 68 percent of homeowners say that, were they laid off, they wouldn’t have the means to continue paying their mortgages after nine months. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from August 2011 place average length of unemployment at slightly under 10 months, meaning that most Americans could be a pink slip away from delinquency. For some, the situation is more ominous. Slightly less than a third of Americans – 31 percent – say that they would only be able to continue...
States are moving quickly to implement laws and regulations facilitating “eExamination” of mortgage lenders, leveraging technological innovation to bring the industry closer towards the goal of self-examination and self-regulation. “We are close to 30 states that are doing eExaminations, and we’re trying to bring on additional states as we move forward,” said Michael Chan, vice president of technology vendor Compliance Ease. “One of the reasons why I would say we’re reaching a tipping point is that state regulators are conducting limited-scope electronic exams,” he added. The idea behind that is...
News media have for months barraged consumers with news of “record-breaking mortgage rates,” but some observers are confounded that the refinancing market isn’t exploding with consumers looking to take advantage of the historically low rates. Analysts at Barclays Capital chalk it up to originators setting higher mortgage rates for borrowers refinancing their homes than those purchasing a home, which might be a sign of capacity constraints. The purpose of the Federal Reserve’s Operation Twist is, in great part, to place more money in the pockets of borrowers in an attempt to stimulate greater activity in the housing market. However, much of...
The concept of the paperless mortgage is on the fast track to becoming the norm rather than the exception as technology advances improve productivity and influence thinking throughout the lending chain, according to a survey by Xerox Mortgage Services. Xerox’s seventh annual Path to Paperless survey found that most mortgage professionals now think online collaboration across multiple platforms is a key component to paperless mortgage adoption. Ninety-six percent of survey respondents indicated that working together through an electronic folder is crucial to achieving a more...
Conforming loan limits will edge lower this weekend and likely have a bigger impact on the FHA market than on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac business, according to a new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis. Starting Oct. 1, the “emergency” conforming limits that were based on 125 percent of area median housing prices will be cranked down to “permanent” limits based on 115 percent of area median prices. That will lower the top high-cost market limit for single-family properties in the lower 48 states from $729,750 to $625,500. In the FHA market, there were some $2.39 billion of home loans exceeding $625,500 originated during...(Includes one data chart)
Upset at what they perceive as being kept out of the loop as the White House and the Federal Housing Finance Agency look to jumpstart the GSEs’ underperforming refinance program, House Democrats are dealing themselves into the process starting with a meeting with the FHFA’s head next week.Reps. Dennis Cardoza, D-CA, and Elijah Cummings, D-MD, are “tentatively scheduled” to sit down with FHFA Acting Director Edward DeMarco on Oct. 6 to discuss the lawmakers’ ideas on how to best improve the two-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program, according to a Cardoza spokesman.
The average fee charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to lenders rose last year, while payments collected on the Home Affordable Refinance Program contributed to the GSEs’ bottom line, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.The third-annual FHFA study found that the average total guarantee fee charged by Fannie and Freddie on single-family mortgages was 26 basis points in 2010, compared to 22 bps in 2009. When HARP loans were excluded, the FHFA said the total average g-fee increased to 25 bps in 2010 from 21 bps in 2009.
Between 2006 and early 2011, Fannie Mae’s regulator repeatedly tolerated delays by the GSE in establishing an acceptable and effective operational risk-management program despite repeated calls to do so, according to a report by the Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of Inspector General.
RSS