This week’s midterm election ushered in a sea-change in the House of Representatives but it’s uncertain how it will influence housing finance reform. Now that the Democrats are the majority in the House, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is in line to serve as chair of the House Financial Services Committee. Back in July, Waters said fixing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a top priority if Democrats take control of the House. She’s been at odds with outgoing chair, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac transferred risk on about $367 billion of unpaid principal balance in the first half of the year as the GSEs target a larger share of single-family loans. The Federal Housing Finance Agency published a credit-risk transfer progress report last week highlighting activity through the second quarter of 2018. This report marks the first time the FHFA is reporting the percentage of the GSEs’ targeted single-family and multifamily acquisitions that are covered by credit-risk transfer ...

FHFA and CFPB Release New Loan-Level Dataset. The Federal Housing Finance Agency along with the Consumer Protection Finance Bureau on Nov. 8 released for public use a new loan-level dataset collected through the National Survey of Mortgage Originations (NSMO) that provides insights into borrowers’ experiences in getting a residential mortgage. FHFA Deputy Director Sandra Thompson said, “The goal of the survey is to obtain information ... [Includes four briefs]

Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie issued a combined $98.03 billion of single-family MBS last month, a 5.1 percent drop from September…

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported $6.72 billion in net income during the third quarter, down 3.5 percent from the previous quarter. The government-sponsored enterprises have also been actively whittling down their retained portfolios.

The grand concept behind the single security is that MBS issued by Fannie and Freddie will be fully fungible and interchangeable.

The implication is that declining originations, plummeting refinancing volume and razor-tight profit margins are causing consternation at Ginnie…

The CFPB and FHFA have been compiling the survey data but have never released the results.

The first move expected is a possible lowering of GSE loan limits...

The credit window for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac single-family mortgages opened a little wider during the third quarter of 2018 as competition intensified in the primary market. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis of mortgage-backed securities issued by the government-sponsored enterprises during the third quarter revealed modest increases in the shares of purchase mortgages with low credit scores, although trends in loan-to-value ratios were mixed ... [Includes two data charts]