Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, late this week finally unveiled his long-awaited housing-finance reform proposal, calling for a repeal of the federal charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose more risk to the housing finance system today than they did a decade ago, according to some witnesses at a House Financial Services Committee hearing this week.
The amount of jumbo mortgages being handled by major servicers has largely increased in the past year, according to a new ranking and analysis by Inside Nonconforming Markets. Among a group of 30 servicers, only six posted declines in jumbo servicing volume on an annual basis as of the end of June. Among the top 10 jumbo servicers, only Ocwen Financial had a decline in servicing. The company remains under growth constraints placed by regulators ... [Includes one data chart]
Former Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Ed DeMarco told us the bill is a good starting point and includes language that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on...
Nonprime mortgages are performing better than expected and prepayment rates remain elevated, according to industry analysts. Fitch Ratings noted that 60+ day delinquency rates on nonprime mortgages in post-crisis mortgage-backed securities rated by the firm were less than 4.00 percent as of August. “The performance of Fitch-rated nonprime transactions has outperformed initial projections,” the rating service said. The average conditional prepayment rate ... [Includes one data chart]
The 10-year anniversary of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac entering conservatorship prompted an effusion of words regarding housing-finance reform and a draft of a new bipartisan bill in the House. It remains to be seen whether any of the talk turns into action in Congress, though administrative reform via the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Treasury Department remains a possibility. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee ...
Ginnie Mae issuers produced $36.68 billion of new single-family mortgage-backed securities last month, a modest 5.0 percent gain from July, according to a new Inside FHA/VA Lending analysis and ranking. Through the first eight months of the year, Ginnie issuance was down 11.0 percent from the same period in 2017. The MBS figures do not include FHA home-equity conversion mortgages, and loan amounts are truncated to the lowest $1,000. Purchase mortgages accounted for 75.6 percent of new issuance in August, although volume was up just 1.9 percent from July’s level. On a year-to-date basis, the purchase-mortgage share rose from 65.7 percent in 2017 to 70.0 percent for the first eight months of this year. Total volume, however, was down 5.1 percent. The refinance market has been more wobbly. As of the end of August, refi volume totaled $65.87 billion, down 26.2 percent from the ... [Chart]