The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s annual report on housing showed that Freddie Mac fell short of meeting two of its four single-family affordable housing goals for 2017. The GSE came close but didn’t meet the low-income and very low-income purchase goals. The low-income goal was 24.0 percent and Freddie came in at 23.2 percent. The very low-income purchase target was 6.0 percent and Freddie was at 5.7 percent. The FHFA recently notified Freddie of the shortage ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac shareholders in a class action suit are urging U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth to reject the government’s request to reconsider his opinion. On Sept. 28, Royce ruled that the Treasury sweep breached an implied covenant of good faith. That ruling paved the way for shareholders to continue their case against the government. But the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the GSEs are challenging that ruling. They filed a motion on Oct. 15 asking for ...

Fannie Mae’s last Connecticut Avenue Securities credit-risk transfer transaction of the year featured its first use of a structure geared toward attracting more investors. CAS Series 2018-R07, a $922 million offering, is Fannie’s first risk-transfer deal involving a real estate mortgage investment conduit (REMIC). Both Fannie and Freddie see REMICs as a key to unlocking greater participation by real estate investment trusts and offshore investors. Freddie issued its first CRT using a REMIC ...

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 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 ...

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 ...

There is widespread consensus about the future role of the government in mortgage finance, but it’s by no means homogenous. The Trump administration gets to name a new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who can work with Treasury to steer the GSEs toward a revised, likely narrower, role. The new FHFA chief will have command of the enterprises for five years, with dim prospects of Congress tackling long-term reform. Michael Stegman, senior fellow for housing policy at ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac posted a combined net profit of $6.72 billion for the third quarter while continuing to expand their credit-risk transfer programs. GSE earnings as a whole were down slightly from the $6.96 billion in the previous quarter, but that can be primarily attributed to Fannie’s 10.0 percent drop from the second quarter to $4.01 billion. Fannie’s new chief financial officer, Celeste Brown, said the decrease was due to lower credit-related income ... [Includes one data chart]

The profit picture varied widely among the shrinking number of publicly-traded nonbank mortgage lenders during the third quarter. A new Inside Mortgage Trends analysis reveals that seven companies generated a total of $235.45 million from their mortgage banking businesses during the third quarter. That was up 14.8 percent from the previous period largely because New Residential Mortgage increased its profits and Impac cut its losses. An eighth nonbank ... [Includes one data chart]

First Horizon National Corp. is seeing strong profits from its warehouse lending efforts. Loans to mortgage companies are the bank holding company’s most profitable lending business, according to officials at First Horizon. Warehouse lending is completed through the company’s banking subsidiary, First Tennessee. As of the end of the second quarter, First Tennessee had $3.0 billion in warehouse lending commitments, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. BJ Losch, an executive ...