After being absent for about 10 years, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will re-enter the low-income housing tax credit market to support affordable rental housing, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced late this week. But the GSEs’ market share will be capped so they’re not in direct competition with the private market, and their investments must meet certain requirements. Fannie and Freddie will have an annual investment limit of $500 million, which translates to less than a 5 percent market share for each, according to the FHFA. Moreover, any investments more than $300 million during any year must be in areas that have been identified by the FHFA as markets that have difficulty attracting investors.
With the Senate and the House having both recently released their tax proposals, it’s the House plan to cut corporate taxes in 2018 that would impact the GSEs by threatening their deferred tax assets. A corporate tax cut would likely force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to take draws from the U.S. Treasury. This is especially true in light of the fact that by Jan. 1, 2018, neither GSE will be allowed to hold a capital buffer to absorb any losses. A cut to corporate taxes means a write down of some Fannie/Freddie DTAs, including mortgage-related assets, allowances for bad loans, derivatives-related basis differences and deferred fees, which are all currently held at a higher tax rate.
With several recent hearings on sustainable housing finance under its belt, the House Financial Services Committee appears to be exploring GSE reform in depth, but no word yet on when and what that may look like. The HFSC’s Subcommittee on Insurance and Housing held three hearings over a three-week period with the latest taking place last week. A financial services committee staffer wouldn’t confirm whether a piece of legislation is being worked on, but she said that committee Chair Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, believes housing finance reform is a priority for the committee this Congress.
Fannie Mae is looking to give homebuyers access to easier and more affordable construction loans through a potential new pilot program. As the housing supply shortage continues and affordability remains a critical barrier for first-time homebuyers, Fannie envisions the program as a path for homebuyers to get affordable housing. Not many details have been released and there’s no set timeframe because the program is just in the beginning stages of consideration. But if the GSE gets the green light from the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Fannie will be able to buy the loans as soon as construction begins instead of before the house is finished.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac released a report this week on efforts to improve the origination of eMortgage transactions including more education and policy alignment on the topic. Those efforts have resulted in the growth of the number of warehouse banks that fund eNotes.The report was a follow-up to a joint industry outreach survey the GSEs conducted last year on perceived barriers to the industry adopting eMortgages. Stakeholder readiness and process complexity were found to be the most common barriers among the lenders, IT companies, warehouse banks, servicers and title/settlement providers surveyed. Survey participants said there was a lack of support for funding eNotes by warehouse banks, a source many mortgage lenders rely on.
Fannie Mae’s Servicing Marketplace that connects servicers and sellers during transfers, is expected to be up and running shortly after Thanksgiving. In a recent servicing guide update, the GSE noted that certain loans delivered under whole loan servicing released commitments taken on or after Dec. 4, 2017, will be bifurcated if sellers participate in its servicing execution tool or the Servicing Marketplace.The mortgage giant designed the application to simplify and bring new concurrent transfers of servicing options to customers. Fannie noted that it also hopes to provide certainty of sale, execution, and process efficiency. Lenders must be approved to participate in the servicing marketplace.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency Office of the Inspector General said the FHFA needs to focus on improving its oversight of the GSEs and Federal Home Loan Banks in several key areas. In fact, the FHFA faces four “serious” management and performance challenges that carried over from prior years, according to a recently published OIG memo to FHFA Director Mel Watt. The OIG is troubled by the agency’s supervision of the GSEs and said it needs to improve oversight of matters delegated to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as make its internal review process for non-delegated matters stronger.
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